I didn't really look into it...I'm set as far as DVD players go. Parents bought one for about $300 the first Christmas following their release to the masses.
Yeah, because goodness knows that if I saw an extra blinking light golf cart in the parking lot being drivin' by a heart patient retiree, I know I'd be very, very afraid. I mean, hey... he might even use his walkie-talkie and call in the octagenarian greeter from either of the entryway doors to back him up. Security at Wal-Mart? How many times do you hear the "alarm" go off from a supposed shop lifting incident and no one gets questioned or stopped? The appalling thing here is that the world's literally largest retailer, and in fact largest corporation, can't just show even better customer service by really taking care of it's customers. Especially when one gets trampled after the blast a horn that signifies that a "temporary lapse of judgement fest" is about to ensue. It's like calling in the maniacs, and then not taking responsibility if someone acts a little maniacal. I foresee a winning lawsuit in Florida... VanLester vs. Wal-Mart.
Are you kidding. You can't pack everyone in front of your doors and then blare a horn and let them all sprint for a stack of DVD players. That is asking for this to happen. Didn't we learn our lessen from the festival seating debacle at the Who concert in Ohio? Just offer the price to everyone who shows up that day and you won't have these problems. You don't have unsanctioned MMA matches for cheap prices on consumer electronics.
The woman goes into walmart thinking of buying a DVD player and possible leaves with a million dollar lawsuit in her pocket... This is why America is the land of opportunity
Don't laugh yall. I woke up at 5:45 yesterday morning. Since I'm in Houston now visiting my parents., I decided to head up to the new Wal Mart on HWY6 by West Oaks Mall. All I went to pick up was some cheap $11 DVDs (Lion King Special Edition, Bend it Like Beckham, and Matrix Reloaded). Just about everyone in that damn store had a 20 inch Symphonic flatscreen tv selling for $99. I saw an Asian lady with about 10 of the aforementioned $29.99 DVD players. Not to mention the fact that one lady fell down, and was bleeding. I didn't see it, but some chunky girl in line with one of the $99 TVs told me about it. Do these people not realize that the heavily discounted DVD players and TVs are absolute sh*t? I would be embarassed to have one of those POSs in my house. You can find a decent Samsung or Panasonic player for $99-$139 these days.
I have a cheap-skate friend who insists on buying the absolute cheapest version of whatever he is looking to buy. Invariably, he ends up replacing said items time and time again and ends up spending more money than if he had simply bought something better to begin with. But that thought never occurs to him. But on the other hand, his DVD player works fine, and it's one that was the "loss leader" at Fry's at the time he bought it.
Apparently she has a history of being trampled. ORANGE CITY, Fla. -- A woman reported "trampled" last Friday by Wal-Mart shoppers desperate for $29.87 DVD players has a long history of claiming injuries from Wal-Marts and other businesses where she worked or shopped. Patricia Vanlester, 41, was knocked unconscious and, her sister said, "trampled by a herd of elephants" by a stampede of shoppers reaching for DVD players that went on sale at 6 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving, according to Orange City police and the sister, Linda Ellzey. The story was picked up by the Associated Press and carried in newspapers and other media as far away as Australia and China, an example -- some commentators have opined -- of American excess during the holiday shopping season. An investigation by WKMG-Local 6 reveals Vanlester has filed 16 previous claims of injuries at Wal-Mart stores and other places she has shopped or worked, according to Wal-Mart, court files and state records. Her sister, who accompanied her Friday on the visit to Wal-Mart, has also filed a prior injury claim against Wal-Mart, with Vanlester as her witness, a company spokeswoman said yesterday. Asked whether Vanlester's frequent injury claims might cast doubt on the veracity of her latest allegation, her attorney, David L. Sweat, of Port Orange, said, "No comment." He did stress, though, that Vanlester "has not filed a claim nor have we decided to file one" related to last week's incident. Wal-Mart is reviewing store videotapes "as we look into the claim," spokeswoman Karen Burk said from the massive retailer's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. "We will investigate this claim as thoroughly as we have the other 10 claims that this customer and her sister have brought against our stores in the past." Vanlester, who worked at Wal-Marts in Mt. Dora and Orange City in 1996 and 1997, declined comment through her mother, Barbara Rastellini, with whom she owns a home here. Vanlester spent at least two days in Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach last weekend and today was back in the hospital "having a procedure done," Sweat said. He did not know if the procedure was related to the Wal-Mart incident. Vanlester has for years complained of head, back, neck, leg or arm pain caused by slipping and falling, objects falling on her and other accidents, according to medical records in a public court file examined by WKMG-Local 6. In fact, her sister says she was wearing a neck brace at the time of last Friday's incident because of injuries from a years-old car accident. According to state worker's compensation records and court files at the Volusia County courthouse in DeLand, here's some of what Vanlester has claimed over the years under some of her various legal last names: Rastellini, Findley, Crabtree, Platt and Vanlester. In 1978 and 1982, more than $400 in worker's compensation was paid after she claimed injuries from being struck by a falling object and from slipping and falling while working as a machine operator at a now-defunct manufacturing plant in DeLand. In 1984, she claimed a back sprain from working at a restaurant in Winter Haven, producing $356 in worker's compensation. In 1987, she filed an injury claim against Deltona Lanes, a Volusia County bowling alley, after claiming she slipped and fell while bowling there. In a 1993 sworn deposition in another case, Vanlester testified she received a cash settlement from the bowling alley claim, but did not recall the amount. In 1989, after her car ran off Interstate 4 in Volusia and overturned, she filed a claim against Big T Tire and Wheel Service, of Orange City, claiming the crash was caused by a tire blowout. She testified she received a cash settlement in that case, as well. In 1991, she claimed to have slipped on a puddle of hand lotion while shopping for a curling iron at an Orange City Walgreen's, causing "permanent injury, disability, disfigurement (and) mental anguish." She filed suit in 1993, but it was thrown out in January 1994 after a 10-minute hearing. Walgreen's argued no one at the store had seen any liquid on the floor, so it could not be liable for failing to clean it up. In 1995, Vanlester reported slipping and falling on liquid or grease while working in the meat department of a Eustis Publix, resulting in more than $1,200 in worker's compensation. In 1996, she claimed to have slipped and fallen while working at the layaway desk of a Mt. Dora Wal-Mart, leading to more than $600 in worker's compensation payments. In 1997, she claimed a back strain while working at the snack bar of an Orange City Wal-Mart that was replaced by the Wal-Mart Superstore where she claims to have been trampled last Friday. Burk, the Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said she could not reveal exactly how much Wal-Mart has paid in medical expenses and direct payments to Vanlester as a result of her nine claims, but said the total was in the "thousands." Nor could she provide details on the injury claim Wal-Mart received from her sister, Ellzey, 48, of Inglis, Fla., except to say Vanlester was listed as a witness to the injury. Ellzey said in an earlier interview that Wal-Mart should have foreseen the danger of unleashing shoppers on a huge bargain at 6 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving. "For several years, every time they do this, people get trampled," she said last week, adding, "I'm panicked. I'm afraid to go into any stores, especially Wal-Mart." This week, Ellzey has not returned repeated calls seeking comment. But her widely-reported characterization of the incident last Friday as a trampling by a "herd of elephants" has provoked much comment around the world. Syndicated columnist George Will used it to bemoan the death of Puritanism at the hand of Christmas excess, calling department stores "cathedrals of consumption." A Portland, Ore., Web site carried the story under the headline, "Capitalism's Greatest Hits."
Hmmmm...could this be a classic case of poetic justice? This line from the first article is kind of funny...it reminds me of the drunk guy that falls in the pool but manages to keep his beer above the water.
Yep. And then they screw people who really do get hurt. She was due for another "accident" by looking at her yearly trend.
I don't think Wal-Mart would be liable if a herd of elephants came through one of their stores and trampled someone. I think you'd have to sue the elephants individually.
