You may spend most of your time at work, or home, but if you’re like most people, you go shopping at least once a week, if not several times a week. Here in Schenectady, locals frequently shop at Walmart Grocery, Price Rite of Schenectady, Hannaford Supermarket, Target, The Home Depot, and Lowe’s Home Improvement.
While shoppers may be on the lookout for spills and wet floors, especially during the rainy season or when it’s snowing outside, they aren’t usually expecting merchandise to fall over and put them in danger, however, it does happen at retail stores large and small, and when it does, it can be dangerous for the customer who was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Why Does Merchandise Fall?
Let’s face it, stores can be chaotic places, especially during the holidays. Not only do you have employees stocking, cleaning, and helping customers, but there can be hundreds of customers in a store on any given day. Things happen. Accidents happen.
It’s not unusual for merchandise to be stocked too high, or for a customer or an employee to accidentally knock merchandise over, and thanks to gravity, it only has one way to go and that is down. All too often, it’s a customer who breaks a large object’s fall.
“When Gregory Real, a deep sea diver who until three years ago fished sea urchins off the coast of southern California, set out to buy a wastebasket at the local Wal-Mart back in 1997, he didn’t know it would change his life.
“As he reached for the container, the pile stacked high on a shelf came tumbling down on his head, dislocating one of his spinal discs. Ever since, he’s suffered with recurring headaches and disorientation, forcing him out of work and ending his diving career, he says.
“Real’s case is not a freak accident, according to lawyers who are taking more and more cases like his. Injuries, and even deaths, from falling merchandise are becoming increasingly common, with thousands of people hurt or killed while shopping since giant warehouse stores began popping up throughout suburban America in the late 1980s and early ’90s,” wrote Maria F. Durand for ABCNews.com.
If you were struck by falling merchandise at a store, you’re not alone and we’d like to help.
Next: Elements of a Personal Injury Case
Were you injured by falling merchandise at a retail store in Schenectady or Saratoga Springs? If so, contact our firm to file a claim for compensation!