Standing Watch

Shoppers stampeeding through the entrance for limited deals on Black Friday

As “Black Friday” begins on Thanksgiving this year, mobs endure gunfire and pepper spray, while retailers cash in on the violence.

While there were no store managers ringing a cattle call bell reported this year atop retail outlets, herds of shoppers turned into violent mobs anyway, as retailers lured consumers with predatory pricing on the few items they couldn’t sell the previous months.  Among the offerings were game consoles, big screen televisions, and other such items priced well below cost and available only in very limited quantities, the perfect recipe for the now typical violence that has become accepted by many Americans as part of the deal they can get on the day after Thanksgiving, now commonly known as “Black Friday.”

At the Cross Creek Mall in Fayetteville, NC, gunfire rang out like Christmas bells, and then moved inside the mall itself as one of the shooting suspects ran deeper inside, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.  There were no reports of injuries (from the gunfire, at least), and officials have no suspects in the shooting incident around 2 am this morning.  Shoppers hardly noticed anything was amiss as they mobbed stores and stripped shelves of bargains.

At a Myrtle Beach, SC Walmart, two were injured in an apparent armed robbery attempt, as thyey departed the retailer around 1 am.  A 55-year-old woman was shot in the foot, and a 25-year-old man was hit in the head.  A third victim was unhurt.

In Kissimmee, FL, police arrested an unidentified man at the Walmart there, after a fight broke out at that store’s jewelry counter.  Another involved in the fight had left before police arrived.

Long lines just to enter a Walmart in Los Angeles area, where a woman allegedly used pepper spray as a shoping tool

In another Walmart in Buckeye, AZ, there are several reports of police slamming a grandfather to the floor, after he allegedly stuck the video game “Call of Duty” in his waist band so he could rescue his grandson from being trampled by the mob fighting over that game.  Police made no comment, other than to say they are investigating the incident, which was reported by several witnesses to local media.  The grandfather remains unidentified.

Police responded to an apparent shooting at yet another Walmart, this time in San Francisco, CA.  One man was transported to hospital in critical, but stable, condition.  He was shot around 1:45 am, while walking with his family from the store to their car.  Police reportedly have one suspect in custody, and are seeking an unstated number of other suspects in the apparent armed robbery.

In Porter Ranch, CA, at yet another Walmart store, a woman allegedly began using pepper spray on shoppers.  Reports vary somewhat on this one, but 15-20 people were injured in this one incident alone.  Some reports claim the women used the chemical weapon on those cutting into the line, others claim she was using it to drive off rival shoppers going after the same product she was seeking.  One report quotes her as saying she was concerned the mob-like behavior of those around her threatened the safety of her children, who were with her at the time.  Amazingly, the store remained open throughout, despite the obvious threat to the safety of employees and customers.  Other reports quote police as saying that about half the injuries were unrelated to the pepper spray incident, and were instead caused when the retailer’s doors were opened and the waiting mob stampeeded inside.

Mobs rush through store to get at Black Friday deals

And these are just the stories making national and international news.  According to many comments in the discussion threads of many news web sites, many shoppers opted to forgo “Black Friday” deals, after senbsing the dangerous climate that was building.  Some retailers report that their decision to open on Thankisgiving night brought out very different, and much more violence prone, crowds.

Indeed, the crowds are different, and include veterans of past “Black Friday” sales, nearly all of whom have planned out their shopping strategies.  Those veterans are easily spotted, having been camped out in front of retailers since early Thanksgiving morning.  Nearly all have researched the various bargain offerings, and come with color coded maps of the targeted stores that identify where exactly the bargains are located.  Most retailers have noted there is very little browsing of their stores.  Many retailers have reported to the media that, for the most part, the bargains went very quickly, complete with the destruction of empty display stands, and broken items littering their aisles by the time the sun rose.

Still, retailers are hoping this weekend will make up for sluggish sales of the previous 11 monbths, a result of the continuing economic problems facing the nation.  The national chain retailers typically make upwards of 40% of their annual sales during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  If the opening of stores on Thanksgiving improves sales, we can expect that many of these “big box” retailers will opt to open even earlier next Thanksgiving, if they close at all, in a bid to outsell each other.

Planned protests by a group calling themselves Occupy Black Friday, who hoped to use the tactics of Occupy protests around the nation to convince people to shop at locally owned retailers, have largely failed.  Shoppers whipped into a buying frenzy by news media and advertising campaigns outnumbered protesters by as much as 2,000 to 1, with the chanting of protesters outright ignored or drowned out by oblivious consumers, many of whom were Occupy Wall Street protesters taking time out of their protests to support the very corporations they had been protesting the last few months.

Only in America can Christmas be used as an excuse for hypocricy, ignorance, and violence.  It is interesting to note that, particularly in the current economic climate, none of the goods being sold at deep discounts were made in the United States.  Indeed, most of the national retail chains no longer sell anything made in the United States, which leads one to wonder where the money to pay for these goods is coming from.

UPDATE: Walter Vance, a 61-year-old pharmacist, had a history of heart trouble when he collapsed on the floor of a West Virginia Target store on Black Friday.  Customers simply detoured around or stepped over him and continued shopping as he lay dying.  Several nurses, who are legally obligated to render assistance, did stop to help Vance, performing CPR until paramedics arrived.  Vance was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

UPDATE: An unnamed 36-year-old woman was driving home at 7:46 a.m. on Black Friday when she accidentally drove her car into a canal near the intersection of Muck City Road and Conners Highway in Pahokee in Palm Beach County, FL.  The woman’s car began sinking in 20-foot water, and she called 911. A Sheriff’s deputy had to jump in to save her. Frank Mayo, the deputy, freed her from the car and the woman grabbed on to him. Afraid she might drown them both, the deputy let go, but didn’t see the woman come up after him. After taking a breath, he dove back down, calmed the woman down, and brought her back up to safety.  The woman was brought to a nearby hospital for a treatment, and was released.  The woman had spent Thanksgiving Day with her family, but then had to report to work and work all night at a local Target store, to meet her employer’s decision to open that night for Black Friday.  Multiple news reports quote law enforcement as blaming exhaustion for the accident.  “Our thoughts are with the team member and her family for a speedy recovery,” a Target spokeswoman told the media.

The author of this article has a decades long policy of avoiding retail stores whenever possible during the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.  It’s not out of protest, it’s just basic survival instinct.