Walmart Worker Trampled

Walmart in Valley Stream


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I hate Walmart. I also hate Black Friday. That's why Walmart would be the last place on earth you would have found me yesterday: even if I hadn't been hibernating at home working on my end-of-semester projects, I most certainly would not have been busting down the door at Walmart.

While shopping is a hobby or source of enjoyment for many women, I am not one of them. Part of the reason I don't enjoy shopping might be a focus on living simply that my family and Mennonite community passed on to me. Part of it might be personal preference - while I don't mind shopping in an uncrowded store, I detest shopping amidst throngs of rabid bargain-hunters who will literally steal something out of your cart if you turn your back.

Part of the American dream that I don't understand or endorse is this desire to accumulate as much STUFF as possible. I heard on the news recently that flat screen televisions are the number one item being stolen from people's homes - they recommended positioning your TV so it could not be seen through your front window. It seems like a lot of Americans measure how successful they are by how much cool "stuff" they has, but I prefer the motto "you can't take it with you." The people in this article became so obsessed by the STUFF they could buy on sale at Walmart that they literally took a human life in their charge through the entrance.

I would love it if everyone shopping at Walmart on Friday had to live in a mud hut in a Third World country for a week before Black Friday. Or at the least, work behind the counter at a retail store themselves (preferably at Walmart!) for a week. I have lived in a poor country (although admittedly not in a mud hut), and I have worked in retail over Christmas. So I know that a lot of times the person working behind the counter is seen as "lower" or "less capable" or "less intelligent" than the customer because I have been treated that way many times. Many customers take the motto "The customer is always right" to mean that "The customer has more rights and privileges as a human being than the sales person."

The problem with these Walmart customers is that they have lost perspective of what is truly important - and tragically, the loss of a human life did not even jar them out of their hedonistic dream. Ironically, the vast majority are buying Christmas gifts; because trampling down another human in a quest to buy a flat screen TV for your husband is what this season of peace and goodwill is all about.