Panic ensues in rush for cheap laptops

CNN.com ^ | 8/16/2005

[Dawsonville_Doc]

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/16/computer.frenzy.ap/index.html

[Dawsonville_Doc]

A stampede for 4-year-old laptops...these morons are insane.

[AbeKrieger]

Look at the pictures and video from the incident. It's self-explanatory.

[AbeKrieger]

Look at the pictures and video from the incident. It's self-explanatory.

[xrp]

Stupid is as stupid does.

[Hadean]

I want to type something....but I've got nothing. I'm just...speechless.

[Phantom Lord]

This is mild compared to the Bridzilla's who go bonkers at those wedding dress clearence sales.

[Sax]

Have people come by to register and get a number - all week long.

At the end of the week draw 1000 numbers and only those people get to buy.

No stampede.

[Prime Choice]

A stampede for 4-year-old laptops...these morons are insane.

I dunno. Laptops are good to have, what with their built-in 2-hour UPS and all. During the California blackouts of 2000 through 2001, all of my mission critical systems were ported to laptops. While everyone else was cursing the outages, I was still getting stuff done.

Ever since that time, all of my DNS systems and hot backups have run on older laptops and they've been working great.

If these morons are to be called insane, let it be for their stampeding conduct; not their want of ridiculously low-priced hardware that's still useful today.

[KarlInOhio]

Or just put them up on Ebay and get a better price than $50.

[socialismisinsidious]

why is the school district selling laptops in the first place?
shouldn't they be using them and not wasting tax dollars...sure.


and yet the left can't see how communism would never work...if people do this for used laptops imagine what they would do in a bread line!

[Textide]

Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him.

"I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,"' the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

"They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just," he said.

Wow.

[Sax]

I guess they were trying to give the local community a break but mucked it up rather good.

Now let's see, what is the road to hell paved with...

[Dysart]

Here in the DFW area we recently had a grand opening of an Ikea store and people stood in line for days to ensure that they'd be among the first in. Traffic was rerouted to accommodate the throng, and there was persistent media coverage. It's pretty easy to whip the masses into a frenzy, really.

My instinct was the opposite of these ppl-- to steer clear of all that at any cost. Maybe I'm just different. LOL

[Riley]

My instinct was the opposite of these ppl-- to steer clear of all that at any cost. Maybe I'm just different. LOL

I have the same impulse. Crowds make me head the other way.

[Publius6961]

If these morons are to be called insane, let it be for their stampeding conduct; not their want of ridiculously low-priced hardware that's still useful today.

I agree

[Mannaggia l'America]

Or just put them up on Ebay and get a better price than $50.

That's where they are probably going to end up anyway.

[iceskater]

The county is switching to Dell - thus getting rid of the iBooks. The whole thing has been a fiasco from the beginning. And I mean, from the beginning to decide to buy the d@mn things from the beginning. As a taxpayer in this county, I am totally po'd.

[iceskater]

County regs and state law requires "open sales". It took an act of God to get them to limit purchasers to county residents only.

[Publius6961]

There's something about a mob mentality that simply escapes people not used to it.
Dealing with it is one thing though. Realizing that it could be a problem shouldn't be rocket science.
Haven't these people seen comedy movies depicting "sales"?

[Dawsonville_Doc]

I see your point, but I have a couple of my own-

A 4-year-old laptop will no longer have a 2 hour battery life. For $50 don't expect a new battery, either.

For DNS, DHCP, WINS, and the like, an old laptop has quite enough horsepower. For college use, or business use, or God forbid gaming, forget it.

The bigger stupidity was their behavior at the site, but I still think that expecting to get a well-usable laptop with 4-year-old hardware is something of a pipe dream.

Doc