I know we’ve all probably heard about this but I wanted to see what thoughts you guys had about it.
Here’s a video to recap the insanity for you:
Doors pulled of hinges. Crashing down doors. THEY NEED THOSE DISCOUNTS, GUYS.
Discuss…
Valerie Catrow is the former editor of RVANews who now spends her days raising her son, reading young adult fiction, and watching really bad television. When she's not contributing to our parenting column or ranting and raving on her personal blog, Made in Richmond, you can probably find her abusing the caps lock key on Twitter.
I’m not sure what we expect anymore… With consumerism and materialism running rampant in our culture, this seems like a logical outcome. Whip people into a frenzy so that they’ll actually camp or wait in line to buy luxury items and then pretend to be surprised and shocked when the frenzy becomes real. Brilliant.
Black Friday and it’s faithful flock of worshipers is an embarrassment.
I agree with oldhick, except with the term “luxury items.” Most of the things people stand in line for at Volde-Mart are NOT luxury items at all, but cheap crap built by child slave labor in China. The fact the people are not only willing to a) stand in line for aforementioned cheap crap, but also b) *KILL SOMEONE* for that cheap crap is an utter and total travesty, and absolutely, an embarrasment.
I just saw a car on my way to work from Hot Breads(greatest South Indian Tiffin place ever) when I saw a car that perfectly exemplifies the logic behing incidents like this. It was a mini van with the following bumper stickers: “A Woman’s Place is The Mall”, “Born to Shop”, “I’d Rather Be Shopping”, and the kicker in the Dead Center of the back window, “Freedom Isn’t Free” in the middle of a big American flag. Also, I couldn’t even see the driver over the mountain of trash bags full of tiny electronic gadgets, clothes, etc.
Also, sorry for the shameless Hot Breads plug. :P
It’s not a ZIP code thing or a class thing, but a crowd control thing. With retailers opening earlier and earlier, and all the hype around “Black Friday,” it’s no wonder this didn’t happen sooner.
Why, in the midst of the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes, would there be a stampede to buy things? It’s manufactured hype. Someone was shot to death standing in line to buy a PlayStation 3 last year, and Nintendo Wiis are always in short supply.
It’s all smoke and mirrors. Do you really think the Wal-Mart in question had more desireable items on the shelves than the night before? Please.
But Richmond did it first. Meade, you really should take my advice from another comment thread and unplug your keyboard. Ignorance like yours needs to be eradicated. Read a book – and not just Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity. Learn something. DIAF.
I for one look forward to buying these high-end items (at an additional discount of half price) when they start popping up in the pawn shops in another two months!
since when do pawn shops have good deals? retailers need us consumers to shop so just hold out and watch the prices drop, its lookin good for consumers.
12 Responses to “Stampede at Wal-Mart”
1. Matthew McDonald says:
It’s actually just Walmart now one word.
on December 2nd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
2. oldhick says:
I’m not sure what we expect anymore… With consumerism and materialism running rampant in our culture, this seems like a logical outcome. Whip people into a frenzy so that they’ll actually camp or wait in line to buy luxury items and then pretend to be surprised and shocked when the frenzy becomes real. Brilliant.
Black Friday and it’s faithful flock of worshipers is an embarrassment.
on December 2nd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
3. Valerie Catrow says:
Thanks, Matthew. I guess you would know, working at Martin and all.
on December 2nd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
4. Blah says:
I agree with oldhick, except with the term “luxury items.” Most of the things people stand in line for at Volde-Mart are NOT luxury items at all, but cheap crap built by child slave labor in China. The fact the people are not only willing to a) stand in line for aforementioned cheap crap, but also b) *KILL SOMEONE* for that cheap crap is an utter and total travesty, and absolutely, an embarrasment.
on December 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
5. taylor says:
I just saw a car on my way to work from Hot Breads(greatest South Indian Tiffin place ever) when I saw a car that perfectly exemplifies the logic behing incidents like this. It was a mini van with the following bumper stickers: “A Woman’s Place is The Mall”, “Born to Shop”, “I’d Rather Be Shopping”, and the kicker in the Dead Center of the back window, “Freedom Isn’t Free” in the middle of a big American flag. Also, I couldn’t even see the driver over the mountain of trash bags full of tiny electronic gadgets, clothes, etc.
Also, sorry for the shameless Hot Breads plug. :P
on December 2nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
6. Meade says:
Typical, uncivilized New Yorkers.
on December 2nd, 2008 at 6:52 pm
7. Joss says:
O RLY Meade?
Do you happen to remember the Henrico iBook riots of 2005?
on December 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 am
8. Jeff says:
Meade apparently wasn’t here for the great Henrico iBook fiasco of 2005.
on December 3rd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
9. bopst says:
Sadly, stupidity isn’t exclusive to any one zip code…
on December 3rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
10. Tom Sanchez Prunier says:
It’s not a ZIP code thing or a class thing, but a crowd control thing. With retailers opening earlier and earlier, and all the hype around “Black Friday,” it’s no wonder this didn’t happen sooner.
Why, in the midst of the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes, would there be a stampede to buy things? It’s manufactured hype. Someone was shot to death standing in line to buy a PlayStation 3 last year, and Nintendo Wiis are always in short supply.
It’s all smoke and mirrors. Do you really think the Wal-Mart in question had more desireable items on the shelves than the night before? Please.
But Richmond did it first. Meade, you really should take my advice from another comment thread and unplug your keyboard. Ignorance like yours needs to be eradicated. Read a book – and not just Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity. Learn something. DIAF.
on December 3rd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
11. Joss says:
I for one look forward to buying these high-end items (at an additional discount of half price) when they start popping up in the pawn shops in another two months!
on December 4th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
12. Liberty says:
since when do pawn shops have good deals? retailers need us consumers to shop so just hold out and watch the prices drop, its lookin good for consumers.
on December 5th, 2008 at 12:02 pm