The amount of people that go to Wal-Mart for the sake of convenience is very small compared to the bulk of people that go there. Convenience is the only reason that I would go there, like late at night when I wanted to buy a USB recharger for my Nintendo DS, or another night when I needed to pick up some AAA batteries. As for cost of merchandise, these people aren’t really saving on the crap they are buying, it’s just they have bought into the belief that they are. They are paying cheap shopping mall prices for overpriced dollar store items. Most people don’t want to look for deals; they just want to be told where they can get them no matter what budget they are on.

My brother and I went out to Best Buy one year. Got there at I think 4 or 5am and the line was already wrapped around the parking lot to the street. No stampeding, everyone waited their turn to get in. People were giving my brother and I hard glares when we snagged the last monitor that was on sale, but other than that, everything was crowded but civil.

Never doing it again though… Black Friday just is not worth it. Even though I stay up late, I still enjoy my sleep in a nice comfy bed. Not camping out in front of a store to save a few bucks.

Greed is NOT an acceptable excuse for mobbing, trampling other human beings, etc.

and the one’s that will survive will be the one’s smart enough to stay the hairy heck home

and NO I won’t appologize

Other then being called some nasty words for forcing people back into line I haven’t had any problems.

On the other hand, people should not be pushing, shoving, stampeding. But again, if people were made to stand in an orderly line, then there would be less of an opportunity for a huge mob at the doors.

So, it is on everyone, but the retailers are the ones who should be in the position to control the shoppers so that they don’t behave like a mob.

And I also agree that Black Friday should be discontinued – I don’t really see it being worth people getting killed or permanently disabled over. We don’t have it here in Canada and we don’t seem any worse off for it (although we do have our Boxing Day sales, but I don’t think people typically suffer any lasting injuries from them).

The blame should sit evenly on the consumers as well as the retailers.

Crowd control is a critical factor on days like this, and these corporations don’t want to lay out additional expenses for security, thereby cutting into the profits.

They should hire extra personal, just for that one day, and arm them with tasers, pepper spray or something similar (I’d go to work for Wal-mart then,and turn them loose.

but the thing most people miss is the lack of personable accountability is is frightening. Not just on this day, but throughout the year. Not to mention pure common sense…if there is 1000 people crowding into a store for the same LIMITED QUANTITY ITEM, you need to stop think, is it worth risking injury/death to save $50.00 on that Wii/X-Box/Playstation/(insert current hot toy here)? Is it really worth injuring/ killing someone else so junior can have that 1 toy he really wants?

It’s truly sickening watching the news and seeing reports of this kind of crap every year.

I personally stay home on Black Fridays and miss the deals. The one time I did venture into a Wal-Mart on that day, I almost got into a fight over a bag of cat food! What the hell?

I think the Black Friday sales should be discontinued all together. There has to be simpler,safer way to maintain profits and continue to offer the best holiday deals.

For some details/research:
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011912.html#011912