A curiously increasing custom stateside is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional kick-off of the American Christmas holiday season. But whereas there is no Thanksgiving in Britain (because it celebrates British pilgrims who left the UK behind), the nation’s retailers are still trying to emulate the American way.
In an attempt to get one up on the competition, American shops have elected to open increasingly early with outrageous special deals to get people in the door. Pre-dawn openings are common at large department stores and people line up for hours (and more) to get in on limited deals.
This has also brought about rising tensions as people full of turkey from the day before with insufficient sleep jostle for position in the dark with strangers who are competitors and tend to be viewed as the enemy.
My first and only early morning Black Friday experience was in 2006 and it’s gotten worse since. We arrived at Wal-Mart in Anaheim early for the 5am opening. The line (queue) was in the hundreds and a police car was cruising around the parking lot (car park).
The doors opened and people surged in uncontrollably. I was immediately separated from my wife so proceeded to begin to look for the targeted items. While looking I stumbled into the display where a limited pile of new DVD units was rapidly being devoured. One big guy waded in, grabbed one with both hands, and then proceeded to growl loudly as he threw both elbows from side-to-side to get out of the melee.
I had our only cell (mobile) phone!
As the one more familiar with product locations my wife found the principal item first. Another terrified woman found her whilst pleading for help to get out. “Do you have a cell phone” my wife asked; “let me call my husband and I’ll get you out.” Mission accomplished and we all headed off into the dawn to catch up on lost sleep.
Far from becoming accustomed to dealing with this day in an orderly way retailers and shoppers alike are making things a lot worse. Best Buy decided that a 6pm opening on Thanksgiving Day, when many people are eating or recovering, was in order. The shoppers meanwhile are degenerating into a lower life-form.
Meanwhile Britain has decided to get in on the act. Despite the lack of a national holiday on Thursday with many people taking Friday off as well, UK retailers have launched their own sales resulting in similar results.
The reported problems occurred at Asda superstores. According to the ITV (Channel 3) website “TVs were reduced from £179 to £99 as part of Asda's special offers that were advertised throughout the UK. A woman was taken to hospital in west Belfast with a suspected broken arm after a stampede at a shopping centre over cut-price electrical goods. There were also chaotic scenes in an Asda store in Colindale, north London as shoppers fought to get their hands on discounted televisions.”
LBC radio host Iain Dale asked “London has adopted the American shopping day 'Black Friday'. …. Is the addition of this US tradition a good thing?” Apparently not! Britain went to great lengths to eliminate soccer hooliganism but is now flirting with its replacement.
Back in the States media commentator Michelle Malkin, on her website ‘Twitchy’, has collected some great online comments, pictures, Tweets etc. These are some of the best:
Blayne Miles – “Thanksgiving/Black Friday is like The Hunger Games, we had a big feast and now we're about to go in the stores and fight.”
Siena – “lol there was a fight at walmart over a toaster and the ambulance came I'm crying.”
Eric Zaworski (at WalMart) – “what kind of tactical riot gear do you recommend I bring to Walmart's Black Friday sale? It looks dangerous”
J_coogs18 – “fight broke out at walmart and the ambulance had to come”
There is also a You Tube video showing an arrest. Although I’ve never seen this happen it is exactly the kind of thing of scene that occurs every Black Friday.
America may be one of the most Christian countries in the world but it’s also still the wild-west. But with today’s global media market and social networking what happens today in Los Angeles can be the new rage in London tomorrow.
