By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The death of a Long Island Wal-Mart employee crushed by Black Friday shoppers has raised legitimate questions about Americans and our shopping mania.

Among them:

-- Have stores gone too far in trying to convince shoppers to arrive in throngs in early morning hours the day after Thanksgiving?

For example, the Long Island store where Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death promoted a "blitz" line for shoppers, borrowing from the football terminology for a defensive rush at the quarterback.

-- What kinds of people rush over a man, then keep coming and stepping on him -- and then callously go about shopping?

Some people unnerved by Friday's events said Black Friday savings weren't worth a man's life. Others said the people who caused the death "acted like animals." See a good video on the incident here.

-- Have Americans gone overboard in their desperation to save a few dollars, or to get a product a full month before Christmas?

-- How should stores best handle the large crowds that gather, especially for Black Friday events?

Best Buy stores and some others have handed out numbers to shoppers while they are still in line, giving them first crack at good buys. That policy would tend to make crowds more orderly.

-- -- Was the Wal-Mart death preventable?

Unions that have been critical of the country's largest retailer say the answer is clearly yes. Bruce Both, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 in New York, asked: "Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner?"