Black Friday 2009 WalMart: Revisiting The Black Friday 2008 Stampede Death

Approximately one year ago, Jdimytai Damour, 34, was crushed as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York store at 5 a.m. Friday November 28th. At the time, Bruce Both, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, the state of New York's largest grocery worker's union said: "This incident was avoidable." Where were the safety barriers? Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner? "This is not just tragic; it rises to a level of blatant irresponsibility by Wal-Mart."

What has Wal-Mart done to better ensure the safety of its employees and shoppers? Wal-Mart Stores said Wednesday November 11th that its locations will stay open for more than 24 hours starting Thanksgiving Day and will incorporate crowd-control measures on the holiday weekend to avoid any repeat of last year's calamity.

The retailer said most of its stores in the United States will remain open from Thanksgiving Day into Friday - the traditional launch of the holiday season - and will allow customers to begin to line up at different locations within the stores to wait for specific items to go on sale at 5 a.m. Friday.

Wal-Mart also said it has incorporated into its nationwide planning for Black Friday some of the crowd management strategies negotiated with the Nassau County district attorney's office last May after last year's trampling death of Jdimytai Damour.

That incident, for me, was an example of the short-sightedness of greed that causes a push for quick financial gains by a corporation, combined with the ugly infestation of commercialism into the hearts of individual Americans and the collective soul of our society.

Nevertheless, as Wal-Mart has taken certain steps to correct or at least modify its behavior, so must the individual by:

• Not counting any possession as so much of a must-have that you are willing to put yourself and others at physical risk.
• Thinking about those who are less fortunate to gain (or regain) our perspective.
• Developing a personal behavior action plan before you go out shopping --- it may sound a bit too Zen for some but I believe in the Benjamin Franklin maxim: " If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

Happy and safe shopping friends.