CNN and MSNBC report that police are investigating the tragic death of a Wal-mart employee early yesterday morning. It seems that the seasonal hire was trampled to death as the exterior doors proved futile at retaining crowds of barbaric materialists. Among those less seriously injured but still requiring hospitalization was a woman who was eight months pregnant. Review of store surveillance videos show scenes of customers becoming irate over being blocked by the obstacle created as other workers attempted to aid the eventual deceased. After order was restored, surveillance shows customers expressing annoyance at the decision to immediately close the store in order to investigate the death. Police are now trying to ascertain who, if anyone, should be held criminally responsible for the worker’s death. I’m not sure what the problem is, the guilty party seems pretty cut and dry to me: Wal-mart.

Eventually, after the tapes are all reviewed and witness are interviewed, the police might be able to identify a specific person or party who is directly responsible for breaking down the doors, trampling the person, or whatever ill advised action was carried out leading to the tragedy, and as selfish, hedonistic, and terrible these people may be, they shouldn’t be blamed. All over the country, lines formed around buildings as consumers eagerly waited hours to purchase limited quantity, door buster deals. In order to understand the mechanics of this sort of line, think of cars waiting at a red light. As the light gets closer to changing, cars inch up ever so slightly as drivers anticipate the change, and then again, and again. Eventually the light turns green and everyone goes, but if someone fails to go, horns are honked, fingers are given, and disdain flows freely at the refusing party.  And as it is with cars lined up at intersections which rarely back up due to the impossibility of moving all those cars behind them, people in lines, pressed against doors, suffer the same but without the protection of a two ton steel cage obstacle,  making honking unnecessary. Eventually something has to give, the light has to change, in this case the green light occurred when the doors gave way to the force of the many bodies pressed against them. If you blame one person, you better blame them all.

You might argue that although year after year something like this occurs, this accident was a freak occurrence and that, although tragic, no one should be blamed. That may be so, but I ask you, could it have been prevented? Try to imagine any situation where a lot of people are jockeying for position in an area that can’t contain them all. Think of the physics behind the line, the momentum and inertia. Once that line starts moving, how many people are needed to stop it? At concerts, a huge steel barrier and numbers of bouncers are needed. The mechanics of people in a line are very predictable. In the spirit of the adage that doing something over and over again the same way and expecting a different result is insanity, shouldn’t those who not only created the circumstance but hoped to profit from the anticipated actions be held responsible?

While it’s just my opinion and I suppose ultimately unprovable that problematic American materialistic consumer culture responsible for people spending all night in line for a DVD player, incurring tons of debt, and ruining any regard for fellow man has been created and further instigated by retailers for years as they try to capitalize on profits from increased revenue, it seems fair to hold them responsible for the actions occuring during circumstances they create. Retailers choose to narrow profit margins or even take losses on door buster deals in order to draw more people into a store with hopes that they’ll purchase other merchandise with a higher markup. Everyone knows that there is a finite supply of each item, and by limiting the amount of door buster deals, retailers create a situation characterized by high anticipation, urgency, ambition, lust, and wanton regard. Why else would a woman who is eight months pregnant, has almost carried her baby to term, risk her baby’s life by taking part in this rush if it weren’t for the thought that showing up at normal shopping hours would net less savings making her Christmas more unaffordable.

If Wal-mart had advertised that everyone who wanted a deal could have one, people wouldn’t have lined up. If there wasn’t a chance that all these items would sell out within the first ten minutes of the store opening, people wouldn’t have pushed… but profits would have suffered, people might go elsewhere. If Wal-mart had spent more money controlling the line with proven, effective crowd control measures, a seasonal employee working for close to minimum wage at an ungodly hour the day after thanksgiving wouldn’t have died. Blame Wal-mart. Time and time again Wal-mart has shown itself to be a profit crazed employee eating beast of a company, so it’s time they pay the piper.

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