Damn Psycho DVDRHelpers

[pacmania_2001]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=9&u=/ap/20031129/ap_on_re_us/tra...pled_shopper_2

Woman Knocked Unconscious While Shopping

ORANGE CITY, Fla. - A mob of shoppers rushing for a sale on DVD players trampled the first woman in line and knocked her unconscious as they scrambled for the shelves at a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Patricia VanLester had her eye on a $29 DVD player, but when the siren blared at 6 a.m. Friday announcing the start to the post-Thanksgiving sale, the 41-year-old was knocked to the ground by the frenzy of shoppers behind her.

"She got pushed down, and they walked over her like a herd of elephants," said VanLester's sister, Linda Ellzey. "I told them, `Stop stepping on my sister! She's on the ground!'"

Ellzey said some shoppers tried to help VanLester, and one employee helped Ellzey reach her sister, but most people just continued their rush for deals.

"All they cared about was a stupid DVD player," she said Saturday.

Paramedics called to the store found VanLester unconscious on top of a DVD player, surrounded by shoppers seemingly oblivious to her, said Mark O'Keefe, a spokesman for EVAC Ambulance.

She was flown to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where doctors told the family VanLester had a seizure after she was knocked down and would likely remain hospitalized through the weekend, Ellzey said. Hospital officials said Saturday they did not have any information on her condition.

"She's all black and blue," Ellzey said. "Patty doesn't remember anything. She still can't believe it all happened."

Ellzey said 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.

Wal-Mart Stores spokeswoman Karen Burk said she had never heard of a such a melee during a sale.

"We are very disappointed this happened," Burk said. "We want her to come back as a shopper."

Okay, so own up, which one of you were after the $29 DVD player and knocked the woman over?

[Hatz]

I was one of them........figured it had to be better then my Lite-On 2001.

But I noticed she was down, but not quite out yet so I kicked her a few more times just for good measure.

Now lets all say this at the same time. LAWSUIT. I have a feeling Walmart is going to pay for this.

Hatz

[Devanshu]

So thats why there's blood on my shoes...

[housepig]

Ellzey said 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.

chintzy bitches - you'd think for a $29 player, they'd just give her one...

[Roundabout]

Don't worry, like Hatz said, there'll be a lawsuit from this without doubt. WM has deep pockets to pay for things like this. A few weeks back, wife and I were outside WM locally, when an older black woman with grandchildren were walking near the store entrance. She fell down (was on heels, not real high ones, but probably a couple of inches - WTF is a grandmother wearing heels for anyway?) and no one helped her. This was right in front of the entrance but still on the black asphalt parking lot area. My wife ran over and helped her up, she didn't say anything - not thanks, not anything.

A little while later, when we came out, a WM employee was filling out some kind of claim form on a bench in front of the store. So I guess she's gonna sue for something, though there was nothing in her way and she tripped on her own.

Maybe they have video cameras and can see that no one was around when she fell, nothing whatsoever to cause it to happen, not rainy or anything, no rocks on the ground... just an accident that wasn't anyone's fault. She just tripped and fell. Maybe planned, maybe not. In any case, no one asked us when she saw us walking out, what happened. So we left.

But, this thing about someone being trampled is crazy. They need to find a better way, like BB was doing - giving out priority numbers and keeping people from making a mad rush. Maybe WM will start doing the same thing if this keeps up. They should. When they're practically giving things away they have to know that the "animal" in people comes out. Sad. Really. I hope they at least pay her medical bills and something for pain & suffering. This kind of thing shouldn't happen, and it doesn't have to happen. Reminds me of that Who concert a few years back where people were trampled and killed when they opened the doors and people rushed in and went crazy. It forced them to make changes (for the better).

[gmatov]

The hell of it is, they arewn't "practically giving these things away".

What, these Norcents and the like are maybe 40 bucks, normally, and those 20 inch TVs, Symphonic yet, for 97 bucks, are no big deal. Apex 20 inch is nearly always at 100 bucks.

Widely acclaimed marketing professor on Radio here, last evening, was asked how they could "practically give them away", and replied "The markup is way more than you imagine",

Kinda like CD writers, and now DVD writers cost an arm and a leg till LiteOn started into the business. Sony and all the rest had to drop their profit margins or lose market share. LiteOn is selling for 100 bucks, for DVD. I'dd bet they are outselling Sony, at the moment, and Sony's have nearly halved their price, and they're still, here, 180 after 30 buck rebate.

I don't think they've cut 180 bucks out of parts and labor.

Apex did the same to DVD players and really pissed off the big boys.

A rule of thumb for manufactured items a few years back was that it should retail for 10X production cost. If that still stands, it means that Sony DVD burner cost 35 bucks to make.

So really no "give aways" here.

Cheers

George

[Roundabout]

I can't tell you about all manufacturers, but I can tell you that the markup on Sony products is 35% - 50% depending on what product you're talking about. Sony Corp in Japan "sells" the products to the US subsidiary (Sony Corp Of America) at marked up prices, and the US unit has to sink or swim on it's own merits. It's almost as if they aren't connected, though it is the same company.

Kind of like some of the power companies a few years ago, got in trouble for "daisy-chaining" their income, charging marked up prices from one division to another so they could justify to the Public Utilites Commision the higher rates to consumer. "Look, our prices went up, we have to raise our rates!" Never mind that another division of the same company was charging them those higher rates... and so on.

When I worked at Sony, we could by products "at cost". But whose "exact cost"? Certainly not Sony Japan's cost. In general, for example on TV's, we paid around 40% below MSRP. Which isn't 40% off street price, for sure. A little better deal than the average consumer, but not great. It's because of the markup. No way to tell the true cost, that's a well-guarded secret. But don't forget it's not only development costs, there's advertising, shipping, taxes, middleman, administrative (Sony is a huge conglamerate with far-flung operations all over the world to pay for), and of course the retailer has to make some kind of profit. Typically if a product is close to the end of the cycle (around 6 months for most Sony products) they will give the retailer a break off the price if they agree to take tons of them off their hands.

Also Sony has "cachet" with consumers who (rightly or wrongly) perceive that it is a better product. As with most things, some are better, some are worse. Depends on what product you're talking about.
I went to Japan a few years back (Sony company sponsored trip) for training, and I saw quite a few factories, some out in the woods in Northern Japan (presumably lower labor costs there) and I can see where a lot of money goes. All kinds of specialized equipment for product testing, heat chambers, cold chambers, and on and on. So I think the development costs can be quite high to pay for all this, and I doubt they have a 90% markup from actual production costs on most things. 50%, maybe but not 90%. Maybe some mfgr's can do it cheaper, but Sony can't because they have too many fixed costs (and too many employees, though now - one less...). That's why the stock has dropped like a stone and they are going to lay off 20,000 workers to cut costs.

Another "dirty little secret" that the general public doesn't know: they have been virtually "living" off the PS2 sales for several years now, that was keeping them afloat. They made a fortune on them and it supported the other operations that were losing money. At the service center, all they saw were PS2's for repair, not much of other products. Out of 30 technicians, 25 were working on PS2 and the others on the rest of the products. Now the sales of the PS2 have peaked and they're in trouble. It was a one-horse show and that horse is tired. They have to come up with something new and they don't have anything on the horizon.
They're abandoning CRT based TV's and will concentrate on LCD sets in the next couple of years, so maybe that will prop up sales for a while. But between now and then, they have problems.

[gmatov]

Roundabout,

too many fixed costs (and too many employees, though now - one less...). That's why the stock has dropped like a stone and they are going to lay off 20,000 workers to cut costs.

I said the same thing, a time or 2, this place would fold without me.



I'm kiddin', it just fell into place, couldn't pass it up.

No, the mfg. doesn't sell it for 10 times the cost. Final price is 10 times the cost, all the middlemen, etc.

As for instance all the razors in that other post. Gilette, I think, test marketed them in several differnt parts of the country, 4 bucks this city, 5 buckss that city. Sold just as well in the 5 buck city, price was fixed at 5 bucks everywhere.

Same like drugs ( colloquialism, "like", not illiterate), 35 bucks a pill, "It costs billions to develop a new drug". Horse puckey. Investment repaid first year. But we like to think the new one will make us live forever, and the inurance company is paying anyhow, what the hell?

With us, early adopters pay the price. Best and fastest, firstest. Like my 2X-1X CD-RW and 3 buck disks, and I wasn't first, so never bought 10 and 20 buck disks. But, hey,they held almost our whole drive in thoe days, so they were worth it.

Just picked up my liteOn 411 dual burner couple hours ago, installed, having trouble with ATA card, on Pri IDE slaved to OS, drive. Went to Promise to see if card would see optical, will not. So, guess it's best to pull the CD burner.

Pisses me off a little.

Ah,well,

Cheers,

George

[MOVIEGEEK]

I think defense lives in that part of Florida...hmmm.

BTW..I hate shopping at WallyWorld:I have to take the shuttlebus because there aren't enough parking spaces,I can never find a salesperson and I have to wait 30min in line to checkout.

[Roundabout]

George,



I have to admit I take some pleasure in seeing Sony in trouble, esp. after the way I was treated. They had to shut down service centers coast to coast because they were so poorly run (they'd never listen to the advice of "lowly employees" on how to fix it anyway). Now they only have one center on the west coast and one on the east coast to fix Sony crap. The rest is fixed at ASC's (authorized service centers, i.e. Best Buy, Circuit City, etc) now. They are almost exclusively fixing PS2's at the Rancho Bernardo (CA) service center now. Some camcorders and a few other things - I say it's only a matter of time before everything is shipped across the border where labor is cheaper and having it repaired there and shipped back across the border.

That whole company is so screwed up now. Back in the good old days (1980's) they knew what they were doing, good management and happy employees. I know, the same story is everywhere now. No one is happy anymore in their jobs. But they took something that worked, and screwed with it until it didn't work anymore. Saw the same thing happen at other companies I worked at. Starts out great and goes downhill. I just happened to bail out of the Sony ship before it goes down competely.

As far as costs go, I remember a friend of mine a few years back that was a manager at McDonalds telling me that the burgers costs less than 5 cents each to make and are sold for 75 cents. Huge markup, because of labor costs and franchising costs. Wonder what things would look like if no one could charge more than their cost for a product? Would things be better or worse? Who knows? Guess we'll never find out.

Consumer Electronics in general is a bad area to work in. No future in it at all. Everything is throw away when it fails. Pretty soon PC's will be the same story. If it breaks, throw it away and buy a new one (like VCR's are now, who would thought that a few years ago?)

I want to get into some other line of work but don't know what. Mebbe real estate. Anything but tech work in CE field. 25 years of it is enough for me.