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NEWS > BUSINESS > PEPPER SPRAY SALE A DISASTER FOR LOS ANGELES WALMART
PEPPER SPRAY SALE A DISASTER FOR LOS ANGELES WALMART
November 25 2011
Los Angeles, CA – Thanksgiving, the time for family, for giving thanks, and for shopping. Whatever Thanksgiving was designed to do, and whatever goal the founding fathers had in mind for the celebration, Thanksgiving has really turned into a prelude to the greatest of all American pastimes, shopping.
For years, Black Friday has really been the primary reason for Turkey Thursday as millions of people line up across the nation hoping to get the best deals on the most expensive products. Most people ultimately go home empty handed, beat out by the rush or just finding the deals not quite as good as advertised. Retailers, similarly, often end up disappointed with eroded margins and huge messes to clean up.
That is doubly so for a Los Angeles area Walmart, a company notorious for problems on Black Friday, after a massive sale on canisters of pepper spray resulted in more than twenty injuries. According to police a woman opened fire with the spray while trying to one-up her competitors, before quickly hitting the checkout and making out like a bandit.
“Somehow she was trying to use it to gain an upper hand but the spray only caused more chaos. There were twenty injuries, at least ten of which were due to the movement of the crowd. We have not been able to contact the woman involved in the incident,” said a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department.
The location did sell out of pepper spray shortly after the doors opened, so it wasn't a total write off for the company.
The woman also apparently purchased some electronics before taking off.
“One has to think that perhaps, just perhaps, people have lost focus on the real value of the season with all this madness. Ostensibly, this period is to give thanks for everything we have not to run up a credit card bill. I mean I guess it’s good that people are out buying, that they have the money to buy. We can be thankful for that, but still...” said Scrape TV Business analyst Ken Green. “One does have to question the idea of putting offensive weapons on sale, especially as it appears right at the front of the store. That is just dangerous and can lead to situations like this. Walmart should really know better.”
That particular locations appears to have been the only one with the pepper spray display at the front of the store. Most LA locations offer pepper spray and tasers at the checkout counter.
“At the very least this shows that the store simply didn’t have enough inventory in stock and that led to a little bit of a problem. Hopefully this will be a lesson that they take to heart. I mean at least no one was trampled to death this time,” continued Green. “Still, it could have been bad and it could have gotten worse and worse. If other people had access to pepper spray the whole store could have been in chaos and that would likely have ended badly. Very badly indeed.”
Despite the pepper in the eyes and the foot marks the injured shoppers continued on with Black Friday.
William Ashford, Business Correspondent
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