I guess someone was standing their ground yesterday in Tallahasse Florida when a Walmart kicked off the Holiday shopping season on the sadly appropriately named Black Friday:
A shooting outside a Tallahassee Walmart marred a Black Friday that otherwise got off to a roaring start with festive shoppers, crowded stores and robust online sales.
The Tallahassee shooting left two people wounded. The injuries were not life threatening, police said.
Apparently the shooting started over a fight for a parking spot:
The Black Friday frenzy was not confined to the inside of the stores Friday, when police in Tallahassee, Fla. said two people were shot in a dispute over a parking space outside a Wal-Mart.
Yes, such a festive occasion, people buying stuff they’ve been convinced they need with credit cards that charge outrageous fees. So festive someone had to bring a gun to a shopping fight celebration.
Of course there were the other usual incidents of rugby scrums breaking out while shopping that we’ve heard of before:
Beyond Tallahassee, there were scattered reports of fights and mob scenes.
Lisa Helder of Gibbstown, N.J., described her trip to a Victoria’s Secret to get a free gift bag as a “disasterous nightmare.” When the store raised the gates, she says, “you would have thought a pack of wild animals were behind me.”
She was pushed to the floor and nearly trampled until another shopper tried to help her up, while her daughter cried and her sister screamed. Once she was up, she started getting shoved again, “by crazy women fighting over items that weren’t even on sale.”
I love that last quote don’t you? It implies that stomping and trampling people for stuff that was “on sale” wouldn’t qualify one as acting “crazy.” America, land of the the world’s stupidest, most violent consumers. Whatta country!
A frightening-looking melee broke out at a Georgia Wal-Mart when shoppers rushed cases of cellphones that offered pre-paid, unlimited usage plans.
A video of the Thursday night scene (below) posted on YouTube shows a mob of customers at the Moultrie store pushing toward a display of cellphone boxes, their words drowned out over an unintelligible chorus of shouts. At one point, a man shoves his hand over a woman’s mouth as she begins to back away from the area and the woman appears to bite his hand in response.
Another man, who managed to grab one of the coveted items, waves it in the air only to have it ripped away by another customer a couple feet away. People clawed through the display’s plastic wrapping while others reached over the people in front of them, grabbing shoulders and pulling their competition backward.
Roll the tape:
Aside from being horrific, that fits right in with this commentary from TPM, which is one of the best things I’ve seen on the madness of Black Friday: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/11/ye_olde_black_friday_festival.php?ref=fpblg
That story made me much more understanding to events.
If you look at history it becomes abundantly clear that while we are taught in a different manner, physiologically our brains and natural inclinations as created by evolution, are the same as the people of the middle ages, or the Roman Empire, or the time of Alexander, or hell, even Sargon.
i had a very pleasant friday – reliving thankagiving dinner burps, watching football, poking around for things to purchase on cyber monday and have them delivered to me. and didn’t leave my house once – let those maniac kill each other – they ain’t getting me.
I did some Black Friday shopping, a Blu-ray drive and a Velociraptor hard drive from Newegg (60% off), some coffee and tea from Gevalia. I checked out the books at Amazon, but found no special deals. All from the comfort of my Library/computer room, aka spare bedroom. You couldn’t get me near those animals at a physical store if you gave me an UZI to bring. I wouldn’t have shopped at Wal-mart in any case. Normally I do. I have sympathy for the workers and their unionization attempts, but I regard that as between them and their management. When management went to court to block picketing, then it became a public issue and I won’t buy there again.
I saw a post on Facebook that summed it up perfectly:
Great quote except the trampling now begins when the thanksgiving meal ends.
So we have thousands of poor people fleeing from their homes as the M23 rebels advance in the DRC for control of the mineral wealth in that region including Coltan that is to be processed and installed in cell phones assembled by extremely poor workers in China for the crazy US consumers that are willing to risk injury to get their hands on one of them at a “bargain price.” For what?
“For what?”
A very good question indeed, Marie2.
I was traveling with Mrs. ID yesterday and noted the overflowing parking lots at shopping malls along the interstate as we passed by. I remember thinking that rampant consumerism isn’t dead by a long shot and being thankful we didn’t feel the need to join in.
Cleanup on aisle 3. Bring bandages.
Something deeply disgusting and sick about this desperation for material crap that will have no value in 1 year. I have never gone shopping on Black Friday.
Old enough to remember a time before “Black Friday” existed. From Wikipedia:
As an order to shop/buy, with the message blared by TV and radio for days before and after, Big Brother couldn’t have done better. It’s part of what has made the Christmas season too long and crass.
Well, of course, I blame Obama…….
We all know it’s his fault.
LOL!
Well, sure. It’s a riot at Victoria’s Secret.
I, for one, look forward to the Teabaggers sporting bumper-stickers reading:
“They can have my black lace teddie when the pry it from my cold, dead fingers”
Well, perhaps not “fingers”, but still….
Just a question, how many Black Friday shoppers are Dems? 50%?? Somehow, I doubt it.