A man with a herniated disk who became trapped on the ground as shoppers raced into a Target on Black Friday says that while he lay there, he thought he was going to die. You can hear his pitched screams on the surveillance video.
He says that he waited outside for eight hours and then got pinned against a door and shoved to the ground when the doors burst open with eager consumers surging to snatch up Christmas bargains.
The man, who was given a CAT scan and painkillers at the hospital, told WIVB, “I don’t think it’s worth standing out there all night to get trampled, or trample somebody else.”
Target pledged to take care of the man’s medical bills and said its “crowd management tactics” will be “analyzed” and “improved.” Since the tactics shown in the video seem to solely consist of having one bean-pole worker telling people “don’t run, don’t run,” that shouldn’t be too hard to do.
Man was trampled in Buffalo Target on Black Friday [Syracuse] (Thanks to Michael!)
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People should be encouraged to bring firearms to BF. That way they can shoot their way out if they start to get trampled.
Yeah, but when you get a lunatic with a gun who wants a cheap flatscreen, that sounds like not such a good idea. I’m for law enforcement using their firearms to make people slow the fuck down though.
Knowing Target they would slap the wrong price tag on him, then mark the guy down.
Gee! Normally stories like this happen at Walmart every year. Maybe I haven’t read down far enough in the RSS feed.
Target was definitely in a lose-lose situation. If they open all the doors, there will be a mad rush and someone will get trampled to death. If they open only one or two doors, and control the flow of incoming traffic, people will push hard and someone is going to be crushed to death against a locked door.
I know blaming the OP is verboten here, but these pre-dawn Black Friday rush events are the American version of the running of the bulls in Pamploma, Spain. When someone there is trampled or gored by a bull, do people blame the city for not controlling their livestock or do people blame the victim for being foolish enough to stand in front of a couple thousand pounds of angry hamburger on the hoof?
When someone gets in the middle of a rushing, surging mob, at what point does one think to themselves, “This is not safe nor sane. Screw it! I’m going to shop online.” Hopefully it is *before* dozens of people stomp on your head and spine.
It’s all fun and games until someone looses an eye!
(or gets trampled to death).
Funny, our local Target stores (Little Rock, AR) didn’t have a problem. This sounds like an isolated incident. I was at my local store, and it was busy but not insane like this.
OK, is it just me or do this year’s “ornament” stickers look like the COBRA logo? I went to my local Target (to play coupon fairy) and I had to really stop and think about what the stickers on the doors were supposed to be. Whoever had put them up placed them in a very corporate way.
It makes it look like evil headquarters.
What did he expect from a Target that is clearly under the control of the Cobra Command?
Target has had notoriously dismal management of their Black Friday crowds for as long as I can recall. Almost no semblance of an orderly line or actual line control which leads to dozens of people cutting in line at the last minute. This leads to everyone who waited in line getting pissed off and wanting to get in the door even quicker than before. Of course, there’s more to blame than line cutters, but not much more.
how easy is it for retailers to let in 10 ppl at a time, single file
If you can’t take the heat…
Once again, I see a situation that could be drastically improved with the addition of a few hornet nests.
Seriously, what the the blue hell is wrong with people? Everyone who hopped over the guy should have the choice between paying a $1000 fine, or having both their middle fingers broken. I’m willing to bet they’d take the latter since money is obviously so critically important to them.
Black Friday is so retarded half the time the deals aren’t even special they just let you think they are. Clearance deals are much better.