Shopping is getting dangerous in America. Okay. So. “How do you know?” you might well ask.

1) Mark Andrew, a much-beloved prominent figure in the Democratic Farm Labor Party and runner-up in the weighted election for Mayor of Minneapolis, was beaten at the Mall of America after chasing down the young man who had just stolen his iPhone. – Minneapolis Star Tribune, Dec. 28, 2013. Click HERE for the story.

2) An old college classmate wrote today on a popular social media venue that ends in ‘k’ that she stopped in at the local Walmart because she knew they would have the plastic product she wanted. A fight broke out in the Walmart among four people – two guys and two women – yelling and going after each other while store’s employees tried to break it up. She was afraid someone was going to pull out a gun when someone yelled “Police!” and the culprits ran for the exits. – Dec. 28, 2013.

Responding to my friend’s Walmart shopping experience on a popular social media site, her friends all but mugged her in cyberspace for shopping at WalMart, which, by the way, is pretty much against my friend’s own principles.

Conclusions

1) It’s gettin’ ugly out there at WalMart and the Mall of America. We want stuff. We want it fast and cheap, even at others’ expense. As if that weren’t enough, sometimes the fights break out on our own computer screens about who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.

2) Shopping is bad for our health. Next time I shop some place that violates my conscience or someone else’s and a fight breaks out, I’m not posting it on the social media site that ends in ‘k’. Besides, I’m a coward; the next time someone steals my out-of-date cell phone, they can have it. I’m leaving the Mall and WalMart for the locally-owned shops, if only I can find one.