h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3249574.stm

"Wal-Mart Stores spokeswoman Karen Burk said she had never heard of a such a melee during a sale.

"We are very disappointed this happened," she said. "We want her to come back as a shopper."

Yup. That's the bottom line with big corporations and big box stores isn't it. As long as you spend your money with us that's just fine and dandy. Hope you're not going to sue.

Oh, and we hope that you're ok too.

She was 41? I didn't think there was anybody under 65 in Florida. Except for George W.'s brother and a family I know. Even Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are all over 65.

I avoided department stores and malls like the plague on Friday. (I *did* visit a housewares store that's in a mini-plaza next to a liquor store and a laundramat, but the parking lot was only half full)

But that's the American shopper for you. Risk your life for a cheap gadget that will probably malfunction if it functions at all.

Either that or some grotesque mannikin called a Cabbage Patch Kid. Remember them? I do. Horrible things.

I'll keep clear of WalMart on 28th November then - if I'm ever in the US that day...

I agree Gosho: no surprise at all. It's all depressingly familiar. At least she got her DVD player though (I assume she was able to keep the one she'd passed out on top of?).


Frenchbean

It said:

"Ms Ellzey said Wal-Mart officials called later to ask after her sister, and the store apologised and offered to put a DVD player on hold for her."

Sounds like they expected her to come back to get it... and pay for it too!


It's not the 28th of November you have to watch out for - it's Black Fday and the crazy sales the stores have that day. Black Fday is always the day after Thanksgiving, but it's not necessarily on the 28th - Thanksgiving is always the 4th Thuday of November.

Black Fday is so named because as the "official" beginning of the Christmas shopping season, it is traditionally the day when the storekeepers *finally* sell enough to be operating in "the black", instead of operating in "the red" as they have done the rest of the year. In recent years, the date when they begin operating in the black has changed, because of the shifting economy, but the day after Thanksgiving is still so named.

Well think yourself lucky that the Christmas shopping season starts about now. Over here we've had tinsel and fairy lights up in the shops for weeks!

And another thing that really annoys me is the bloody adverts on TV for Christmas stuff - every single one of them features snow. Now as anyone who knows anything about the British climate will know, it never snows anywhere here in December, and indeed in much of the country it never snows period!

I'm one of the crazy people who got almost all of their xmas shopping done that Friday. On the other hand, I went at places and times where there were absolutely no crowds -- never waited in a line of more than 1 other person. You can often pick up some really good sales that day, but for me, the key is to *not* go early in the day -- yes, the selection is slightly better then, but that's when the crowds are horrendous. I hit the smaller, local stores in mid-afternoon, and the big department stores in the evening.


Mikey, who is well on track to spending less than $500 on all of her xmas shopping this year, bringing the totals to less than half of last year....

Gray Desk - it's not that the decorations at the malls don't go up until then, it's just that most people don't start their Christmas shopping in earnest until then. The malls have been decorated since mid-October!

Will people please stop talking about Christmas - I am so not ready and have sooooooooo much to do before I can even think about Christmas!

"...and the store apologised and offered to put a DVD player on hold for her."

I mentioned this story to one of my co-workers. He asked if they'd offered her anything and I said they were holding a DVD player for her. I've never seen him so much

Wossamatter Lady Scott, can't bear to say FRIday?

You know, just because the Christmas (they say 'holiday' here but they mean Christmas) shopping season officially begins on the day after Thanksgiving, that doesn't mean there hasn't been tinsel and lights everywhere fo months already. Hell, there were Halloween signs up outside shops in August fer cryin' out loud TV ads full of snow look pretty damn silly in Texas too, seeing as how you can most likely go out in shirtsleeves on Christmas Day round these parts.

I'll never get used to the way Christmas suddenly jumps out at you in Texas. In the UK it's been cold for months before the Christmas blitz really gets under way, but it's still like UK late summer/early autumn here even in late November, and I suddenly realise that the TV ad breaks are full of carol singers, snow, and Christmas lights. 'Jeez, they're starting it earlier each year', I thinks until I realise that it's only four weeks until the day. Thank the lord - it means it'll all be over that much sooner

They were holding a DVD player for her at the sale price.
I also found that to be the most remarkable part of the story!
That is a pretty stingy thing to have pride about

Sales Shopping has been dangerous like that for decades
*avoids the combination of mauls and malls*

My sister and her husband run a gift store in a college town in Western Massachusetts. It used to do very well, but now it's just squeaking by. Oh, did I mention that a Wal-Mart opened about
three years ago within five miles of their store?

Anyway, Christmas season is when my sister and her husband start to go into the black for the year, if it happens at all. I hope they'll do well this season. My family is not going to have a very lavish Christmas this year out of consideration for them...


Curse Wal-Mart.

Walmart is taking over homes here under the condemnation act.
They are nice homes and many acres in some cases.
They are allowed to do it by the cities because it is a larger tax base than homes provide

It does not have anything to do with condemed property!
It was oringinally allowed for condemed property and buildings used in public concerns. Ones like schools or hospitals also highways.
It's not right to do for big business.

In some cases they take over where 20-30 succesful stores are because it's a good business corner that has proven profitable!

They do need the local governements cooperation and seem to get it in many states. Target (like walmart) and Walgreens (pharmacy)have done the same.

I think we should all remember that Dragonfly works at a Wal*Mart and we should therefore not be too scathing about them.

Draggers

She knows my views about Wal*Mart already

There's an ongoing debate about a proposed Wal*Mart Supercenter not far from GoshoTowers. Some reports I read say that it won't be built, others that it will, and still others that the developers are suing the City over some matter or other
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2003-11-28/pols_feature5.html
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2003-11-28/pols_naked2.html
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2003-11-21/pols_feature7.html

Meanwhile, here's another topic to chew on - can't decide for sure whether I should put it here or in 'WTF?'... it would fit just as well in either thread:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2003-11-28/pols_hightower.html
The Monsanto story is the one I'm pointing you towards.

These are exactly the kind of people who are Bush's people. Welcome to Bush's America. Keep sucking up to him the way that Tony Blair has, and soon it'll be welcome to Bush's world as American corporations roll over the entire globe.

People tend to blow off the local politics.
That is where the trouble and influence starts working.
Someday that city politician will be a state one then who knows maybe President.

I just heard a brief soundbite to the effect that woman who got trampled at Wal*Mart has something of a history of having 'accidents', having had something like 14 of them before this one. I'll keep an open mind for the time being.

However, my original reason for posting the story was to point out the frenzy of people after material goods, and the pitiful response of the company.

Much as I hate to defend Wal*Mart, I can't see that they can be held responsible for their customers' moronic behaviour.

(I'm on holiday. I don't have to pretend to like or respect the public, whatever their nationality ).

What problem exactly do people have with Wal*Mart now? As ASDA in the UK, they seem to do rather cheap and good provisions and also got voted the best employer: everyone really likes working for them. Ah, of course: they're a 'multinational'. That damns them beyond any redemption.

Well, I mainly dislike them because I work for another company in the same sector, but there's also the matter of finding a half-empty mug of cold, congealed coffee sitting in the middle of a meat cabinet at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

My dislike of Wal*Mart (and other similar stores, but Wal*Mart in particular) comes from many directions.

I like rooting for the underdog - there'd be no competition if we all went for the cheapest.

Whilst their owners are amongst the wealthiest people in the world (no hyperbole - they really are), their employees don't do very well at all, even by retail industry standards which aren't great to begin with.

The use their immense buying power to bully suppliers into lowering their prices to the point where it's impossible for them to make a profit. And whilst one may say that you can't be forced to do something you really don't want to, that doesn't apply when you employ people, are responsible for their livelihood, and someone says to you 'If you won't do it we'll find someone who will', because you know full well that someone else will.

As shoppers become familiar with Wal*Mart's (and other discount stores') low prices, their perception of what the price is becomes distorted. When customers were used to the prices of High Street traders, they would say 'Isn't that price cheap' when they first saw supermarket and discount prices. These days, they're more likely to say 'Isn't that price expensive' when they find themselves in the local butcher/greengrocer/bakery/ironmonger, and high-tail it for the big store...

Where they're likely to find not someone who has been in business for years and knows the business inside out, but someone who is a) just doing a job, b) only in it for the paycheque, c) working their way through college and has no intention of making retail their career, d) *is* making retail their career but was working in a completely different kind of store a few months ago, and may well move on to another store a few months from now e) doesn't know any better than to drag a propane tank along by the valve - remember the King of the Hill episode where the Mego-lo-Mart (and Buckley) got blew up? Ever been in a shop at the weekend and found yourself being served by a Saturday boy or girl who doesn't quite know what they're doing? That's what it's like every day at many Wal*Mart type places.

Wal*Mart have plans to open 300 new stores across America every year, and that figure is revised upwards each year. 300 a year, almost one a day. Whether they're needed ot not. Whatever the environmental impact. Whatever the impact on the local economy. Whether a new building is a good idea or not. And you know what? An awful lot of them close down within a year. Can't remember the exact figure. What a waste of resources.

It's quite probable that there are many people who have worked at Wal*Mart for years, who do know the business inside out, who are in it for the long haul, and who take an immense pride in their work. Personally, I'd rather go to a locally owned business, where I know that a higher proportion of the money I spend is going back into the local economy instead of being siphoned off to some corporate office hundreds or thousands of miles away. I'd rather go to an owner-run business because I believe I'm more likely to find someone who knows what they're talking about, and who has my interests at heart rather than the company's, particularly if I become a regular. My newsagent and I often used to spend an afternoon in the pub watching the cricket.

I know that I'll never be able to avoid spending money with corporate businesses, particularly if I want to own and run a car (I don't, but this is Texas - no public transport), have a computer (I can build my own but I still need a Pentium or an Athlon chip, a motherboard, sound card, video card, etc. Open source OS and software could keep me free from Microsoft), have broadband, buy a Tom Waits CD (at least I can buy a used CD, thereby denying the record company their cut, and send Tom a buck for his royalties), drink Ty-Phoo tea, have phone service, but I try to strike a balance in favour of small and/or local businesses.