Journal of the mental environment
Shopping kills
A Wal-Mart employee is trampled to death by insane shoppers on Buy Nothing Day.
- Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:37 am — Posted by Paul
- | 65 comments
The New York Times reports on a Buy Nothing Day tragedy:
A Wal-Mart employee in suburban New York died after being trampled by a crush of shoppers who tore down the front doors and thronged into the store early Friday morning…The 34-year-old employee, who was not identified, was knocked down by a crowd that broke down the doors of the Wal-Mart at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y., and surged into the store. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 6 a.m.
One shopper, Kimberly Cribbs, said she was standing near the back of the crowd at around 5 a.m. on Friday when people started pulling the doors from their hinges and rushing into the store. She said several people were knocked to the ground, and parents had to grab their children by the hands to keep them from being caught in the crush.“They were falling all over each other,” she said. “It was terrible.”
Comments
BullShitWebsites.com—-Is your site a bunch of BS?
Hell with shopping…let them all died
More about Mr. Damour (“Jimmy” to his friends) from The Dallas Morning News:
Whats the crap is up with those idiots, they really are that selfish that they have to trample down a greeter at wal-mart. All that the greeters do is to say hi and make your day better, I know for a fact that he didn’t do anything to deserve this and I hope that those people read this and they should go to Fucking Hell for being such selfish bitches. They are so lucky I wasn’t there because if I was I would charge all of those ass holes with murder and they would all be in there for life!!
At least four other people were treated at hospitals as a result of the crush, including a woman who was eight months pregnant.
The whole situation is so sad. I’m sad for the shoppers, I’m sad for the man’s family and indeed I’m sad for all of us.
From my perspective, it seems strange that someone could look at this and not see a society hollow and obsessed with the material. No other kind of society would even wait outside those doors, let alone tear them down and kill a man; kill him because of want.
What a fate must be in store for such a people… and I’m an atheist.
But we see this insanity is destroying the planet and us with it; it has already destroyed these people’s human dignity. We see Black Friday, and this year’s Death Friday, as a cultural act, with far grander implications about each other.
Yes, the whole thing is saddening, but despite ‘Wise’ I take solace in a chance to show people a broader perspective of their material lives. It would honor this man if his death opened one more person’s eyes to the true nature of our consumer behavior.
I say we organize a lay-in across as many of their entrances as we can – we’ll wear signs that say ‘trample me’… or maybe ‘don’t trample me’….
I think the “lay ins” is an AMAZING idea, I would definately participate in that, i’m sure lots of other people would too. You should start a site or a blog about it, and recruit people to do it. Let me know if you are going to go further with this idea.
I think the media should try to humanize this person instead of just referring to him as an “employee.” Who is survived by him? What were his favorite past-times? Did he sleep on his back, stomach, or side?
absolutely! A great movie would come out of a research into the facts that brought him to work for corporation in the first place. It is a hilarious situation if only it wasn’t so profoundly sad and sickening for a “developed” nation. I come from Belarus were hundreds of teenagers(mostly fragile girls) were trampled to death after the rockconcert crowd fleed for safety of an undeground passage when torrential broke out. We were all deeply sad and ashamed of our hill-billy alcoholic culture. But now we are not alone due to US shopaholics in this bloody mess. The person who died, was he guilty of working for corporation? Or was it just a freak accident that brought him there, I wonder? Please tell
wELL i am still a human being. and so are the poor smucks who went out and trampled the man. the sad thing is, they got us right where they want us. let’s blame the people who are so desperate for that big screen TV , the latest phone, those pretty glasses…let’s blame the people who have been BRAINWASHED since birth to WANT WANT WANT not to give, not to receive just FEED ME IM HUNGRY.
It’s not there fault, although it is their responsibility. it is all of our responsibility’s to fix this.
I like the “Death Friday” thing. that is what i will be calling this appalling “holiday” (which i never shop on) from now on.
It seems birds of a feather flock together. First thing i thought when i heard about this was “Ad-Busters” have they made anything yet? Still am moment of silence….
How would you put this Out of world experience?
I did my part in not shopping on black friday.The very idea that doors were pulled off hinges and there was death and injury to people for a shopping deal at Wal-Mart is disturbing.I am an american, and perhaps as an american I can choose morality over traditions.I have done this, and I think that is the point of this website.I am in no way happy that this event happened.It’s horrible.My only hope is that it will open the eyes of the soccer mom , SUV driving, over consuming, McDonald’s eating folks in this nation. I know this sounds judgmental on my part, but I see it everyday, everywhere I go.As an american—- this is not how I choose to live. I honestly don’t know what molds other americans habits.
Canada kicks ass!!!!!!!1
Damn straight!!!!!!!1
Cananda IS awesome as heck!!!! There’s a reason you never hear about them……
Without disregarding the shamefulness and tragedy of Damour’s death, as a non-American I am shocked to learn that Black Friday actually exists. Apparently people can get time off work to shop, and it’s a day completely dedicated to festive consumerism? Like some kind of holiday set aside simply to work people up into this kind of shopping frenzy. That’s utterly ridiculous!
People receive off on the Friday after Thanksgiving because it makes little economic sense to bring employees into work or students into school after one of the more party centric holidays on the counter especially since the weekend starts the next day. Black Friday traditions (I like how American traditions are mocked freely while hokey and dangerous third world traditions are all right here on Adbusters) began after that.
Wow! Adubsters has their very own full-time troll, complete with frothing angry nonsense-making.
$
Way to go AB! You must be doing something right to earn such a devoted right-wing nut-job.
And how are those comments right-wing?
You’re making a bad assumption in thinking that these guys know what left wing and right wing means.
Have you read his comments? He does nothing but spew discredited neo-con/Milton Friedman economic dogma. That makes him further to the right than the US Republican party in the last election. Maybe he’s a lefty on social issues or something, but on economics, he’s pretty typical right-wing.
The worst part about this is that his death is just seen as a byproduct of the season. A soldier lost in the battle to attain MORE. The fact that the whole world economy is in shambles and Black Friday spending actually went up from $10.3 billion to $10.6 billion this year is outrageous. A sad example of just how much control we have lost to this corporate run society. BUY! BUY! BUY!
How did anyone lose control of society? The people who went shopping on Black Friday chose to do so. Corporations didn’t round them and force them to shop which they could have cause corporate is big, rich, and can afford to hire people to make it happen.
Didn’t force them?! Do corporations pay us to watch ads? Or do we pay them taxes to make more ads? What the heck are you doing at this site? Are you one of the hired corporoate “moderators” or what? Please have the decency to comment. Thank you
You dislike like TV, radio, or internet ads either- don’t watch, don’t listen, or use get off the medium. The bulk ads are easily avoidable with little effort. Hell, for the babbling on this site about the power of advertising, fewer than 25% of Americans can recall an ad they’ve seen in the last 24 hours.
If you had a basic understanding of how advertising works, you’d know that A) it doesn’t work all that well and more importantly, for the purposes of this post, you’d know that advertising subsidizes many products and services that people, including yourself and Adbusters idiocy, love and use. NBC, CBS, ABC, and other TV channels are free because advertisers foot the bill. Postage stamps cost less for your letters because junk mail rates are set higher than the cost of delivery to limit the need to charge higher prices for 1st class stamps. Ads in concert venues, non-profit events, and other stuff are often how a charity gets money to perform its mission or make the activity, in the case of corporate stuff, pay enough to be worthwhile. Mass transit is also made more affordable through ads.
Taxes are placed on all aspects of corporate advertising including but no limited to sales tax, employee related taxes on staff, and so forth. Of course, if you think ads are evil and deserve special taxation, go and form something resembling a coherent argument and present it to the appropriate legislative body. Given how desperate municipal and state governments (at least in America) are for revenue, you’d probably get some attention.
Guess he was just morbidly ironic , mate.
The fact that people are willing to trample someone for electronics or other products shows how much control media has. The “corporate” as you call them may have well just rounded them up. Majority of people are mindless, thoughtless consumers. Everything they aspire to is told to them by the media. Which is run by big, rich corporations. So wise, it apears that you champion large corporations. I see no reason for your being here other than to contradict the whole basis of this site and publication. That is all.
“Majority of people are mindless, thoughtless consumers. Everything they aspire to is told to them by the media.”
Dare I ask for empirical evidence? Particularly given how advertising budgets are often among the first things cut when a company runs into economic difficulty?
The truth is customers have verying degrees of thoughtfulness depending the issue, their time, their interest levels, and other factors. When it comes to shoes, I could not care less so long as they fit. When it comes to history books, I often spend hours reading the backs of covers, reviews published in academic journals, scan the footnotes before making purchasing decisions. Others do the opposite or focus on attention to what they view as important.
I need not say more than the Cadillac Escalade. Or how about 20” rims or tickle me elmo, nintendo, playstation, xbox. Or how about fast food or Hannah Montana or any of the other product driven tv shows and movies that disney puts out just before the holiday season in order to lure not just shoppers but children. Because nothin says I love you like beating the hell out of somebody for a brats doll. Or shooting some one at toy r us because they have the last of the red power ranger. Im afraid if you can’t see the evidence than your are completely blind. You really are the Adbusters troll, Just here to contradict people. Badly might I add. Your statements often contradict themselves. Also, based on your musical taste I say you drive an 85’ mustang.
Just because a small minority of people, assuming your stories actually occurred and you’re not pulling a Reagan Welfare Queen and making up the perfect examples, does not prove that A) people are out of control any more than the poor and far more violent behavior of the Battle of Seattle crowd proves the anti-globalization movement is out of control.
Also, just because you dislike Cadillac Escalades, 20” rims, tickle me Elmo, Nintendo, Play Station, Xbox, fast food and Hannah Montana and the other product driven TV shows and movies that Disney puts out just before the holiday season does not mean those who do are brainwashed conformists any more than you’re a brainwashed conformists for parroting the Adbusters line. It means you have different tastes.
Seriously, have you ever seriously engaged with any of those products? Xbox, Nintendo, and Play Station games have great story lines that when coupled with great graphics, soundtrack, and value are superior to any classical music performance or theater play. Fast food, contrary to propaganda of the neo-fascist Croatian regime of the 1990s, is not all that bad, is certainly tasty, and improved through the hard work, intelligence, and dedication of a great number of food scientists. Also, if advertising is so effective and everyone is brain washed by it, why hasn’t a fast food company risen up to rule them all?
Also, I drive a 2003 Chevy. I purchased it because I was given a sweet deal because of military discounts, the great, low rate financing I got because of the UAW collectively bargain benefits package my parents enjoyed, and the fact it was the most fuel efficient car I could afford at that time.
You truly are a lost cause. When you get away from your video games and stop spewing your parents politics come back and we’ll talk. AND please go to the symphony. I have nothing more to say to you. I say everyone ignore this person.
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