Walmart plans for another Black Friday

[MA-Caver]

Calming the Black Friday Crowds

by Stephanie Rosenbloom
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
provided by

A year after an unruly crowd trampled a worker to death at a Wal-Mart store, the nation’s retailers are preparing for another Black Friday, the blockbuster shopping day after Thanksgiving. Along with offering $300 laptops and $99 navigation devices, stores are planning new safety measures to make sure the festive day does not take another deadly turn.

Last year, frenzied shoppers at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y., trampled Jdimytai Damour, a temporary store worker who died soon afterward. To prevent any repeat, Wal-Mart has sharply changed how it intends to manage the crowds.
That new plan, developed by experts who have wrangled throngs at events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics, will affect how customers approach and enter the stores, shop, check out and exit. Each store will have its own customized plan. The hope is for an orderly Black Friday, a seemingly incongruous notion.


http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108137/calming-the-black-friday-crowds

I am hoping to find a good flat screen monitor and external hard-drive at a good price... just hope I don't have to KILL anyone to get it.

 

[JDenver]

Things are so broken. It's quite compelling to compare the way everyone in the world lives in comparison to us North Americans.

Even in Europe the households are much smaller, the cars are smaller and more efficient. Folks live within their means, and don't take it for granted. In North America, everything is a race to the bottom. Where can you get it cheaper? How can you save 45 cents? Who cares where it was made or how, North Americans wanna save a buck at all costs. They also want...and want and want and want. I saw a show where a couple with 2 kids wanted to move out of their 1300 square foot house---it was too small for them!

I just watched a documentary on how 50% of Americans working in the private sector don't receive sick pay. Many can't even afford to take days off to take care of themselves when sick...

...it's all related to me. All so unfortunate.....

 

[prokarateshop]

I just hope everyone stays safe..

 

[grydth]

Why go into Walmart on Black Friday when you can rent the movie "Idiocracy" and see the exact same thing in the safety of your own home?

 

[Gordon Nore]

Several years back my wife witnessed a fist fight in the checkout at Toys R Us during Christmastime. Just recently, in commenting on psychological effects of H1N1, he referenced shoving and other abusive behaviour outside a civic centre where inoculations were being given. It's all very sad.

 

[grydth]

You know, with a pandemic on, big crushes of people are the last thing that should be going on.....disease just explodes through them. But the same governments that were closing schools in a panic in May over 1 possible flu case, have not a word to say in November about such stupidity as "Black Friday."

At least you guys have innoculations in Canada - my daughter was out a week with flu (and I home with her), hundreds in the schools have it, a friend is in hospital, there are multiple absences starting at my workplace and we are told - Hooray! Vaccine will be here - in December.

Too bad in one way (only) that Bush still isn't President - at least the media would be looking into this FEMA/New Orleans magnitude failure if he were.

I'm not typing this during work. I'm home.... another sick child!

 

[Senjojutsu]

Is it Walmart or Retailers’ greed - or understanding crowd control and staging events that intentionally whip people into a frenzy?

The Before Friday Dawn Battle Cry is: "I need to get me some before it’s all gone!!!

Okay so it doesn’t have the panache of “SPARTANS PREPARE FOR GLORY!”
... or... Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty... For tonight, we dine in hell!

Also I wonder how good the overall Christmas retail season will be for this year?
I mean the recession is over – isn’t it - per the press??

Lessons should be learned from thirty years ago, The Who concert in Cincinnati, Ohio back in December, 1979 – eleven people crushed to death:

http://www.crowdsafe.com/taskrpt/

BTW, I am a Black Friday Shopper in recovery – now five years of sanity and sleeping in – I take it – one turkey hangover year at a time.

 

[Gordon Nore]

At least you guys have innoculations in Canada - my daughter was out a week with flu (and I home with her), hundreds in the schools have it, a friend is in hospital, there are multiple absences starting at my workplace and we are told - Hooray! Vaccine will be here - in December.

Hey Grydth,

I didn't want to sidetrack this thread, so I've replied to your comment over here... http://martialtalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1239219&postcount=51