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We Were There...Black Friday @ Wal*Mart
nunn
Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,085 ******
It started at 0500 this morning. There were two items, a television and a trampoline, we wanted that were on the "while supplies last" list, so we got up early and were there. We each took a buggy and Dawnie staked out the TVs.
This store is open 24 hours, so there was no line outside, only lines/crowds of people waiting around various displays, waiting for the clerks to announce time.
I took my buggy and headed toward sporting goods, but I couldn't get through the crowds with the buggy. Had to abandon it and go on without it. I figured I would shoulder the trampoline box and go find Dawnie. NOT! That box was too big and heavy to carry, so I just stood one up on end and waited for her to come rescue me. She showed up in a few minutes, and we paid for the TV and the trampoline and got the heck out.
We went and had some breakfast and then went back to Wal*Mart for some things we needed that were not on sale. It was still a madhouse, and we had to wait about 20 minutes to check out.
Dawnie said, "Never again." (Until next year, right?)
Compared to some reports I have seen, our Wal*Mart shoppers were very civilized.
This store is open 24 hours, so there was no line outside, only lines/crowds of people waiting around various displays, waiting for the clerks to announce time.
I took my buggy and headed toward sporting goods, but I couldn't get through the crowds with the buggy. Had to abandon it and go on without it. I figured I would shoulder the trampoline box and go find Dawnie. NOT! That box was too big and heavy to carry, so I just stood one up on end and waited for her to come rescue me. She showed up in a few minutes, and we paid for the TV and the trampoline and got the heck out.
We went and had some breakfast and then went back to Wal*Mart for some things we needed that were not on sale. It was still a madhouse, and we had to wait about 20 minutes to check out.
Dawnie said, "Never again." (Until next year, right?)
Compared to some reports I have seen, our Wal*Mart shoppers were very civilized.
Comments
Ain't nuthin at Wal-Mart worth buying, on sale or not, at 0500 in the morning.....[xx(]
+1
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/11/28/2008-11-28_worker_dies_at_long_island_walmart_after.html
c/p of page one of the story...
A Wal-Mart worker died early Friday after an "out-of-control" mob of frenzied shoppers smashed through the Long Island store's front doors and trampled him, police said.
The Black Friday stampede plunged the Valley Stream outlet into chaos, knocking several employees to the ground and sending others scurrying atop vending machines to avoid the horde.
When the madness ended, 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour was dead and four shoppers, including a woman eight months pregnant, were injured.
CAUGHT ON CAMERA: WAL-MART CROWD MOMENTS BEFORE DEADLY STAMPEDE
"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Wal-Mart worker Jimmy Overby, 43.
"They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me.
"They took me down, too ... I didn't know if I was going to live through it. I literally had to fight people off my back," Overby said.
Damour, a temporary maintenance worker from Jamaica, Queens, was gasping for air as shoppers continued to surge into the store after its 5 a.m. opening, witnesses said.
Even officers who arrived to perform CPR on the trampled worker were stepped on by wild-eyed shoppers streaming inside, a cop at the scene said.
"They pushed him down and walked all over him," Damour's sobbing sister, Danielle, 41, said. "How could these people do that?
"He was such a young man with a good heart, full of life. He didn't deserve that."
Damour's sister said doctors told the family he died of a heart attack.
His cousin, Ernst Damour, called the circumstances "completely unacceptable."
"His body was a stepping bag with so much disregard for human life," Ernst Damour, 37, said. "There has to be some accountability."
Roughly 2,000 people gathered outside the Wal-Mart's doors in the predawn darkness.
Chanting "push the doors in," the crowd pressed against the glass as the clock ticked down to the 5 a.m. opening.
Sensing catastrophe, nervous employees formed a human chain inside the entrance to slow down the mass of shoppers.
It didn't work.
The mob barreled in and overwhelmed workers.
"They were jumping over the barricades and breaking down the door," said Pat Alexander, 53, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. "Everyone was screaming. You just had to keep walking on your toes to keep from falling over."
After the throng toppled Damour, his fellow employees had to fight through the crowd to help him, police said.
Witness Kimberly Cribbs said shoppers acted like "savages."
"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, 'I've been on line since Friday morning!'" Cribbs said. "They kept shopping."
so I went to Academy and bought a brand new Taurus millenium 9mm for $229[:)]
And if you're standing far enough back in line, that you don't know they are handing out the coupons. By the time you get inside the store, you're out of luck and have quite miserably wasted your time.
Another thing that the wife unhappily learned ysterday was that at some stores (in this case "Best Buy") on the popular sale items, the store employee's hand out coupons at the front of the store prior to opening. If you don't get a coupon, you don't get the item.
And if you're standing far enough back in line, that you don't know they are handing out the coupons. By the time you get inside the store, you're out of luck and have quite miserably wasted your time.
Yep, they did that at Office Depot as well. It actually made the line much shorter, which was good considering it was cold out.
OD didn't open until 6am - there were people who said they were in line since midnight. I think that's nuts - the prices weren't THAT good.
I showed up at 5:40am, I was probably 40 people deep in line. I didn't wake up any earlier than I normally would have - the only difference is that I went somewhere.
Got myself the portable DVD player that I've had my eye on for the last three months, and picked it up for free (using my Office Depot rewards), including the service plan. [:D]
THAT was worth waiting for.
keep em seperated and youll never find yourself in one of those crazy stores on a crazy day.[;)]
Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
Former NSSA All American
Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
MO, CT, VA.
Ain't nuthin at Wal-Mart worth buying, on sale or not, at 0500 in the morning.....[xx(]
Bingo!
Wed. afternoon when I got home from work, the warden said she heard on the news that someplace people were already camped out in front of stores for the Friday opener. I said "That's just stupid. I wouldn't do that even if they were giving new Ford diesel crew cabs away" The wife then asked "How about if they were giving Barretts away free?" I had to re-think my statement![:p]
then making our way out of the store,,people everyway,nunn was pushing and i was pulling the buggy and i just kept moving,had two sales guys and a customer stop in the middle of the aisle to look at camera's they were bringing out to the floor,,nunn said what is the hold up,,I said there are three idiots who have decided to stop and look at camera's...they moved out of the way..when you go to store like that and it is crowed,,u just need to keep moving and pretend like you own that store..that is what i do cause i hate crowds......
I got to Wal-Mart at 0400, I was working though, we had four officers working. It was jam packed. I told one of the store managers that I thought it was busier than last year and he told me that they had 45% more sales than they did last year in the same time.
The lines were very long, I'll bet it took folks an hour to check out.
At least they had all the check lines open! I was beginning to wonder if some of the registers worked since they never have more than 3 or 4 cashiers working.
Most folks were very nice, we had a couple of small fights, but nothing major. This one is in a good part of town, so there were not a lot of crooks around. One lady told me that I need to get the aisle's clear (because of all the shoppers) because she was unable to manuver around. It was 0445, right before the good stuff went on sale. I told her to try to find a spot without a line or a square foot without a shopper in it and I would buy her lunch. She was not very happy. I told her Merry Christmas and went on.
It was a wild day, I picked up a few items before I went home and I crashed the rest of the day in my easy chair.
My trick to going to Walmart is to go around back to the auto service. There is always a parking spot next to the door. I find what I came after and check out at the auto service registers (there is never a line).
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain