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Woah! You Americans really take your shopping seriously huh?

From BBC.co.uk:

The start of the US holiday shopping season was marred by shootings and pepper-sprayings as bargain-hunters stampeded stores.

The violence gave a whole new meaning to Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when many retailers move out of the red and into the black.

The incidents, including at least two robberies, mostly took place at branches of the store chain Walmart.

Half of the entire US population is expected to hit the shops this weekend.

Many stores had crowds rushing in as they opened at midnight - several hours earlier than they usually do - on the busiest shopping day of the year.

Gunfire
The openings were mostly peaceful, but there were ugly scenes in some places as crowds competed for goods.

One of the most dramatic incidents happened in a Walmart store in Los Angeles, where police are using CCTV footage to hunt for a woman who used pepper spray on crowds competing for Xbox 360s.

"They [staff] were opening a package to try to get some Xboxes from a crate and this lady pepper-sprayed a whole bunch of people in order to gain an advantage over the Xboxes," a local police sergeant said.

In the most violent incident, a man is in a stable but critical condition in hospital after being shot in the early hours as he left a Walmart with a group of people in San Leandro, California, when they resisted two armed robbers who demanded their purchases

Elsewhere:

A man was reportedly detained for resisting arrest after a fight at the jewellery counter in the early hours at a Walmart in Kissimmee, Florida
Police are looking for two suspects after gunfire erupted early on Friday at a shopping centre in Fayetteville, North Carolina; there were no reports of injuries
Security workers reportedly used pepper spray on shoppers who began grabbing at goods before they were unloaded from pallets at a Walmart in Kinston, North Carolina
A woman was shot in the foot by a robber as she loaded her purchases into her car in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; the gunman fled as one of the victim's companions brandished a revolver and fired warning shots
Bargain-hunters were lured by an array of so-called "door-buster" deals of up to 70% off on big-screen televisions, video games and toys.

Analysts said that with the best deals focussed on must-have electronic items, demand - and competition - was strong and tensions were to be expected.

"The more the people, the more the occurrences," Marshal Cohen of market research firm The NPD Group told the Associated Press.

It's really fething stupid.

The stories you're reading are the exception to the norm, but it's gotten out of hand.

I would welcome sterilization to people with IQ's below a minimum threshold to curb some of this gak from spreading each year.

Oh, I didn't think it's the norm, but still....

Oh it's nuts, the sad thing is that that's considered a safe year. People have been trampled to death before.

yea, I bought some battlefoam in my underpants this morning from my computer.

Good black friday for me

I don't see how it gave new meaning to it considering stupid stuff happens like this almost every Black Friday. There are a ton of people out, tensions are running high, and they are all packed together competing for a few items. It is a recipe for idiotic and criminal shenanigans.

Where are the tramplings?! It is not a good year until there are at least 10 tramplings.

Also, I like the use of pepper spray. She wins Black Friday.

Similar things happen in the UK.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article102699.ece

It just seems more like a tradition in the USA.

I was going to ask why the hell that lady took pepper spray with her....but Ahtman very kindly answered my question.

If this sort of gak happens every year, by 2014, peeps will be out shopping in full body armour and stab vests will become the norm every Black Friday..

sarpedons-right-hand wrote:I was going to ask why the hell that lady took pepper spray with her....but Ahtman very kindly answered my question.

If this sort of gak happens every year, by 2014, peeps will be out shopping in full body armour and stab vests will become the norm every Black Friday..

freaking post-apocalyptic style urban warfare on black friday, with store owners flying around like carrion birds in helicopters, rubbing their hands greedily as people fight to suckle at their proverbial teat.

I was forced into a mall to fix a cash register in a purse store of all places on Black Friday a couple years ago, and I get very anxious in crowds.

After a 2 hour drive that should have taken 30 minutes, parking in almost the farthest parking spot from the store the mall has to offer, being jostled and elbowed countless times inside the mall, and having at least 20 women ask me to ring them up while I'm trying to figure out whats wrong with the register (mind you I had on a dirty work shirt, tool belt, and a weeks worth of stubble and a tore apart register in front of me just like you would expect ANY employee of a purse store to look) It took all my limited patience to not start shouting obscenities and planting random tools into random peoples necks.

I can easily understand how on Black Friday people get violent.

Ahtman wrote:I don't see how it gave new meaning to it considering stupid stuff happens like this almost every Black Friday. There are a ton of people out, tensions are running high, and they are all packed together competing for a few items. It is a recipe for idiotic and criminal shenanigans.

I've always ( well, not always...but ever since I was capable of critical thought) believed this entire " mad dash to consume at all cost" was a pretty pathetic affair.
I recall the "cabbage patch kids, care bears" riots of the 80's, and the " Tickle me Elmo, Furbie" wars n the 90's...and had to laugh at the "lead the people by the nose and we MUST have!!!" mentalities that seem to encompass most of this sort of "frantic shopping."

To get that seriously competitive over shopping... its words-fail-me-stupid! I do not understand people.

My first year in retail, back in 2000 was pretty crazy. I saw a couple fights over items, 2 ladies got into a strait fist fight over an XboX, that was just insane, it was a scrap. I saw a manager get slapped across the face for being out of an item (camera I think) and lastly I saw a couple get trampled. They were ok, but still, it was crazy actually watching someone getting stomped over my many people, how the hell did they not KNOW they were walking on someone?

Castiel wrote:Too get that seriouslly competitive over shopping... its words-fail-me-stupid! I do not understand people.

Helpful image...
...Of course in the case of " Black Friday" there is a limited supply of carrots...and all the "donkey's" are starving ( or so they seem to believe).

Id like to know, if they can afford to sell items that cheap, and the sales bring them back to black, why cant they afford to do these prices, or closer to the rock bottom prices anyways, more then once a year? Im pretty sure that would not only help out their sales through the year, but keep people from going ape gak

KingCracker wrote:My first year in retail, back in 2000 was pretty crazy. I saw a couple fights over items, 2 ladies got into a strait fist fight over an XboX, that was just insane, it was a scrap. I saw a manager get slapped across the face for being out of an item (camera I think) and lastly I saw a couple get trampled. They were ok, but still, it was crazy actually watching someone getting stomped over my many people, how the hell did they not KNOW they were walking on someone?

More than likely they knew KC...they just didn't care, breaking someones ribs is a perfectly fair trade in the quest to get ones hands on that fancy new video game system or big screen tv at a " markdown price".

FITZZ wrote:

Castiel wrote:Too get that seriouslly competitive over shopping... its words-fail-me-stupid! I do not understand people.

Helpful image...
...Of course in the case of " Black Friday" there is a limited supply of carrots...and all the "donkey's" are starving ( or so they seem to believe).

But to pepperspray, shoot or stab someone just to get a few quid off an item, its nonsensical! People, just

Castiel wrote:

FITZZ wrote:

Castiel wrote:Too get that seriouslly competitive over shopping... its words-fail-me-stupid! I do not understand people.

Helpful image...
...Of course in the case of " Black Friday" there is a limited supply of carrots...and all the "donkey's" are starving ( or so they seem to believe).

But to pepperspray, shoot or stab someone just to get a few quid off an item, its nonsensical! People, just

What you dont know is the guy in that picture is also holding a gun.

Castiel wrote:

FITZZ wrote:

Castiel wrote:Too get that seriouslly competitive over shopping... its words-fail-me-stupid! I do not understand people.

Helpful image...
...Of course in the case of " Black Friday" there is a limited supply of carrots...and all the "donkey's" are starving ( or so they seem to believe).

But to pepperspray, shoot or stab someone just to get a few quid off an item, its nonsensical! People, just

In all fairness, and believe me this doesn't make it better at all, but it rarely is just a 'few quid' off, it is usually a huge discount. For example, A $600+ TV for $200. People don't camp out for 12 hours or more just for a little savings.

Ahtman wrote:

Castiel wrote:

FITZZ wrote:

Castiel wrote:Too get that seriouslly competitive over shopping... its words-fail-me-stupid! I do not understand people.

Helpful image...
...Of course in the case of " Black Friday" there is a limited supply of carrots...and all the "donkey's" are starving ( or so they seem to believe).

But to pepperspray, shoot or stab someone just to get a few quid off an item, its nonsensical! People, just

In all fairness, and believe me this doesn't make it better at all, but it rarely is just a 'few quid' off, it is usually a huge discount. For example, A $600+ TV for $200. People don't camp out for 12 hours or more just for a little savings.

So the value people put on another person's life is $400? That's sickening.

Castiel wrote:So the value people put on another person's life is $400? That's sickening.

Welcome to consumerism!

Rest assured, whenever a lot of people are all together in one place, gak is sure to be not far behind...this applies to all events, not just Black Friday which I have consistently refused to go anywhere or do anythig for.

Around these parts, some women camped out in front of a Best Buy for nine days just to be first in line for the Black Friday rush...

I'm not sure whether that's admirable determination or extreme stupidity...

Castiel wrote:So the value people put on another person's life is $400? That's sickening.

Considering humans have killed and maimed each other over far less, how is it a surprise? It is just a bit disingenuous to call them small savings, as they are often very very good deals, which actually makes the whole thing more prone to cause fragile people to snap or criminals to take advantage. We aren't talking about a fifty cent coupon off of cereal after all. For penny pinchers and people with less income it can be the one chance all year to get a new tv or other thing, and that kind of stress mixed with others is a powder keg. Even people that aren't as invested in it get irritable and moody just due to the atmosphere.

fething idiots. I don't even leave my house on Black Friday. OMG we got to fight over an xbox that has been out for 6 years!

I also call them sheeple. You can sell anything to them if you make an add showing people buying/wearing/eating it.

Black Friday, the day corporate overlords confirm their power over the masses.

Ahtman wrote:

Castiel wrote:So the value people put on another person's life is $400? That's sickening.

Considering humans have killed and maimed each other over far less, how is it a surprise? It is just a bit disingenuous to call them small savings, as they are often very very good deals, which actually makes the whole thing more prone to cause fragile people to snap or criminals to take advantage. We aren't talking about a fifty cent coupon off of cereal after all. For penny pinchers and people with less income it can be the one chance all year to get a new tv or other thing, and that kind of stress mixed with others is a powder keg. Even people that aren't as invested in it get irritable and moody just due to the atmosphere.

Compared to a human life, that is VERY small change in my book. I just can't (and I'm glad) understand the mentality of someone who would do that.

Easy E wrote:Black Friday, the day corporate overlords confirm their power over the masses.

Sweet irony.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Castiel wrote:
Compared to a human life, that is VERY small change in my book. I just can't (and I'm glad) understand the mentality of someone who would do that.

Have you consumed a Coca-Cola recently?

I saved $1200 on a refrigerator! Plus got a few bargains for the Missus. I just went to Lowe's around 9AM after all the rush and had no issues at all.

dogma wrote:

Castiel wrote:
Compared to a human life, that is VERY small change in my book. I just can't (and I'm glad) understand the mentality of someone who would do that.

Have you consumed a Coca-Cola recently?

I'm sorry, what?

Castiel wrote:
I'm sorry, what?

It's a simple question.