Tomorrow is Black Friday over here. Some of you might find this interesting. It shows how despicably people can behave when they think that they are getting something cheaper. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and is regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. By its very nature (shops sell almost everything at discount rates), its the busiest shopping day of the year, and the most disgusting! For many years, retailers opened their doors at 6 am, but in the late 2000s, many started to open at 5 or 4 in the morning. In 2011, some retailers (including Target, Kohls, Macys, Best Buy and Bealls) opened at midnight. And in 2012, Wal-Mart and several other retailers decided to open 8 pm on Thanksgiving (the day before) except in states where opening on Thanksgiving is prohibited. Black Friday shopping is known for attracting aggressive crowds with reports of assaults, shootings and throngs of people trampling on other shoppers in an attempt to get the best deal on a product before supplies run out. In 2008, two people were shot dead during an altercation at a Toys r Us store in Palm Desert, California. In 2010, a woman from Wisconsin was arrested outside a Toys R Us store after jumping the queue and threatening to shoot other shoppers who tried to object. In 2011, a woman at Wal-Mart (the company that owns Asda) in California used pepper spray on fellow shoppers injuring at least 10 people who had been waiting hours for Black Friday savings. In 2008, a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York (about 10 minutes from where I currently live), waited outside for the 5 am opening of the local Wal-Mart. As opening time approached, the crowd grew anxious, and when the doors were opened, the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, and trampling a 34-year-old employee to death. The shoppers did not appear concerned with the victims fate and refused to halt their stampede when other employees attempted to intervene and help the injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and were not willing to wait any longer. Shoppers had begun assembling as early as 9 oclock the previous night. Even when police arrived and attempted to help the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store. On Black Friday last year, two people were shot outside a Wal-Mart in Tallahassee, Florida during a dispute over a parking space. (The above was adapted from Wikipedia) The ironical thing is that most of the items sold at discount on Black Friday can be bought even cheaper online all year round ;) Needless to say, I stay away from shops on Black Friday.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 02:00:28 +0000
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