By Heather L. Lawton
DVD players eclipsed VCRs, CD players edged out Walkmans, and while two retail rivals carried each wistful gadget, one store knocked K-Mart into the department of the dead, where Eckerd’s Drugs, Kress & Co., and Woolworth either followed or waited for their five-and-dime friends. Consumers forgot about their “Blue-Light-Special” pal and played hooky with their new “Rollback” bestie. Kmart Christmas layaways, school supplies, and Halloween treats are Gen Xer’s nostalgia. Although both chains share the same birth year, one beat its rival in sales in 1991.
Since its dominance, the retailer with the “friendly” greeters at the door has seen economic and reputational highs and lows. Its customers have been beaten. Its break rooms witnessed shootings, and so have its public shopping areas. Its cameras captured sketchy police activity that may not have been dubbed “crimes of the century,” but checkout-line chatter about racial motivations turned into viral moments.
The Walmart takeover has delivered more than big corporate dollars. The stores inadvertently stack their provocative weight onto already heavy headlines filled with socially uncomfortable and outright violent moments.
The latest involves a woman who didn’t know that stacking Walmart shelves would be the last job duty she performed.
People.com is reporting that Dakota Norwood, 21, is dead after being shot multiple times while stacking shelves on her job at Walmart.
Court filings obtained by People say surveillance footage then reveal what appeared to be a fire erupting from the front of Norwood’s upper body.
Cameras show Dorian Kevon Robertson following Norwood in the store as she stacked the shelves, but she appeared to ignore him.
The reports say moments later Norwood “aggressively” confronts Robertson, and soon, an altercation involving punching began.
Later, People reports, a handgun was seen falling from Robertson’s body, and he eventually picked it up and shot her. Norwood was pronounced dead at the scene.
Robertson was charged with murder and remains in custody, according to People.
