Wal-Mart worker dies in Black Friday stampede

[Scandia]

OK, confession time. I bought something other than food. I purchased a baking pan in order to bake some brownies in. It was my first time making brownies, so I did not have one.

The brownies turned out great, btw. I'll take the rest to my colleagues since there's no way I can eat all of them.

[IlovemyAKA]

That is a HORRIBLE story. I participated in my first ever Black Friday shopping today. I was at Walmart @ 4:30 because it's literally right behind my apartment complex. IT. WAS. CHAOS!! The workers weren't really set up yet, and didn't know where anything was. People were acting like animals. I grabbed the 2 items I wanted that weren't available online (a slow cooker and blender for $4 each for my sister's new apartment). That was easy because everyone else was swamping electronics so housewares was safe. I ordered everything else online & kept my sanity. I was back home by 5:15. As my facebook status states, I'll never do it again.

[WinniBug]

OK clearance items, I can see - yeah, costs more to keep them around than to get rid of them as cheaply as possible, but Wii's, iPods, other electronics...some of the doorbusters are current and in-demand. Why would they take a loss on items like these?

[awkward1]

The loss leaders draw people into the store. While the stores do take a loss on these items they are banking on the large crowd who turns out to buy item 'x' will then purchase other products while in the store. In the end the store makes more money even though they take a loss on a few items. Grocery stores do the same thing, they attract customers with loss leaders because most people will end up buying more.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by WinniBug

OK clearance items, I can see - yeah, costs more to keep them around than to get rid of them as cheaply as possible, but Wii's, iPods, other electronics...some of the doorbusters are current and in-demand. Why would they take a loss on items like these?

Because they only have a small number of them, and they know that once they sell out of those, people who waited in line and got up at the crack of dawn to get there will buy something else! These sales are just a ruse to get people into the stores...which is why they're all opening up even earlier this year. The frenzy they create is the ONLY way they're going to get people into the stores this year.

[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

Because they only have a small number of them, and they know that once they sell out of those, people who waited in line and got up at the crack of dawn to get there will buy something else! These sales are just a ruse to get people into the stores...which is why they're all opening up even earlier this year. The frenzy they create is the ONLY way they're going to get people into the stores this year.

I read on CNN that many early shoppers came in with lists, did not deviate from the lists, made their purchases, and left. We got to the mall at 5:15 (hubby needed new tires and sears auto had a great sale) and then did our shopping. I had coupons for the three stores I was going to, a list and price for each person on my list - immediate family only, and saved 62% off the bottom line price. That's the orinigal cost minus discounts minus my coupons. Our mall was pretty empty - people were leaving the parking lot as early as 5:20am.

This story breaks my heart, and further iterates my general sadness and distrust of the human conscience. I used to be an idealist; I still do hope for the best, and I continue to be disappointed by the horros I have seen, but I have lost a lot of faith in humanity.

[WinniBug]

Eh - I guess that does make sense.

[AGDee]

I have been Black Friday shopping and have never found people to be vicious or wild. In fact, when I've done it, the mood was festive and the energy was fun. It probably helped that I was never there for the limited, hard to find, huge sale items that everybody wanted. The last time I did it, the big thing was the Pokemon Game Boy. I seem to remember everybody wanted the yellow one. Anyway, people filed into the store calmly back then.

Some stores have done a smart thing and go along the line an hour or two before opening asking people which item they are waiting for. They give out a voucher for that item so that these kinds of stampedes don't have to happen. Sort of like the wrist band concept for concert tickets. They would announce to the whole line when they were out of vouchers so those people could leave if they wanted to. I think it was Best Buy that was doing that. They did that for book signings and book releases too (the seventh Harry Potter for one) to avoid those kinds of problems. There ARE ways around it.

I fully intended to be out there today. However, since it looks like, when it's all finished, I will have paid $2700 in car repairs/rental over the past week/next week, I've told the kids that there may not be a Christmas this year. I've spent my emergency fund, my Christmas fund and will have loaded a credit card to it's limit on a rental car so I can work and I'm basically screwed. I could go further into debt to provide a Christmas like they are used to, but I won't. I was in tears on Wednesday when I found out that the initial $500 repair wasn't enough and I was looking at another $1500. My 12 year old son came to me shortly after my talk with the kids and said "We are still going to have a Christmas, Momma. Other people buy us plenty of stuff and we'll still see our relatives and that's what is really important." A wise young man there. About 20 minutes after that, my daughter came to me and said "Can you buy me this $15 t-shirt as an early Christmas present? There are only 50 more available and I really want it." My son and I looked at her and I said "What part of that earlier conversation did you miss?" Two kids raised by the same two parents under the same lifelong financial conditions and they have such different attitudes. Is this an inborn thing? That girl is a financial bottomless pit, always wanting more, with an Amazon wish list of 94 items (mostly books and CDs) and then there's my son who didn't give me enough ideas to be able to pass them on to all the different relatives. I've done everything I can think of to try to instill some money values into this girl and nothing has worked. My son though? He wanted a capture card so he can record things from the TV or Xbox to the computer so he could edit movies to post on YouTube. He came to me with a plan of extra work he would do around the house for two months to earn the capture card. I rewarded his plan with the capture card and have held him to the agreement. I really don't know why they are so different.

All that said, I don't see anything wrong with taking of advantage of sales for things that you were planning on buying anyway. If I was in the market for an HDTV and had saved $1000 for it to find that the one I had saved for was on sale for $700, I would attempt to get it and save that $300. The error is when people decide they need it because it's on sale rather than already having a plan to buy it and deciding to buy it when it's on sale.

[DrPhil]

http://www.nydailynews.com/forums/th...art=0&tstart=0

There are some idiots in the comment section of this article. I weep for their brains.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Two kids raised by the same two parents under the same lifelong financial conditions and they have such different attitudes. Is this an inborn thing?

Dee, I think it is. My sister and I are pretty much the opposite when it comes to this sort of thing. I only remember asking for a few things for Christmas when I was younger, and now when I look back on them, none of them were ever more than $30. My sister, on the other hand, was the complete opposite--even now, she asks for some pretty expensive things. She never utilized those basic financial lessons in college, lost her scholarships and had to come home, and ruined her credit pretty badly. Now, she has to rely on my parents for simple things like getting a credit card, cosigning on a car, and getting insurance. Forget buying a house any time soon.

My parents, bless them, do try to make it fair for us (despite the fact that I'm 27 and she's 34 and I can pretty much buy whatever I want). About a year ago, she needed some tires, and my parents got them for her. Around that same time, though, they bought me a coat that I had my eye on for a while. My sister was upset, and said that it wasn't fair that I got a coat while she got tires.

I think some people are hard-wired to be savers, and others to be spenders, even when they came up with the same financial circumstances. My parents have always been good savers and investors, and I remember some of their financial lessons. Even now, this financial climate didn't prevent my father from retiring next month, as was his plan for a few years now.

I'm not saying that your daughter will foul up like my sister, but I do think it's inborn and takes a lot of early intervention.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Dee, I think it is. My sister and I are pretty much the opposite when it comes to this sort of thing. I only remember asking for a few things for Christmas when I was younger, and now when I look back on them, none of them were ever more than $30. My sister, on the other hand, was the complete opposite--even now, she asks for some pretty expensive things. She never utilized those basic financial lessons in college, lost her scholarships and had to come home, and ruined her credit pretty badly. Now, she has to rely on my parents for simple things like getting a credit card, cosigning on a car, and getting insurance. Forget buying a house any time soon.

This sounds alot like me and my middle brother who is 21. He's alot like your sister. He had the same financial issues that your sister had, and is paying for it now in terms of having to rely on my parents. I'm the saver, who doesn't really need to rely on mom and dad for anything.

My youngest brother is in 8th grade, and he may as well be on a different planet. He has asked for Christmas that I NEVER would have even had the gall to ask for at that age.

At that age, there may have been a pair of jeans I wanted that were maybe $50. He asks for jeans that are $120. I may have asked for a Gameboy game that was $35, he wants Wii & Wii Fit. Crazy.

[DrPhil]

Yep @ a lot of stuff.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Dee, I think it is. My sister and I are pretty much the opposite when it comes to this sort of thing. I only remember asking for a few things for Christmas when I was younger, and now when I look back on them, none of them were ever more than $30. My sister, on the other hand, was the complete opposite--even now, she asks for some pretty expensive things. She never utilized those basic financial lessons in college, lost her scholarships and had to come home, and ruined her credit pretty badly. Now, she has to rely on my parents for simple things like getting a credit card, cosigning on a car, and getting insurance. Forget buying a house any time soon.

My parents, bless them, do try to make it fair for us (despite the fact that I'm 27 and she's 34 and I can pretty much buy whatever I want). About a year ago, she needed some tires, and my parents got them for her. Around that same time, though, they bought me a coat that I had my eye on for a while. My sister was upset, and said that it wasn't fair that I got a coat while she got tires.

I think some people are hard-wired to be savers, and others to be spenders, even when they came up with the same financial circumstances. My parents have always been good savers and investors, and I remember some of their financial lessons. Even now, this financial climate didn't prevent my father from retiring next month, as was his plan for a few years now.

I'm not saying that your daughter will foul up like my sister, but I do think it's inborn and takes a lot of early intervention.

I concur - I grew up being quite frugal and careful with my money, and my sister has ended up quite differently. She's only three years younger than me, so difference in age can't explain it.

From my own experience, I've seen more situations where the siblings have vastly-different spending/saving habits.

[AGDee]

So I guess that's not something I have to feel guilty about with my daughter

My brother always has money, but that has something to do with him making more than twice my income and not having kids or a spouse to spend his money. Oh, and his cost of living is much lower since he has lived in the rural south for the last 20 years. He buys much bigger houses for a lot less money than I could.

[agzg]

When I was working at Target during grad school, we used to sell A TON of stuff at a loss. Video game systems were the biggest money losers, but we banked on the games selling on which we made like a 50% profit. It all works out in the end and stores rarely lose money on doorbuster sales like that, but only if they only do it once or twice a Christmas season.

I'm pretty much all done - I just need smaller things like stocking stuffers (always a toothbrush and toothpaste and sometimes Kleenex pocket packs) something for live-in's dad and brother, and little things for him. All things I didn't need to get on Black Friday, as none of it is probably going to be on super huge sale for Christmas.

My sister-mother was a Guest Service Team Lead at Target in Erie, PA, and one year on Black Friday someone got sick of waiting for a team member to open the video game cases in order to get out locked games, so they SMASHED THE GLASS, grabbed what they wanted, and caused a huge mess. Since electronics is ALWAYS on camera (in most Target stores, all the little black domes have cameras in them around electronics) they were able to identify the person and I think pressed charges after stopping them before they got to the register.

Since then they always pull Loss Prevention and Asset Protection team members from other Targets in the area that don't have large crowds on Black Friday, just to manage those crazy soccer moms.

Wal-Mart, however, is always just a touch crazier than other discount retailers during Christmastime.