Spocko on something I was hinting at over the weekend:
So how about, in the name of public safety, we flip this? New Rule: If you plan a DOORBUSTER STUNT you need to put up a $10,000,000 bond to cover the costs to the community and to cover the injuries and deaths of the people.
Lets go to cities and get them to pass laws, “Doorbuster stunts will cost ten million dollars for each store, payable in advance. If nobody is injured or dies the store gets part of it back.” Suddenly the cost effectiveness of this media stunt goes away and they will need to figure out a different way to get press and sell crap.
“But Spocko!” I hear you cry, “The Chamber of Commerce thugs will wail! This is a tax on business!” Well sure, but the companies don’t have to pay it if they don’t do one. Plus, if they do, the communities can get back some of the revenue their city fathers gave away with all those tax breaks they gave them. Money that didn’t go back into the community, but to the richest people in the world.
Concert venues, both indoors and out, have capacity requirements to abide by and security levels to maintain. These things don’t prevent every incident, but they do make it clear to event planners that they are responsible for what happens. The stores that run these shitshows are usually the ones wealthy enough to pony up without a thought, so let’s make them.
Does your town have such requirements, or laws governing store opening hours at all? I’d like to get a list going of who does.
A.
What a great idea.
Local governments could decide, forex, that you could NOT be open on certain days.
We used to have, here in Texas, something called a “blue law” that meant you either had to be closed one day out of seven or you had to rope off parts of the store on Sundays. Now we’ve gone wet and eliminated the blue laws, so you can get an innertube patch kit and shoestrings on Sundays or buy beer at the 7-Eleven / grocery store / MegaMart.
I’m not entirely convinced all progress is forward.
I’d like to see certain holidays become actual, you know, *paid days off* for 24-hour periods for workers.
Thanksgiving comes to mind. Also New Year’s Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and the actual *birthdays* of certain presidents — Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Kennedy, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Carter, to start with — no government business done that day. No non-emergency / essential-personnel staffing at any private sector business. Shut Wal-Mart’s doors 24 hours once a month. The world will *not* end if you do this …
and yes, I like the idea of a “Doorbuster” bond. Except I think it should be $20,000,000 per outlet per *day* of the fricken sales.
Last week, or the week before, I posted some links elsewhere related to WKRP’s wonderful run back in the 70’s because that’s what People of a Certain Age do during Thanksgiving. Not long after th “Turkeys Away” episode in 1978, folks in the real world read in horror that a concert in Cinncinatti by The Who killed 11 people in a stampede for better seats after hundreds stood in the freezing cold. WKRP aired “In Concert” the following season in reaction.
Most of my friends and family didn’t get why I thought “In Concert”, WKRP’s response to that tragedy was more appropriate for this time of the year.. Such a downer!
Start demanding public businesses put up security deposits and bonds when they stage ‘events’ that have the potential to generate riots or stampedes. Include camping out for tickets, especially when the weather makes exposure death and injuries likely.