Would you wet yourself for a $50 iBook?
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The news of a man being trampled at Wal-Mart on Black Friday stunned a nation. Some thought, ‘I would never wake up at 3 a.m. to get a deal on a flat screen.’ Others puzzled over how hundreds of shoppers could step on a human being to reach the bargain bins. I wondered how this recession--which should bring us together, as we have all seen our 401(k)s do the limbo--had become a reason to divide and conquer instead of come together. Then, I did a tad of research and found this excerpt from a 2005 AP story:
‘A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far as to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.’
Someone actually beat another person with a folding chair to get a Mac? Nevermind the woman who peed on herself to repel line interlopers. The article goes on to note that another man tried to drive his car through the crowd. Car, not cart, people.
Clearly, it’s not our beleaguered economy that caused the recent trampling. Consumer rage has been percolating for years, like every other type of rage: road rage, mommy rage, workplace rage, etc. The Consumer Price Index should be renamed the Consumer Pow Index.
I, myself, once tussled with a woman at the Barneys Warehouse Sale over a size 41 Lanvin pump. She had the right shoe, I had its mate. The standoff began with a laugh that soon escalated to ‘Give it’ and ‘I had this one first.’ In the end, I handed her the left shoe--but not without mumbling, ‘If it’s that important to you, here. Get a life.’ She said: ‘I have a life and a new pair of shoes’ and stalked off. That stung.
And it should have been the end of it, right? Well, it wasn’t. I didn’t strangle her with a cashmere scarf or try to puncture her lung with a hanger. But I felt this sense of defeat that drove me to trail her casually and make obnoxious faces at her for about five minutes. And a small, angry part of me was tempted to throw a python coin purse at her head.
-- Monica Corcoran
Tell us about your worst case of shopper rage. Ever raised a fist in the name of consumption?