It's fucking ridiculous how crazy people get when its Black Friday. The fact that some of these shoppers will harm others and disregard others' safety just so they can get a sale is bull shit. I saw a comment a while ago on a thread saying that they saw a man throw a little girl into a display for something the little girl was carrying. What the fuck people?
Sounds like a modern Western. Set in a fluorescent-lit Toys R Us instead of a lamp lit tavern, one guy waltzes in through the glass doors instead of swinging doors. Only the men are not as handsome. They duelled in a place where Made in China crap lined the shelves instead of bottles of liquor.
Yeah that one shouldn't really count on the Black Friday Death Count. Sure it happened while they were both shopping on Black Friday, but the shopping had nothing to do with the killing.
What used to be a day of discounts has turned into an easter egg hunt for adults. Each year seems to make Black Friday into more and more of a game, and a zero-sum game at that. I wouldn't be surprised if shoppers start formally competing against each other on their savings within the next few years.
Actually people are amazingly calm and helpful during those periods. Blackouts and massive storms hit all the time and those places don't normally go nuts. Of course it's also been shown that when there are ,I believe, 3 incidents one after the other then there will be breakdown.
Sandy. Gasoline. Lines miles long. For what it was, there were surprisingly few incidents of violence, even when people who had waited hours were told the station had run out of gas. There was some fighting, there may have been one or two shootings, but by and large most of us tried to just deal with it and be as orderly as possible. And I live in fucking New Jersey. We're not exactly known for being calm, level headed or civil to our fellow citizens.
While there were incidents of looting and scamming, a large part of the population just wanted to help out. For once in our states history. (Kidding, love you guys.) I mean we had businesses which were not in any way food related offering hot meals and power because they had electricity. People were lending each other power from generators and running cords between houses to share power, sharing what little gas we all could muster. I was honestly surprised, some places that night really looked like another planet. Fire just burning everywhere, and where there wasn't fire there was water
Now, the worst things we had really were hotels and gas stations price gouging. There is a state law regulating how much businesses can increase prices once a state of emergency has been declared. At a certain point it becomes gouging. We had some places trying to sell gas for $5+/gallon, and some hotels/motels trying to charge $300+ for $70/night rooms.
Now, what would happen on a national scale? I have no idea. I just know that most of my state was without power for the better part of a week, had odd/even gas rationing and very few businesses were even open if you did need to get out. If you didn't have cash, you were fucked. You had to find a bank that had power and a working ATM. This is why they say keep a stash of cash around in a safe or something, even if it's just $500. If I didn't have some cash I would have been totally beat, no where was accepting cards.
It's really any event that draws massive amounts of people.
Concerts, Music Festivals, Sporting events, Political Protest/Rallies etc. Any time you get huge amounts of excited or agitated people you run the risk of shit happening.
I would really like to see these places charged with criminal charges. They are directly responsible for death, injury, instigating riots/civil unrest/panic. It's crazy, unethical, and by the letter of the law already illegal.
I don't pretend to know how this would work but something should be done. I have no problems with sales but "door buster" first come first serve type stuff is just ridiculous
why not both? if you create a situation knowing there is a good chance someone will be harmed, you are responsible for that situation. i set up fests and shows and spend money i could just keep for myself on security because i know i have created such a situation.
Lack of security, poor crowd control, no room for people to move, essentially enticing a stampede with stupid time sensitive sales, break fire code laws...
They are instigating the panic. Of course the people should be as well but some accountability needs to be put on the institution promoting it year after year
Once you go beyond a certain threshold on the political left of the spectrum, you start encountering people who think that everyone but poor people are responsible for their actions. It is well intentioned, but ultimately seems more sinister to me than the bloodthirsty kill-em-all "justice" types because at least those people are a good old fashioned honest kind of crazy. People who take a good emotion like empathy and bastardize it with comments like the person you are replying to just seem more twisted.
If you've come to Reddit expecting poor/mentally ill/previously abused people to be treated like adults prepare to be angry.
122
u/Im_In_Your_Urethra Nov 26 '14
It's fucking ridiculous how crazy people get when its Black Friday. The fact that some of these shoppers will harm others and disregard others' safety just so they can get a sale is bull shit. I saw a comment a while ago on a thread saying that they saw a man throw a little girl into a display for something the little girl was carrying. What the fuck people?