Whether an unintended consequence of the push for over-consumption of the Chinese consumer or simply a man hitting his breaking point (as many Americans - we are sure - have considered in the last few weeks), 38-year-old Tao Hsiao lept to his death from a 7th story walkway in a Jiangsu mall after his girlfriend would not stop Christmas shopping. The 5-hour marathon 'consumption' ended badly after Tao's girlfriend said he was "spoiling Christmas," when he chided her that she "already had enough shoes...it was pointless buying more." He died on impact, and no one else was injured. It is unknown if his girlfriend continued shopping...
When his girlfriend insisted on prolonging their Christmas shopping marathon, 38-year-old Tao Hsiao leapt from a seventh-story walkway and killed himself in a Jiangsu shopping mall.
Tao and his girlfriend (whose name has not been released) had reportedly been in the Golden Eagle International Shopping Center, in Xuzhou, for some five hours before a rather routine relationship scuffle escalated drastically out of proportion.
[3]
Tao told his girlfriend that "she already had enough shoes, more shoes that she could wear in a lifetime and it was pointless buying any more," according to a witness [4]. Tao was then accused of "spoiling Christmas," and the shouting match likely would have continued had Tao not chosen that moment to hurl himself over the seventh-story balcony.
[5]
Tao fell through elaborate christmas decorations and crashed into a shopping stall on the mall's ground level, injuring no one but himself in the process. He died on impact.
It brings a whole new meaning to the term "shop til you drop"...but Tao's last words do ring horribly true in this age of over-consumption