Black Friday a HUGE disappointment

I went out early with my wife to hit up a few Black Friday sales. We headed out as an entire family excited for what we were going to be able to grab together and hoping to have a bonding experience. The race started out at Wal Mart where we stood in line hoping to grab a few big title DVD's for 2 bucks, No real issues here, That is UNTIL I see a woman over in the gaming section who had been pushed down, She is laying on the ground across a cardboard pile of Xbox games, the contents of her purse, meds, phone, etc scattered across the floor.. I could not believe what I was watching as people attempted to roll her over to get to the games underneath her and nobody stepped up to offer their assistance to this woman who was very obviously in need of someones helping hand.. I could barely  make my way over through the crowd of people throwing elbows and walking over anyone who didn't have the strength to push through the crowd. I didn't make it and luckily a few good people stepped up and helped the woman to her feet. I doubt that she got the items she was after. My only thought at this moment: "When did the need to save a few bucks on a game overcome our natural human ability to show compassion to someone in need".. I was literally blown away..  The next terrible experience came as my wife and I left electronics and headed over to TOYS to find an item that my daughter had fallen in love with and sat down in the isle to play with for 10 minutes a few days prior, It took us standing for 30 minutes before we were able to move at all towards the toys section because people with carts were blocking the isles and would not move their carts stating that they "Don't want to lose their place in line" This is where my wife stepped up, and I love it! "MOVE" she yelled, a variety of negative comments came her way about how shouting wasn't going to do any good, They didn't want to lose their place in line for items that wouldn't be going on sale for another 2 hours... An older woman in front of us in line had been asking very politely to have a few inches to squeeze through for several minutes and nobody gave her any attention, It wasn't until my wife shouted that people began to recognize another simple need.. It didn't take much to move the carts and let those of us who just wanted to get through room to squeeze by. I stepped in when people started yelling at my wife saying that "Shouting wasn't needed" by saying something along the lines of "Well, Asking politely wasn't working very well for any of us, Was it?"
 Wal Mart on Black Friday: I won't EVER be returning.. That is unless I return as an EMT on a Truck or Ambulance..

Next we went and joined my brother in line at Shopko, We had fun standing in the freezing weather for the next hour and a half waiting for the doors to open, It wasn't until about 10 minutes until the doors opened that I again saw a general lack of respect or decency by people attempting to save a buck or two.. The lines wrapped around the building in both directions. We were near the front, At 10 minutes to, families and people started gathering in the parking lot in front of the doors giving no respect to anyone who had been standing in the freezing cold waiting in line.. People were getting roudy and a chant was started by everyone in line. "Get In Line! Get In Line"... The people in line behind us grew more roudy and I saw several people come up and start calling people out: The doors opened and the rush came in, My pregnant sister stepped up, stood there and started calling people out directly.. I wanted to stay there and make sure that she was going to be OK but I was being pushed through the door: My wife stopped in front of me, planted her feet, and put both hands up on the standing theft detector systems she was standing between. In front of her 3 young girls had been pushed over and she was trying to protect them.. In the meantime and in an attempt to join my wife in slowing the crowd, my hand was smashed between the doors and is still swollen. Once inside the madness seemed much more organized than Wal Mart, Still I was disappointed at the reaction of people in general..
 We finished our shopping experience at Kohls with the family, standing in line and laughing at jokes we were telling and this was the best experience we had all night long- Perhaps due in part to the fact that door-busters were already inside.. We were at Kohls for what seemed like endless hours but made friends with the people in line around us, Overall: Kohls wasn't bad, Just terribly boring..

To top it all off: I was on-call through out the remainder of the day- Every ambulance in the valley was out simultaneously due to a huge demand for EMS services, I ran several calls related to Black Friday, and a few other general medicals.. I'll sign up to cover EMS for Black Friday any day, But count me out in the future when it comes to any shopping!