If you thought my recent blogs on the evils of Wal-Mart were over the top, why don’t you ask Patricia VanLester? She was knocked unconscious and trampled by shoppers rushing into Wal-Mart at 6 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving to buy $29 DVD players.
VanLester had a seizure and will be hospitalized at least a week. But never fear, Wal-Mart officials did call her at the hospital and offer to put a DVD player on hold for her. They also expressed disappointment, and hope she comes back “as a shopper.”
Read the story for yourself and draw your own conclusions. (link via jordoncooper.com via MetaFilter)
Wait… so Walmart is at fault for its customers not being sensible people? Hmmm, this is sounding like a chicken or the egg question: did consumers start our consumer driven age, or was it the corporations?
It’s easier to villainize corporations than to say that each individual is in control of his or her own actions and chooses to trample, not trample, or be in line at all. So let’s blame Wal-Mart!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the customers doing the trampling are pretty stupid. I thought that went without saying.
I was surprised at Wal-Mart’s lack of reaction to the whole thing. According to the article, one employee responded and the EMTs found the woman lying face down on top of a DVD player.
If I pass out in a store I would expect a little more response from just about everyone, but especially the store’s management.
A further slap in the face comes with Wal-Mart’s response: we’ll reserve you a DVD player (they couldn’t spring for one?) and we hope you come back and shop real soon. They don’t simply want her to get better, they want her to come back and shop.
Priorities. That communicates to me that the bottom-line, not compassion motivates Wal-Mart. That’s fine for a corporation, but not in the face of pain or death. This is a total stretch, but I’d compare it to a corporation hoping more survivors were pulled from the 9/11 wreckage so they continue to shop. We are people, not merely customers.
Good points. I didn’t actually read the article, so I didn’t know about the lack of immediate response from the store’s workers. I suppose we could try to say that they were too busy trying to help the people who were actually up and moving around to notice that a woman was quietly laying unconscious on the ground. But yeah, they could have done much better after they found her. A free DVD player at the least.
I’d agree. My own axe to grind usually isn’t against corporations (it’s so “done” to rag on them), but on the people who say they are victimized by them.
At any rate, both sides get a big “boo” in my opinion. I’ve never liked Walmart, and this just gives me fodder to feed my dislike. As you said, they couldn’t even bring or deliver her this DVD player (LOL- I just realized that reserving it meant she still has to pay for it). Of course, the employee could have been taken out of context: she could have said some other great things, and they just snatched out “we want her to shop again.” The press has its own axe to grind.
The wal-mart in Edina was supposed to open at 6 A.M. but the fire chief made them open the doors before 5:30 because the crowd was pressing people into the doors and the first people in line were having trouble breathing. Are $29 dollar dvd players and dirt cheap care-bears really worth that?
Interesting… it turns out sometimes there are facts the press chooses to ignore. Who knew we weren’t getting the whole story? Gee, always trust the media. (Hehehee..)
http://www.local6.com/money/2683654/detail.html
reality is this woman and all you wallmart haters need to get the whole story, click on the link this woman has a record claiming personel injury against more stores and including wallmart,,,so get it righ and use facts…..