Aspiring Jedi in the United Kingdom are out of luck this holiday season (assuming that Jedi have an analogue to Christmas), as the Woolworth’s retail chain, still a going concern over there, has restricted light sabers for purchase by adults only. The store’s fear? The Star Wars themed toys might be mistaken for firearms.
“A toy” “An automatic pistol”
While even firearms opponents in the UK concede this decision is over the top, is it more appropriate to blame retailers, who may suffer liability in the event that a child was, I don’t know, injured because some fool mistook a light saber for a real firearm, or the activists and Labour government who have created laws that make such liability a real worry? After all, the chain, like most merchants, presumably weighed its own risks, and found profits from sale of toy light sabers wanting in the balance.
You’re on your own, kid.
16 Comments
who could be that stupid??!!
remember kids greedo shot first !
That’s a SEMI-automatic pistol, please label it correctly.
The trial lawyer industry and its corrupt, enabling judiciary:
The Grinch that steals the joy of each and every Christmas.
And the 364 days in between.
Neither lawyers nor the law is to blame here: It’s idiot in store management. A comparable analogy would be a grocery store who refuses to sell flour because it could be mistaken for cocaine.
Good to know idiocy lurks overseas and isn’t just confined to our country.
Justinian, you in business? Doubtful. The retailer has to weigh the risk v. reward. Remember, they do want to make a profit and they are motivated to sell the item. They obviously ran the numbers and decided one lawsuit would wipe out all potential profits and reluctantly decided to restrict the sales. In the name of ‘progress’ we have regressed. All business (that which makes it possible to have the standard of living we do) is satan – all citizens are victims.
A real Jedi makes his own lightsaber.
[…] in guest-blogging at Overlawyered, alerts us that aWoolworth’s in the UK will only sell toy lightsabers to adults, as they might be […]
Matt –
Revisionist! Han shot first! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_shot_first ;^)
Best. Blog post title. Ever.
“Woolworth’s retail chain, still a going concern over there,”
Not for much longer
LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Woolworths, a bastion of the British high street that sold everything from sweets to toasters, will close by Jan. 5 with the loss of 27,000 jobs unless a last-minute buyer can be found.
It would be the first big name business in the UK to fail since the economy soured. Several banks have suffered but those have been rescued by the government or bought out by rivals.
Deloitte, administrator to the 99-year-old retailer, said it plans to close all of Woolworth’s 807 stores by the first Monday in January if no sale of the business is agreed by then.
May the “farce” be with you.
L.Nettles, as long as it isn’t Spar (the best small chain grocery in which I’ve ever shopped), or Tesco (the best big box chain in which I’ve ever shopped), I can live with it.
Woolworths, even if the UK version gets no bailout, will live in history. I walked by the sit-in location last Wednesday. It’s now a museum, as well it should be.
1. As noted above, that is a SEMI-automatic pistol. Glock does make an automatic pistol, the Glock 18, but that ain’t it.
2. There is virtually no chance of a lawsuit succeeding against the toy store for selling a light sabre to a child under current English law. This is a move by management to get public sympathy for a bailout of the chain.
Thank you for the comment Mr. Sanai. Regarding my pistol blunder, it seemed like such a piddling complaint, and one so irrelevant to the thrust of the post, that I’ve elected to leave the mistake up as a monument to my folly.
Speaking of folly, how goes your war against Judge Kozinski?
Good grief! A short post by Cyrus Sanai!
Will Christmas miracles never cease? 🙂
[…] including Eric Turkewitz and Bill Poser. I got to meet famous weirdos like the man who has declared war on Judge Alex Kozinski. It was a great […]