At an LA-area Wal-Mart today, one shopper pepper sprayed rival bargain hunters, and the horde tore down the video game stands. #Occupy Aisle 13! But Wal-Mart's reckless encouragement of Black Friday stampedes—it sounds whistles in stores to kick them off—isn't always a joke. [LA Times]

  • ocschwar

    Dude, you got your links mixed up.

  • http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

    Candidate headline: Lt. Pike goes bargain hunting at Wal-Mart!

    • retepslluerb

      For a moment there I thought “That’s *Captain* Pike  - and where’s the joke at a paralyzed  man shopping”.

    • peregrinus

      As I was reading the LAT article, however hopeless, however improbably, I was longing to read that it was Pike.  Just imagine!

  • bjacques

    Well, that didn’t take long.

  • ocschwar

    Ever wonder why K-Mart prefers to get rid of the last few items of a brand with Blue Light Specials that are not advertised at all?

    Now you know.

  • rasputinaxp

    #occupywalmart

  • Suburbancowboy

    They should all be pepper sprayed. They were camping out on private property. This is what democracy looks like.

  • Guest

    I really do not understand what is going on anymore.

  • rabidpotatochip

    With everything else going wrong in the world this is doubly sickening.

  • Guest

    Gift giving represents the gifts the three Wise-men gave to Jesus so if the three Wise ones went to The High Cost Of Low Prices (WalMart) to purchase those gifts, they may have been pepper sprayed by this sad excuse for a human being. 
    In Jesus Name, Amen…

    • Guest

      Three black guys, dressed like that, yes, they would have been escorted away.  At best.

  • niktemadur

    Again?!!

    At least one has died, many more have been injured, and STILL this grotesque company encourages the frenzied mob mentality every year, with crowd control lines minimally implemented as an afterthought and signs stating “Blitz line starts here”.

    The Rubicon was crossed a long time ago, by shopping here people damaged their local economies, which makes more people buy their irresistibly cheap shit here, which makes the last of the mom-and-pop stores go under, you get the picture, a self-perpetuating mechanism feeding on economic desperation.

    Whenever I have to shop for stuff (say, a big box of diapers) at a large store like this, I make it a point to go to Sears, Target or KMart, even if it’s less convenient and/or a bit more expensive.

    What wise state implemented laws that made it inconvenient for Walmart to enter their community?  I think it was Delaware or Maryland.

    • Guest

      Yes, Blitz does sound better in the original German.
       

  • http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

    So if the pepper sprayer wasn’t Lt Pike, presumably a Fox News reporter?

  • Guest

    With that sort of crowd it’s a wonder she didn’t start a riot. 

  • atimoshenko
  • http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

    MRS. Pike…

  • http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan

    Part of me wants to demand that this person be so severely punished that nobody would ever think to do such a thing again, but another part of me realizes that punishing civilians for something cops get away with perpetuates an even bigger problem.

    • Ambiguity

      Part of me wants to demand that this person be so severely punished that nobody would ever think to do such a thing again, but another part of me realizes that punishing civilians for something cops get away with perpetuates an even bigger problem.

      True, but the appropraite response to the bigger problem isn’t to turn a blind eye to civilians behaving badly — it’s to make sure the cops know it’s unacceptable for them, too.

  • cmuwriter

    I went to get a video game I had my eye on last night. I figured there would be stacks of them. Only five titles (Battlefield 3) were in the place. I ended up standing around for an hour and grabbed the game at the last moment. It was pure bedlam.

    • niktemadur

      “I ended up standing around for an hour…”

      Standing around where, and for what purpose?  Here’s a timely Fishbone reference – What was the reality of your surroundings?

      • cmuwriter

        I thought this thread was about Wal-Mart on Black Friday? Pretty obvious if you’ve read anything else in the thread as to my location.

        • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

          How much did you save?  Was it worth an hour of your time?

          • cmuwriter

            I saved $30, and it was worth an hour of my time, and I got to see first-hand what the fuss is all about. Most people have not got the experience first-hand of being in a mob.

        • niktemadur

          “I thought this thread was about Wal-Mart on Black Friday? Pretty obvious if you’ve read anything else in the thread as to my location.”

          Right, I wasn’t very clear, but the way I read your post, I visualized you already inside the store, standing in front of the shelf for an hour.  Weird, huh?  Then again, Black Friday is proof that truth can be stranger than fiction, not even Philip K Dick could have predicted it.

    • http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

      Why? Couldn’t you just buy the thing online? Are you that strapped for cash that you have to save a few dollars on a game? And you have to have the game now?

      • cmuwriter

         Who wouldn’t want to save $32 on something? The game was $60 being sold for $28, that’s more than a 50 percent savings. After checking out it was less than $30. I mean I stood next to the game for an hour listening to a This American Life podcast on Penn State, it wasn’t like I was fingering my bellybutton through a NASCAR t-shirt or something. I hate the misnomer that just because someone goes to a Walmart they’re somehow a bad person, or am I wrong about this sentiment in this thread?

        Anyway, the sale started, I grabbed the game and was walking home by 10:10 p.m. If I had to have the game “now” I would have bought it back in October when it came out.  I am not ashamed to say it was a perfectly fine evening to spend shopping after spending all day with family members and seven wild nephews.

  • http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan

    If people are going to run around forcibly seasoning each other, shouldn’t we rename the day Blackened Friday?

  • jon29

    That lady was just feeding her fellow shoppers, essentially.

  • http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

    From the Slate article: Los Angeles Fire Captain James Carson told the L.A. Times. “She was competitive shopping.”

    At least she wasn’t a greedy violent lunatic, she was just practicing some sort of extreme sport…

  • Ambiguity

    I hate Walmart and avoid it like the plague — I really do — but in this case I think the ire is misplaced.

    They are a retailer — it’s their job to try to generate excitement around selling products.

    In this case, I think the fault lies with the smelly hoards of Walmart shoppers, responding all Pavlov-like to the ringing bell. If you’ll want to be disgusted by something, be disgusted by the fellow members of your race, not the retailer. If lots of folks weren’t this way already, Walmart wouldn’t exist.

    You can argue that they’re creating a need — as opposed to fulfilling one — and in a way you’d be right… but my comment still stands. If people lived up to half of their inflated opinion of themselves, they’d be immune to that kind of manipulation.

  • Guest

    Speaking of assault with intent to maim. 

  • KanedaJones

    @Ambiguity,

    You can argue that they’re creating a need — as opposed to fulfilling one

    Well, you are…

    smelly hoards of Walmart shoppers

    Where are they storing them? ;D

  • Antinous / Moderator
  • Antinous / Moderator

    Not the only seasonal seasoning incident according to BBC:

    Security workers reportedly used pepper spray on shoppers who began grabbing at goods before they were unloaded from pallets at a Walmart in Kinston, North Carolina.

  • Culturedropout

    Hell – throw in some heavily-armed folks in body armor, and you’ve got the low-budget version of “The Running Man”.  I used to be appalled and disgusted by vulgar displays of greed and materialism like this, but I’ve reached a point where I’m ready to start placing wagers on the body count…

  • Antinous / Moderator

    It’s hard to pick one incident as special, but:

    Girls and mothers in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, were allegedly punching each other at a Victoria’s Secret store where a great deal on yoga clothing was causing a stir.

  • teapot

    A timely reminder to check the latest loons over at:
    http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/photos

    It should be mandated that all the big discount stores get renamed “China Mart” and the store signage must be red and must feature at least a few yellow stars.

    Go ahead.. buy more Chinese made stuff, because so far it’s done wonders for the US economy.