A half-dozen Wal-Mart employees lined up in the entryway trying to hold back the crowd by pushing against the locked sliding doors, but they were overwhelmed by the force of the crowd, Lieutenant Fleming said.
iht.com/articles/2008/11/28/business/29walmart.php
The employees should not have been instructed (or even allowed) to do this. Six people pushing against locked doors to keep out 2000 people!
Here are my thoughts. Crowds like this are created, they just don’t form. Mob mentality is a sociological phemonemon that can happen when a lot of people get together for the same purpose, with emotional focus. For many people buying Christmas presents, or even getting a good deal, is an emotional venture. The stores that have these early morning specials for a limited time only (or for a limited amount of people, such as the first 100) create this frenzy and the news media stirs it up for at least a couple of days before. Then, of course, constant commercials on TV remind people to get over there and “beat the crowd”. I noticed that the above article said that, although the police were called earlier when the crowd began to grow, they had to leave to keep order at other stores with other crowds.
Is this just the bad side of human nature or is this something that we as a society, a country, allow to happen? If you are over 30 or 40 years old, I bet you don’t remember these “door buster” early morning deals happening the day after Thanksgiving as you were growing up. No. Stores used to open earlier by an hour or two and stay open later an hour or two. Sure, there were great sales the day after Thanksgiving. But creating competition between shoppers to be the first ones in the doors to grab limited deals didn’t happen until, oh, about 12 or 15 years ago. And when it first started it was like, be the first 100 in the store and receive a free gift.
Retailers need to create competition between themselves without creating so much competition between customers. People are just falling for this easy game that retail management has been playing. I don’t think it is entirely the fault of the people who end up in front of a Wal-Mart at 3 a.m. or whatever. (Although it would be more intelligent to not fall for that and to keep your priorities straight.) It’s an easy game for the retailer. You, as a customer, should not have to camp out in front of a store all night and into the morning, push through a crowd, run through a store, and stake your claim on a TV or other merchandise, fighting off other customers, in a certain time in order to get a special deal. The retailers should be the ones working hard and fighting to get your money, not the other way around.
Wal-Mart wanted their customers to go on a hunt for bargains. They wanted them hungry. They wanted them stirred up and excited to come in and beat each other to get what they wanted. And the news media also wants that so they have stories, for days before and days after. People act like animals when they are encouraged to do so. Not saying that everyone falls for this, maybe just misguided people. Obviously, many of them misguided about what Christmas (and Thanksgiving) is all about.
Someone lost a life because a store wanted to stir up a frenzy and then didn’t know how to handle what they created. What happened at this Wal-Mart should be a signal to lawmakers (and news stations) that the retailers have gone so far now that they are creating mob mentality on their premises and putting customers and employees in danger. Laws need to be changed so that this craziness ends. This is my point of view. Having worked in retail from 1985 to 1999, I know there is a better way.
