Controlling Chaos from Planck's Constant

This photo was taken moments before the
Wal-Mart store opened.
Photo by: New York DailyNews

I started buying gold a few years before its meteoric rise in 1979-1980. In January of 1979 an ounce of gold was selling for about $230 per ounce, by late December it more than doubled to almost $520 per ounce. The next three weeks in January of 1980 it climbed to almost $860.

During those three weeks my jewelry store was one of the very few places in Northern New Jersey where someone could sell their gold, silver coins, pearls, and old jewelry. By the middle of 1980 there were hundreds of places buying gold. But during those first three weeks we had a line going around for a hundred feet or more of customers waiting to sell us their gold. It was not unlike Black Friday at Wal-Mart or Best Buy.

Lines of people have a life of their own. If the line is not controlled and managed it could turn on the retailer like an angry snake. Aside from armed guards inside the store to maintain order, we had a line-control person who would hand out bakery-style slips with numbers on them. In this way no one had to worry about line jumpers or losing their place in line if they had to use the toilet for example, or to get a cup of coffee.

We used off-duty local cops for security. We would give the one nearest the door a slip with a range of numbers and the cop would open the door and call out: "Numbers 37 through 42 - come on in." Aside from a number, the slip also had a notice that rest rooms were available, and coffee, too if they wanted some. Anyone who needed to avail themselves of the coffee or the rest room could come up to the door and tell the officer what they wanted and they would be let in. Of course, they would not be able to jump the line since everyone was served in the order determined by the slips. In this manner, we never had any problems with pushing or shoving as other places experienced.

Wal-Mart has tons more money and experience than I do, so it was with a little surprise that I heard on the radio of that poor fellow who was trampled to death in a Black Friday stampede at a Long Island Wal-Mart. Here is the video. How stupid can a business be to allow a mob to grow uncontrolled outside its doors? I foresaw problems back in 1980 with my small business, how did Wal-Mart miss this?

Especially with a crowd of not-so-old, less-than-middle-class blacks. Anybody who has had my extensive experience with lower income black people knows that one can hardly find a group more rude and discourteous. It very well may be that better educated blacks experience less prejudice than the others and so are not as angry at white people, but my limited experience with thousands of lower income blacks is that they are insufferably poorly educated in manners and almost all of them have an attitude toward whites that can only be described as naked hatred. Nothing personal mind you and please save the silly comments that I have no black friends (untrue) or that I am a racist (also untrue). It happens that I am so comfortable with my non-prejudice that I can make these statements. I am sure I have more black friends, very close friends, than most white people. I do not make the statements to hurt anyone's feelings, or to spread hatred, it is merely a business observation of mine, nothing else.

Liberals who only know poor black people from books will want to make some remarks that not all poor blacks have an attitude or are rude. I do not live in books, I live in the real world and meet an unusually large number of people in my business. I see no point in being politically correct when that can be dangerous. If you have a business that deals with lower income blacks - manage the crowd or someone will be killed. It very well could be that political correctness kept Wal-Mart from doing the right thing, as Spike Lee likes to say. And please read exactly what I have written - I do not write all blacks are rude, only those who I have met in my experience - your experience may be different.

This has been a post in my series Stupid Businesses