Photo: FLLewis/Media City G -- The future site of a Walmart 1301 North Victory Place in the Empire Center Burbank
Burbank is getting a Walmart with dirt cheap prices, questionable labor practices, and the retailer’s notorious Black Friday culture. Last month at the Empire Center, the future home of Burbank’s Walmart, the giant retailer held a promotional event boasting about the benefits its store will bring to the community. However, Burbank residents must realize that the retailer’s massive advertising campaigns, concerned mainly with profits, are going to attract some of those crazed Black Friday shoppers to the new Walmart in B-town.
Violence erupted at several Walmarts across the country yesterday and Thanksgiving night. One of the ugliest incidents occurred at the store in Porter Ranch. In a Los Angeles Times report, witnesses described a scene of chaos, mayhem, and a pepper spray attack by a woman police say was “competitive shopping.”
The discount king did not release an official comment about the violence, but in a Times’ article Walmart spokesman, Greg Rossiter, referred to it as “… a few unfortunate incidents.” A brush-off to a Black Friday company culture that has fueled violence, which has resulted in injuries and one tragic death.
Three years ago, in an exclusive report, I wrote about this Black Friday culture and the first hand experiences of a former Walmart employee. In part 1, the ex-employee described how he was almost trampled by out of control Black Friday shoppers and in part 2, he recounts a disturbing incident where an announcement by a Walmart manager sent an anxious Black Friday crowd into a frenzy.
By the way, did you hear Bloomingdale’s is opening a store in nearby Glendale? And Burbank is getting a Walmart — wonderful.
