Stampedes, screaming and gun threats: US holiday shopping sours

Auspm

Auspm

New Member
Stampedes, screaming and gun threats: US holiday shopping sours

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O6IMYSSs7c[/youtube]

There's a stampede, then shrill screams, cries of "get off me" and "stop it", before the crowd surges and women, men and teenagers are crushed as they desperately lunge at packages from crates.

It sounds like something you might see amid a humanitarian crisis, a war or in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

I've been in the retail business six years now, and I've never see a Black Friday this bad.
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But these were frenzied shoppers in the United States, joining the rush for bargains on the annual "Black Friday" shopping holiday.

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Black Friday starts the end-of-year holiday shopping season that often tips retailers out of the red and into the black for the year.

Television images and YouTube clips showed berserk buyers charging through doors as stores opened on the Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Some competitive shoppers lost their cool as they tussled over items or staked out their spots in lines.

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According to the San Antonio Express website, one man pulled a gun on another who had punched him in the face while the two were waiting in line outside a Sears store late Thursday.

Shopper Lawrence Corpus filmed a fight at a lingerie sale that started between two women and spread to three men at a shopping centre outside Sacramento, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Fox 40 reported that the fight apparently started over a sale at a Victoria's Secret shop.

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Jessica Wilbourn, from Victoria's Secret, said customers pushed and shoved each other, climbed on the "panty bar", and threw clothes and boxes.

"I've been in the retail business six years now, and I've never see a Black Friday this bad."

In Woodland Mall, Grand Rapids, Michigan, two teenagers were arrested early on Friday morning, Fox 17 reported.

Police used pepper spray on some out-of-control shoppers in what was described as a "chaotic scene".

The New York Post reported a man was arrested after leaving his girlfriend's two-year-old son in a car while he went shopping for a flat screen TV in Springfield, Massachusetts.

A video uploaded to YouTube captured shoppers fighting over a crate of mobile phones at Walmart in Moultrie, Georgia.

It quickly became an online hit after being posted on news websites around the US, with 1.9 million views on Monday morning.

Perhaps anticipating the chaos, many shoppers preferred to buy online even ahead of the next nationwide shopping event, Cyber Monday.

Reuters reported Black Friday online sales topped $US1 billion for the first time, according to digital analytics company comScore Inc.

IBM said online sales rose 16.9 per cent year-on-year on Saturday.

Some bricks-and-mortar stores opened at midnight, while others such as retailers Walmart and Target jumped the gun, opening on Thanksgiving night and carving into the family-centred holiday.

But the day's impact on balance sheets is starting to wane, as more stores try to reel-in customers on Thursday, even if it means that their employees have to forego the traditional Thanksgiving feast.

A decade ago, it would have been impossible to find a single store open on Thanksgiving along New York's big shopping arteries such as Broadway.

But on Thursday, as for the past several years, nearly all the stores were open where Broadway traverses the SoHo neighbourhood of lower Manhattan.

Walmart, the world's biggest retailer, said it had its "best ever" Black Friday, with larger crowds than last year.

Meanwhile, disgruntled Walmart workers mounted strikes and protests across the country seeking better pay and benefits.

"There is going to be an impact," employee William Fletcher told MSNBC. "The point isn't so much to hurt Walmart as much as it is to get them to listen to us and appreciate the work we do."

The next in a series of days that stores are counting on to jumpstart the holiday shopping season is Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday was created in 2005 by a shopping trade group that noticed online sales spiked on the Monday following Thanksgiving.

It's estimated that this year's event will be the biggest online shopping day of the year for the third year in a row.

According to comScore, Americans are expected to spend $1.5 billion, up 20 per cent from last year on Cyber Monday, as retailers have ramped up their deals to get shoppers to click on their websites.

Amazon.com, which is starting its Cyber Monday deals at midnight on Monday, is offering as much as 60 per cent off a Panasonic VIERA 55-inch TV that's usually priced higher than $1000 ($956). Sears is offering $430 ($411) off a Maytag washer and dryer, each on sale for $399 ($381). And Kmart is offering 75 per cent off all of its diamond earrings and $60 ($57) off a 12-in-1 multigame table, on sale for $89.99 ($86).
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/stamped...pping-sours-20121126-2a272.html#ixzz2DIF7YBOp
 
Just my quick 2 cents - the above clip symbolises for me everything wrong with our consumerist society and where it's ultimately headed.
 
I remember when they had the crush at the Myer stores in Melbourne and someone was killed - I'm pretty sure the new year sales have been toned right down since then.

malachii
 
Sounds like some of the more full-on mosh pits I've been in (came out of one needing 6 stitches in my back). Difference is your ears aren't still ringing three days later (but your bank account has been depleted).
 
Boxing Day Sales have been going on for as long as I can remember. I have a 100yo great Aunt who used to line up at 5.00am every year to get a bargain and be at the front of the frenzied crowd. This is back in the 1950's Im talking.

The difference is that most of the bargains were essentials like fridges, washing machines and clothes. Not I-things and the latest playstation must-haves.
 
Auspm said:
Just my quick 2 cents - the above clip symbolises for me everything wrong with our consumerist society and where it's ultimately headed.
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Imagine how pleased the retailers must be...

"Wow, we've managed to create an event where people physically fight each other for the privilege of buying stuff from us!"

Pulling a gun on someone to steal their phone I can understand. Pulling a gun on someone so you can then take the phone to the cashier and pay for it?

We have well and truly entered Bizarre-O Land.
 
Big A.D. said:
Auspm said:
Just my quick 2 cents - the above clip symbolises for me everything wrong with our consumerist society and where it's ultimately headed.
Click to expand...

Imagine how pleased the retailers must be...

"Wow, we've managed to create an event where people physically fight each other for the privilege of buying stuff from us!"

Pulling a gun on someone to steal their phone I can understand. Pulling a gun on someone so you can then take the phone to the cashier and pay for it?

We have well and truly entered Bizarre-O Land.
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But they don't realise it's not actually good for the economy anyway.

Peter covered it pretty well I think :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WATn7PMOTLo[/youtube]
 
Eureka Moments said:
Boxing Day Sales have been going on for as long as I can remember. I have a 100yo great Aunt who used to line up at 5.00am every year to get a bargain and be at the front of the frenzied crowd. This is back in the 1950's Im talking.

The difference is that most of the bargains were essentials like fridges, washing machines and clothes. Not I-things and the latest playstation must-haves.
Click to expand...

Not quite. The sales didn't used to actually be on Boxing Day, they were on the day after. Still a normal trading day.

Thankfully I've moved well on from it but I worked for a major retailer at the time they trialed the Sale to actually be on Boxing Day in the Sydney CBD rather than 27th December. They asked for volunteer staff as it was recognised that it was a proper holiday. And as retail staff it was a blessing to get 2 days off after the slog of working December, before the worst day of the year to work: The Day after Boxing Day.

We all said amongst ourselves we thought no one would turn up, surely being at home with your family on a holiday was preferable to fighting through a crowd. It was preferable to us! Of course management were right and the low-rung staff were wrong, it was a hit and the next year the actual Boxing Day opening spread to Bondi Junction and Parrmatta.

To illustrate how stupid and fickle people can be, I remember watching the news on that second year of Boxing Day opening and they played a couple of girls who said "Yeah it's a family tradition, to come here on Boxing Day" I remember saying at the TV: No its' not, this is only the 2nd year you can do it!

Fast forward 10 years, everything is open Boxing Day, nothing is special, forget relaxing with your family, come to the city and be squeezed into a building that would be a firetrap with the amount of sale zombies crammed inside.

I was glad to finish my studies and leave retail. They were always pushing. Pushing later Saturday closing and earlier Sunday opening. Pushing longer and longer holiday trading. Eventually it was all about pushing credit cards on people who just want to buy a set of undies. I was glad to leave.

It's only been about 10 years. And we think of 364 day trading as the norm now. It'll be 365 before long.
 
My family sold petrol for 30 years.

Started around 1970. In those days the station and workshop would be open from 7am to 7pm Mon-Fri, 8am-4pm Sat and 8-midday Sun. Many servos didnt open at all on Sundays.

Xmas day and most other public holidays we closed. Xmas day trading was actually illegal for several years, but we would open for a couple of hours so people had a chance to get some fuel.

In the 80's and 90's we used to open at 6.00am Xmas day and trade until lunchtime. People would be banging on the windows to start the pumps for them while we were trying to close down and pack up. One day a nice person said "You are ruining my families Xmas Day!" as I was leaving to go home for late lunch (already missed lunch and all waiting for "Santa" to arrive) with my clan. I said "How about my Family? Am I not entitled to spend some of my Xmas Day with them?"

If you want to see shopping pandamonium, go to a Service Station/Convenience Store on Xmas Day when the supermarkets are shut. Sell more Energisers in one day than the rest of the year combined and every grocery item youve got that everyone else forgets to buy already....like bread and milk and cream....and petrol. :rolleyes:
 
wait until its food they are scrambling over each other for, that is when total chaos will shine.
 
Eureka Moments said:
My family sold petrol for 30 years.

Started around 1970. In those days the station and workshop would be open from 7am to 7pm Mon-Fri, 8am-4pm Sat and 8-midday Sun. Many servos didnt open at all on Sundays.

Xmas day and most other public holidays we closed. Xmas day trading was actually illegal for several years, but we would open for a couple of hours so people had a chance to get some fuel.

In the 80's and 90's we used to open at 6.00am Xmas day and trade until lunchtime. People would be banging on the windows to start the pumps for them while we were trying to close down and pack up. One day a nice person said "You are ruining my families Xmas Day!" as I was leaving to go home for late lunch (already missed lunch and all waiting for "Santa" to arrive) with my clan. I said "How about my Family? Am I not entitled to spend some of my Xmas Day with them?"

If you want to see shopping pandamonium, go to a Service Station/Convenience Store on Xmas Day when the supermarkets are shut. Sell more Energisers in one day than the rest of the year combined and every grocery item youve got that everyone else forgets to buy already....like bread and milk and cream....and petrol. :rolleyes:
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Thats a whole other industry in terms of customer demands. Christmas Day trading must have made you feel terrible. Amazing people can't just get petrol/bread/chocolate on Christmas Eve. Not like you're strapped for cash and get paid on Christmas is it?
 
Wormhole said:
wait until its food they are scrambling over each other for, that is when total chaos will shine.
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Lo que separa la civilizacin de la anarqua son solo siete comidas
 
Very true, society has a very fine veneer. Things can get real pretty quick given a desperate situation (Like half price iPhones and 2 for 1 oven mitts).
 
I bet if they had the right to bear limbs that aren't legs this sort of thing would never happen. :rolleyes:

Isn't that how the argument goes?
 
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