As everyone in the U.S. knows, today was Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when retailers and manufacturers try to get everyone into holiday buying mode, whether they want to be or not. But Black Friday can be an absolute nightmare, with queues, crowds, and missing out on bargains by the skin of your teeth.

I’m British, and resident in the UK, which means I don’t actually have first-hand experience of Black Friday. But I’ve seen so many videos and written first-hand accounts to know I would never venture to my local Wal-Mart or Best Buy if I were an American citizen, however much I wanted that television or games console for $50 cheaper than usual.

The problem is that while you may be perfectly rational and sane, and would never dream of rushing to the front of a queue, risking life and limb as you go, the guy next to you could be a nutjob perfectly willing to do so. Which means you’re also in the danger zone as soon as you walk in a store offering consumers discount on Black Friday.

There are examples every single year of people getting too excited about a particular bargain, or too caught up in the moment of saving a few bucks that they hurt other people or get hurt themselves in their rush to bag a new piece of technology for a fraction of the retail price. But this year saw a particularly bad example, which ended in a man’s death purely from other people’s greed.

According to New York Daily News, a worker at a Long Island branch of Wal-Mart was trampled to death due to the influx of buyers desperate enough to be first in line. The man was a 34-year-old temp worker who tried to hold the doors shut before the store officially opened at 5am.

Unfortunately, the crowd was too strong, and broke through, ripping the doors off their hinges as they went. The man was knocked down in the melee, and trampled underfoot. Some of the 200 or so shoppers were said to have stepped over and around him even as he lay prostrate on the floor. The victim was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead just an hour later.

There cannot be anyone reading this who isn’t sickened by this pointless loss of life. What were the people thinking, rushing through the doors and killing a person in the process? Is getting your hands on a new TV or games console really worth a man’s life? No, of course not.

Black Friday may mark the start of the holiday buying season but just stop and think for a minute before you rush out next year to grab a piece of the action. Buy online from the safety of your own home, or wait until the more subdued January sales. Black Friday 2008 was the day a man died from greed. Please don’t let 2009 go the same way.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, November 29th, 2008 at 12:31 am under Opinion, Retail.  Print This Post

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