Attention, Shoppers: Where's Your Humanity?

That sounds so sensitive. It's what you say, right?

"Nothing is more important to us than providing a safe and secure shopping environment for our customers and associates," Mullany said after Damour's death.

Nothing except the opportunity to rake in more sales, that is.

The company was so concerned, it reopened the store by early afternoon.

A corporation that was thinking about its workers and that man's family, and not just about its bottom line, would have closed the store at least for the rest of the day.

Oh, but I must not forget. Bargain shopping can't be stopped, even by a tragic death in your store's aisle.

No time to mourn. They've got to make that money from fools shopping for things they don't need.

What about the employees who had to stay on the job, knowing someone they had worked with had died? What about those who were nearly run over themselves?

What am I thinking? It's not the capitalist way to allow people time to reflect on what just happened to a co-worker. Sales must go on. Shoppers have to their items rung up. Bargains must be had.

It's not as if Wal-Mart is one of the retailers gasping for financial air. Despite a severe retail slump, it isn't suffering.

For the third quarter of its fiscal year, Wal-Mart Stores reported profit that exceeded expectations. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company said it had profit, including a gain from discontinued operations, of $3.14 billion, up 10 percent from $2.86 billion in the previous year.

The company's same-store sales in the third quarter rose 3 percent, compared with a 1.5 percent gain for the same period a year earlier. Net sales increased 7.5 percent to $97.6 billion.