Black Friday is a great opportunity to save cash on Christmas shopping and generally embrace the retail experience. But when things go a little too far, people can get hurt.
You only have to listen to some of the incredible anecdotes from real shoppers to understand just how seriously people take their Black Friday shopping excursions. Here are seven stories that prove this is one of the craziest days of the year.
1. Mistaken identity
According to a shopper in America, he was waiting in line for a store to open when the guy next to him began to get angry at a queue-hopper. Incensed at this behaviour, the guy squared up to the offender and punched him in the face. However, the “queue-hopper” was in fact a security guard who was getting ready to open the store.
2. A near-death experience
Statistically, Wal-Mart is the most dangerous store in America on Black Friday. One year, a few dozen people got into a wrestling match over some cut-priced TVs. A woman was knocked to the floor, and the pen she was carrying ended up in her neck — perilously close to her jugular vein. Of course, undeterred by this medical emergency, shoppers simply stepped over the bleeding woman to get to their bargains.
3. Call of Duty
We’re in Wal-Mart again, and this next anecdote demonstrates just how hard Black Friday can be for retail workers. Wal-Mart is generally open 24 hours, so staff are forced to stock shelves in front of rabid customers. A terrified shop assistant was filling a display with copies of the video game Call of Duty when an over-zealous customer spotted him. The customer dived over other shoppers to get one of the cut-price games, but ended up falling to the display — sending the games flying. Of course, dozens of shoppers were soon crawling on the floor in an attempt to get their hands on one.
4. Trespassing
One store worker took to Reddit to talk about his experience with maniacal Black Friday shoppers. The young shop assistant was working in a toy store, and he and his colleagues simply couldn’t get merchandise onto the shop floor quickly enough. A couple of enthusiastic customers spotted the goods coming from the warehouse, so they took it upon themselves to trespass into a staff-only area in order to unpack the toys themselves.
5. On your bike
Once again, we’re in Wal-Mart for one of the funniest Black Friday anecdotes you’ll ever hear. A hugely discounted bike went on sale, and quickly attracted dozens of people. A fight broke out between customers trying to grab one of the bikes, and things got pretty nasty. A guy right in the middle of the nastiness managed to make his escape by riding one of the bikes out of the store. He was so desperate to get away, he rode off without paying.
6. Praying for heavenly intervention
Emmay Friedenson talked about a truly surreal Black Friday experience when she was working at a cash register in a supermarket. She said that there were close to 200 people waiting in line to pay when a women pushed two shopping carts full of toys right to the front. The woman insisted that she be served immediately, as she was buying toys for her local Church group. Of course, Emmay told the woman to wait like everyone else. This prompted the Church-going shopper to drop to her knees, and pray at full volume for Jesus to strike down the over-zealous shop assistant for “blocking the path of a Christian soldier”.
7. It’s an emergency
One serious Black Friday bargain-hunter insisted that a store manager remove some of the less affluent shoppers so she could peruse the sales in peace. When the request was met with a big fat “no”, the woman disappeared. A few minutes later, the fire alarm went off, and everyone evacuated — except the woman who’d made the earlier request. She was found calmly perusing the bargains in peace… exactly what she’d asked for earlier. Sadly for her, the police weren’t too impressed with her shopping tactics.
Black Friday brings out the worst and best of people. If you want to avoid scenes like these, it’s probably best to do your bargain-hunting online this year.
