The Trampled Wal-Mart Customer

Many of you have no doubt seen this story at Yahoo about the lady who was trampled by shoppers at Wal-Mart who were trying to get a $29.00 DVD player.

I'm not going to make any arguments as to whether Wal-Mart has any liability for this trample, whether they could have forseen the trampling, or anything similar. However, I'm going to point out one part of the article:

"...Wal-Mart officials called later Friday to ask about her sister, and the store apologized and offered to put a DVD player on hold for her."

It's things like this that get big companies sued. Wal-Mart should have either given her the $29.00 DVD player and paid her medical bills, or simply stayed quiet. Offering to put the DVD player on hold is an insult, and the kind of insult that leads to litigation; many people sue not to get rich, but because arrogant corporate employees offended or insulted the person.

Comments

[James Barton, Jr.]

Today I went to talk to a Wal-Mart Assoc about price matching a movie, "The Medallion". I told her that the movie here is $19.87 and at the other store it is $15.87 I asked her why all Wal-Marts prices are not the same? When I said that she said that we do not match other Wal-Mart stores because they cannot compete with them. I thought all the stores are in the same business and are ran by the same company Wal-Mart. I could understand if it was Kmart. I told the Orange Park Wal-Mart that I would never shop there again and that I would drive the 15 miles to get a better price. If you could please explain to me why the prices are not the same at all your stores and why, that would proably shed a lot a light for me and my family.

[Brad Wellington]

Wal*Mart charges lower prices in area where there are competitors in order to drive them out. Once the competition is gone, they raise their prices back up. Thats why different Wal*Marts charge different prices.