Wal-mart Assailed On Death (Wall Street Journal)

December 1, 2008

Anned Zimmerman

Mineola - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. should have had better crowd control to prevent the death of a worker who was trampled the day after Thanksgiving amid the bargain-hunting frenzy whipped up by the sales known as door-busters, according to local police and a lawyer for the worker's family.

Police say Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year-old temporary maintenance worker, was pushed to the ground and asphyxiated when an estimated 2,000 shoppers broke through the glass doors at a Wal-Mart store on Long Island, N.Y., as they raced to buy a limited assortment of sharply discounted television sets, computers and other gifts in the predawn hours early Friday.

Wal-Mart defended its procedures and said on Monday that it is cooperating with law-enforcement officials.

Shopper stampedes aren't new. Often, during the Thanksgiving weekend that starts each holiday-shopping season, reports emerge of people who were injured in the mad dash to snap up discounts.

Wal-Mart faced several lawsuits from customers who claimed they were hurt by out-of-control shoppers seeking talking Furby dolls in 1998. Five years ago, after a woman cut in line at Toys R Us in Bossier City, La., two shoppers who had waited in line for hours pushed her and grabbed her by the neck.

Jordan Hecht, a personal-injury attorney retained by Mr. Damour's three sisters, said Wal-Mart didn't have enough security guards at the Long Island store and the staff wasn't properly trained.

"Hundreds of stores around the country have these kinds of sales, but a tragedy only happens if you don't prepare," Mr. Hecht said. "You need to have people line up in a queue in an orderly fashion, with people giving them updates." Mr. Hecht will decide whether to file a lawsuit against the retailer and possibly other parties after he reviews all the police reports, he said.

Mr. Damour was hired through a temporary-employment agency; if he is deemed to be a Wal-Mart employee, the retailer's liability may be limited under New York state's worker-compensation laws, Mr. Hecht said.

Wal-Mart defended the precautions it took at the Long Island store. The retailer said it set up barricades, hired third-party security guards and had extra staff on hand. Security is handled on a store-by-store basis, according to Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar.

As the crowd increased to 500 in the middle of the night, someone called Nassau County police; two officers helped the crowd form an orderly line, said Lt. Kevin Smith, head of the county's public-information office.

"We went above and beyond the call of duty," Lt. Smith said. "Our jobs are not to act as Wal-Mart's security guards. It did not appear that there were enough security guards visible."

The police said they believe the line was orderly until the victim went to open the store's interior doors at 5 a.m., and a crowd of people who hadn't been on line surged through the doors, trampling Mr. Damour.

To prepare for the crowds and potential mayhem that Black Friday discounts tend to invite, retailers usually hire extra workers and extra security guards. Black Friday is typically the day that retailers become profitable for the year.

In addition to those steps, Best Buy Co. controls its electronics-hungry shoppers by roping off an area around each store, so shoppers line up in single file, said a spokeswoman, Sue Busch. Workers try to defuse tension by joking with the shoppers and, an hour before the doors open, they hand out tickets for each hot product in limited quantity, to deter shoppers from rushing the doors. Best Buy employees do role-playing drills and other preparations for several hours in advance of its day-after Thanksgiving sale.