21 People Injured At $50 Laptop Sale (moved from ATSNN)

The Henrico County School System in Virginia held a sale today of used Apple iBook laptops for $50 each. Even though the doors opened at 7am, some people had been waiting since 1:30 am. By the time the last laptop had been sold around 1:00 pm, seventeen people sustained minor injuries, and four were hospitalized. The rush to buy the laptops quickly turned into utter chaos, as people pushed through the crowd, some beating others with chairs, and others tossing children and elderly to the ground.



Instances like this just illustrate the violent nature of some Americans. A four year old laptop for $50 seems to be more important to some Americans than simple human decency. Events such as this seem to be ever increasing in numbers. From the first stories of this sort that I remember with the Cabbage Patch Kid craze in the 1980s through today, where people are trampled for a $50 laptop.

I suppose we can be thankful that nobody died.

Instances like this just illustrate the violent nature of some Americans. A four year old laptop for $50 seems to be more important to some Americans than simple human decency. Events such as this seem to be ever increasing in numbers. From the first stories of this sort that I remember with the Cabbage Patch Kid craze in the 1980s through today, where people are trampled for a $50 laptop.

We can be thankful that this wasn't a soccer match someone might have been killed.

Utah's Granit School district did this last year with NO injureys thank goodness. They also sell the desk tops for 50 bucks to with all the printers.

My son got his computor last year through this manner. They ask for a w2 copy to prove your unable to buy a new set up for your child.

Tis a sad thing that people are climbing over each other for this oportunity.

We can be thankful that this wasn't a soccer match someone might have been killed.

At least a soccer match is somewhat understandable - alcohol and high excitement are involved. These are four year old laptops that have been put through the grinder of the public school system. They're probably not even worth the $50.

There is a deeper meaning here, if you look closely.

Witness the desperation of the lower, non-tech people who have no computers yet realize how vital computers are. The desperate message here is clear: "I must have a computer and I cannot afford one."

Problem #1: Finite Number of $50 Apple Laptops.

Problem #2: A Line.

...Hello? Obviously there's going to be issues of "cutting" in line when you are afraid that guy in front of you (and his friends) might get laptops but you won't. People want to live the lifestyle they see on tv, and it involves laptops and the internet, this much they know.

These people shouldn't be allowed to have computers, frankly. They'll just lose their data or screw their lives up way too badly. They are fantasizing about what a mac laptop looks like (most of these apple i-books are crap on toast) and seeing themselves as tech-enabled (which they obviously are not). What will happen is that some friend will load the thing, they'll try to use it and it'll fail within three months, along with all their data.

What they should do is pool their money, as neighbors or friends and buy a laptop among them. But see, the selfish gene says "No. It must be mine. My computer."

[Side Note: This is also an opportunity for a new series of Steve Jobs-ian billboards. Picture a woman wetting herself holding an i-pod with the caption, "I'd piss myself for the revolution!" ...Now that's consumer loyalty.]


[EDIT:]

Here you go, straight offa EBay:

APPLE iBOOK CLAMSHELL M2453 LAPTOP 6GB +AIRPORT
Winning bid: US $177.50

Product Family: iBook G3
Processor Speed: 350 MHz
Hard Drive Capacity: 6 GB
Memory (RAM): 32 MB

...Not really worth running your neighbor over for, I'd say.




[edit on 16-8-2005 by smallpeeps]

Just imagine if that was food and these people were starving or, even worse, these people had been exposed to some biohazard and needed to be vaccinated. It's kind of disappointing to witness the selfish and violent behavior of some people today.

Wow, all this for Macs? I would understand for good computers, ones better then Macs, you know like a new AMD 64bit ship set or a Windows 3.6ghrz proc, or a Pent 2, or a comondor(sp?) 64, or the first calculator, or a stone and a burnt stick, but Macs? Damn 50$ for a paperweight? Insane.

This reminds of something that happened here in the UK. When a new IKEA store opened, they had a grand opening sale. Now in the UK IKEA is a very popular home and garden store, which is cheap anyway so the stuff must have been dirt cheap.
In a very similar fashion to the above story, people had been queueing through the night to get the best bargains. Well it seems all was ok until they opened the doors when the place descended into chaos. Many people were hospitalised in the crush to get the best stuff. I remember at least one person was crushed and one person was stabbed to death.
What of the great british sense of humour and love for the fellow man? Goes straight out of the window when you there's a sofa for 50 quid to be had!

My initial post on this was ment to point out that things like this happen in other places and it is not exclusive to the U.S.

One thing that needs to be pointed out is that people in their 20s to 30s right now are the first generation to grow up with saturation advertising. Everyplace you go right now you are bombarded with advertising. Many of these ads try to make you out to be a failure if you don't get the product that they are selling. Look at all of the commercials on weight loss. This is just praying on people's self esteem or the lack there of. Problem is that if people get told something enough they tend to believe it. Look at the modeling world. They was a specific body type that is unachievable by most people, but yet the advertising tells you if you don't look like this there must be something wrong with you.

Another thing to think about is that this was a school district selling these laptops. Why didn't they sell them to their students? How hard would it be to send home a slip asking the parents if they wanted to buy the computer for their child? If you had more requests than computers that is what fishbowls are for. My neice and nephew couldn't afford a computer until I got them one, but they were expected to turn in typed reports with graphics and do research from the internet. I find this absurd since their school doesn't have an open computer lab available during study halls. My nephew turned in a hand written paper that was excellant the teacher even admitted it right before she reduced it a full letter grade because it wasn't typed. I wonder where the $50 they got for these machines went?

I thought before I post I would go and have a little look at; "Henrico County" which is a pretty bad-ass name for a county. However, by the looks of things this is a fairly impoverished area with nearly 25% of the population below the age of 18. (2001 census: en.wikipedia.org...)

Now think of it like this; area with an increased level of poverty (from what I have seen so far) + high level of under-eighteens (School children) + a computer which the parents could not afford otherwise (and could benefit their children a lot) = riot.