For some shoppers this past Black Friday, wasn’t so pleasant. Mothers love to get great deals and sales around the stores, but how far will one go to get them? Riots break out all across America when it comes to buying the cheapest products. Many stores may not have a lot of those cheap products. It can get very ugly when shopping for bargains.
Across the nation, people stampeded when doors were opened, and riots broke out when items the crowds were seeking had run out. Seven fatalities and dozens of injuries have been reported. The first-known fatality occurred at a Wal-Mart in Secaucus, New Jersey. A woman repeatedly stabbed a man with a kitchen knife taken from the housewares section to prevent him from buy the last Xbox 360.
At a Tucker, Georgia Toys R Us, one woman bludgeoned another to death with a baseball bat over an American Girl doll. She was heard yelling at her victim, “Hasta la vista, baby.” Cars were overturned and set on fire in Chicago, while a security guard was beaten to death by an angry mob in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
In Columbus, Ohio a shortage of Star Wars toys had shoppers at wit’s end when someone yelled, “They’ve got some over here!” A stampede emerged and four were left trampled. A woman in a Los Angeles Wal-Mart pepper sprayed to get through the crowd so she could purchase a video game console. A worker died after being trampled by many shoppers when a suburban Wal-Mart opened for the holiday sales rush and a 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital for observation and three other shoppers suffered minor injuries and were also taken to hospitals.
What makes these shoppers so delusional? The greed kind of overtakes the common sense. Black Friday takes on a competitive nature that appeals to a lot of people. Is Black Friday shopping really worth all this stress or standing outside in the cold waiting at 12 in the morning for the stores to open just to get trampled on?
Black Friday began the month Christmas shopping. Over the years retailers have offered discount prices to attract the attention of shoppers into their store. These sales were intended to get would be shoppers motivated and into the stores and re-igniting the “Christmas gift giving spirit.” Black Friday was originated in the 1970’s. Black Friday has served as the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season at least since the start of the modern Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924.
The Internet offers a multitude of savings. While some enjoy shopping online from the comfort of one’s home any day of the year, others find the thrill of the hunt exciting. On the other hand, there are many households who neither own a computer nor want to, but simply enjoy going to stores seeking bargains.