New York – Victoria Rogers had originally planned to make an early stop the day after Thanksgiving last year at the Wal-Mart store in Valley Stream, N.Y., on Long Island.
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“We saw the mob, and we said no,” she said. “Wal-Mart’s not the store.”
What she saw that day was no ordinary crowd of shoppers, but a throng police say jammed through the doors upon the store’s opening in a mad dash for holiday savings, trampling a guard to death.
“No price can be worth someone’s life,” said Rogers, of Queens, on a recent visit to the same store.
One year later, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is embroiled in lawsuits, appealing citations and instituting companywide changes, including staying open 24 hours on Thanksgiving, and has inspired voluntary federal guidelines for what other retailers should do to avoid the same result.
“What happened is tragic, and we’re still saddened by it,” said Daphne Moore, spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores, based in Bentonville, Ark. “We are committed to looking for ways to make stores even safer for our customers and associates.”
Joe LaRocca, senior asset protection advisor for the National Retail Federation, said the trade group worked with retailers to come up with its own guidelines for managing crowds during special events, including the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday because it is traditionally considered the day stores break into profitability for the year.
“Following the incident last year, retailers took another look at their crowd control and major event guidelines,” he said. Best Buy ran rehearsals for Black Friday weekend, practicing lining customers up. Other companies have worked closely with mall operators on where to form lines and how they might better communicate with customers while they waited to be served.
Wal-Mart signed off in May on an agreement with local prosecutors that required it to overhaul security for Black Friday sales in its 92 New York locations, but it recently said it is employing its new strategy nationwide.
The settlement also required Wal-Mart to consult with experts to develop safety plans for each store. Crowd-management staff will be deployed, and maps will show customers where the hot sale items are.
Stores will also place the hottest items — marked-down TVs, toys and laptop computers, for example — far apart to prevent big crowds from gathering.
Wal-Mart will also erect barriers to manage traffic flow and distribute wristbands to customers on items with limited inventory. Security monitors will help ensure procedures are being followed, officials said — not leaving the job only to guards like Jdimytai Damour.
At 6-foot-5, 270 pounds, Damour was built like an NFL linebacker, but he was no match for an estimated 2,000 people who broke down the doors when the Valley Stream Wal-Mart opened at 5 a.m. on Black Friday last year.
A criminal investigation forced the chain to revamp security planning for the holiday season and led federal regulators to issue safety recommendations for all merchants conducting special events like Black Friday sales.
Damour’s family is suing the retailer and Nassau County officials, claiming police could have controlled the crowd better, although police contend that was Wal-Mart’s responsibility.
Edward H. Gersowitz, a lawyer for the Damour family, says “positive discussions” continue with Wal-Mart about a possible settlement.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Wal-Mart for inadequate crowd management, but the retailer is appealing.
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice contended that had Wal-Mart been found guilty of a crime, the maximum penalty it could have faced was a $10,000 fine. Instead, the store agreed to a $400,000 compensation fund for victims and donated $1.5 million to county social services programs and nonprofit groups.
Among the survivors last year was Leana Lockley. The 29-year-old Queens woman was five months pregnant when she was caught up in the stampede and found herself being trampled. Her attorney says she credits Damour with helping save not only her life, but also that of her daughter, Alicia Skye Lockley, who was born in April.
She, too, has sued Wal-Mart but is negotiating a possible settlement, said attorney David Sloan.
goyishe velt. Hashem Yishmorainu!
i don’t see why this was walmart’s responsbility. I understand the family for wanting to put the blame on someone and get compensation but really it’s each individual’s responsbility not to push like an animal. As far as comment #1 , whoever thinks it’s just the goyish world should have been with me trying to get onto a bus at the kosel today. No one was hurt but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we do hear of someone being injured from this kind of thing one day.
…אנו רצים והם רצים
If a store owner knows that he is offering something that will bring a large crowd, he is obligated to have enough security to prevent a riot from occurring. Those who pushed like animals never came forward and said they were sorry for killing someone to get their filthy bargains. If Walmart failed to provide security, it would be their own fault as well if items were damaged or stolen. People who come to steal will take advantage of the opportunity. If they get caught, then it is the shopper’s problem but with lack of security, they will probably succeed in stealing.
The customers have been there all night waiting to get to the electronics department at the back of the store. The store owners know this. If they didn’t know this before, the sure do now and hopefully they will take measures to prevent people from stampeding to by an ipod.