Snow, fights, massive crowds... Nothing puts off the Black Friday shoppers as U.S. goes crazy for bargains
- Shoppers in Walmart battle for deals as Black Friday shows its dark side
- Major retailers such as Walmart and Target opened on Thursday evening
- Kmart opened its doors at 6am leading to fights throughout the day
- Strike by Wal-Mart workers on Friday expected to add to chaos
- Stores expected to make a total of $11.4 billion on Black Friday
By Hugo Gye, Lydia Warren and Sara Malm
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Millions are battling for bargains across America today as the biggest shopping day of the year has got off to a flying start despite bad weather, giant crowds and fights in the supermarket aisles.
The first giant scrums started at a Walmart where families battled with each other to get their hands on a pair of $5 headphones, while paramedics rushed to a Dick's store to help a cashier who passed out among the chaos.
With sales on Black Friday expected to soar by 3.8 per cent this year to a staggering $11.4 billion, thousands of shoppers queued around blocks before stores opened. As many as 11,000 lined around Macy's flagship store in New York City's Herald Square before it threw open its doors.
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Like animals: As a $5 deal for headphones drops in Walmart, the crowd goes wild to grab a pair
Overwhelmed: A Twitter user from Juneau, Alaska shared this photo of a cashier passed out in a Dick's store
Rush: The cashier is taken from the store by paramedics. The Twitter user said shoppers paid no attention
The shopping frenzy got off to its earliest ever start as the nation's customers put down their turkey and headed straight to the malls, with some stores opening as early as 6am on Thanksgiving.
Shops typically open in the small hours of the morning on the day after the national holiday - named Black Friday because it is traditionally when they turn a profit for the year.
But openings have crept earlier and earlier over the past few years and this year, stores such as Target and Toys R Us opened on Thanksgiving evening, while retailers from Macy's to Best Buy opened their doors at midnight on Black Friday.
And in one Walmart, the fights were underway within minutes of opening according to a video posted on YouTube by a father who brought his two children along to the sales.
VIDEO: Black Friday fights break out across America...
Tough crowd: Shoppers of all ages show no mercy in the fierce fight for a pair of headphones at a Walmart late Thursday night
Cold wait: Freezing temperatures and snow did not stop shoppers Jocelyn Polansky, left, and Jill Yde who wrapped up as they waited for a Target store in Baxter, Minnesota to open on Thursday night
The youngsters are filmed sitting in a shopping trolley as the person with the camera asks them if they're 'here for the craziness' adding that they are about to watch people fight over a $5 deal for a pair of headphones.
A large crowd are standing in a circle around the box of headphones waiting for the go-ahead from the Walmart staff.
The cameraman, posting on YouTube as David Quigley, struggles to keep his camera steady as the deal drops and the crowd goes wild, throwing themselves over the box.
Men, women and children are seen mercilessly elbowing each other as they shove to grab a pair.
And there was drama elsewhere. One shopper from Juneau, Alaska tweeted a picture of a woman being carried from a Dick's store on a stretcher as crowds focused on the shelves.
Early birds: People fill the aisles at a Target in Highland Indiana as it opened its doors early on Thursday night whilst most people were still polishing off their turkey dinner
Overkill? Lori Harmon guards three shopping carts full of goods at a Target in Columbia, South Carolina
Getting comfortable: A young child hides from the crowds at a branch of Target in Atlanta, Georgia
Chaos: Thousands of people were willing to forgo dessert in favour of snapping up Black Friday deals
Stocking up: This customer appeared to have purchased several pricey electronic goods at a Walmart in Dallas
BLACK FRIDAY: FACTS, FIGURES AND FRANTIC SHOPPERS
- 147 million people are expected to shop this Thanksgiving weekend
- Stores are expected to make a total of $11.4 billion on Black Friday
- The average spend per customer is expected to be $398
- In 2008, Walmart employee Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death on Black Friday when shoppers at Green Acres Shopping Center, Valley Street, New York pushed the doors open and streamed inside. Paramedics who arrived to help him were also trampled and seriously injured
- Last year, two dozen shoppers at a Walmart in California were pepper sprayed as Elizabeth Macias, 33, battled them for reduced video games
- 'Black Friday' is believed be the day retailers get 'in the black' because of the profits they make. But the term was first used in January 1966, when Bonnie Taylor-Black of the American Dialect Society wrote: 'Black Friday is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. 'Black Friday' officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.'
- According to Google Trends, people started widely searching online for 'Black Friday' on October 14
- Some eager shoppers have been camping out at a Best Buy in California since November 12 - that's 11 days before doors opened
'Cashier passed out at Dick's,' Steve
Hendrix tweeted. 'Black Friday was too much... No one cared, it was
kind of sad, they just wanted their stuff.'
And in Woodland Mall in Kentwood, Michigan, two teenagers were arrested after a brawl broke out between 15 men outside a JC Penney at 1.30am. Witnesses said pepper spray was used.
Despite the YouTube video and scattered stories of arrests, initial accounts indicated that the crowds were largely peaceful, avoiding the riots seen in previous years.
Many
stores had an unusually heavy police presence, and there were some
reports of scuffles between customers in packed-out shopping aisles.
And amid the shopping frenzy, two customers - a husband and a wife - were hit by a car in the parking lot of a Walmart on the edge of Seattle on Thursday evening, with the wife being airlifted to hospital after the accident which saw her pinned under the vehicle.
Stores from Target to Toys R Us opened their doors on Thanksgiving evening, hoping Americans will be willing to shop soon after they finish their pumpkin pie.
Target opened its doors at 9pm on the holiday, three hours earlier than last year. Sears, which didn't open on Thanksgiving last year, opened at 8pm on Thursday through 10pm on Black Friday.
Toys R Us opened at 8pm, an hour earlier than last year. And others such as Macy's are opening at midnight on Black Friday.
When Macy's flagship Herald Square store in New York opened its doors at midnight, about 11,000 shoppers showed up.
Overall, about 17 percent of shoppers plan to take advantage of Thanksgiving hours, according to a International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs survey of 1,000 consumers.
It is estimated that sales on Black Friday will be up 3.8 percent on last year, to a total of $11.4billion.
Michael Prothero, 19, and Kenny Fullenlove, 20, were even willing to miss Thanksgiving dinner altogether for deals. They started camping out on Monday night outside a Best Buy store in Toledo, Ohio, which was slated to open at midnight.
Swamped: A Walmart is bursting with customers with carts full of cut-down gifts and gadgets
Quick! This shopper in Marion, Illinois was wasting no time joining the Black Friday mob
Excitement: Target manager Jay Fitzgerald exuberantly greeted Black Friday shoppers
Taken aback: Two young customers can't believe the scene at Target in Glenview, Illinois
Nightmare: Amanda Benton has her head in her hands as she waits in line at Target in Texarkana, Texas
The friends, who were waiting to get 40-inch televisions, videogames and a tablet computer, came early to make sure they got the deals advertised by Best Buy, even though the next person in line didn't arrive until almost 24 hours later.
'Better safe than sorry,' Prothero said.
'I ate my turkey dinner and came right here,' said Rasheed Ali, a 23-year-old student in New York City who bought a 50-inch Westinghouse TV for $349 and a Singer sewing machine for $50. 'Then I'm going home and eating more.'
Retailers are trying everything they can to lure consumers into stores by making shopping as easy as possible.
In
addition to expanding their hours into Thanksgiving, many are offering
free layaways and shipping, matching the cheaper prices of online rivals
and updating their mobile shopping apps with more information.
Ready: Shoppers position themselves for midnight openings at the Clackamas Town Center, Oregon
And they're off! A crowd of shoppers browse at Target in Burbank, California as shops open earlier than ever
Finally! The first group of shoppers enter Target after it opened in Burbank, California
Bargains: Shoppers wait in line at Target on Thanksgiving after scrambling for the best deals
Eyes on a bargain: Sasha Rockwell has her hands full with gifts at J.C. Penney at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
IF YOU CAN FACE THE LINES! TOP DEALS ON BLACK FRIDAY
Target
Canon T3 body, lens, memory card and camera bag: $499 - usually $749
Nook Simple Touch: $49 - usually $99
Best Buy
8GB iPhone 4S with a two-year contract: $1
Kohl's
50 per cent of all toys
60 per cent off certain kids' clothing lines
Discovery Kids Digital Camera: $19.99 - usually $69.99
Amazon
Canon PowerShot s100: $309 - usually $429
Sears
Toshiba 50-inch LEDL: $299 - usually $849
Toys 'R Us
Power Wheels Barbie or Silver Cadillac Escalade: $269.99 ($150 off)
DS, PS3 and Wii Games are buy one, get another for $1
Get a $15 iTunes gift card when you buy $50 iTunes gift card
Walmart
$75 gift card when you purchase the iPad 2
'Every retailer wants to beat everyone else,' said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, a research firm based in Charleston, South Carolina. 'Shoppers love it.'
There were 11 shoppers in a four-tent encampment outside a Best Buy store near Ann Arbor, Michigan. The purpose of their wait? A $179 40-inch Toshiba LCD television is worth missing Thanksgiving dinner at home.
Jackie Berg, 26, of Ann Arbor, arrived first with her stepson and a friend Wednesday afternoon, seeking three of the televisions. The deal makes the TVs $240 less than their normal price, so Berg says that she'll save more than $700.
It's her first time camping out for the specials, and she's not sure she will do it again. Relatives will bring her some holiday dinner, but she'll miss eating her dad's stuffing right as he cooks it.
'We'll miss the actual being there with family, but we'll have the rest of the weekend for that,' she said.
Carey Maguire, 33, and her sister Caitlyn Maguire, 21, showed up at Target in East Harlem neighborhood of New York City at 7pm.
Their goal was to buy several Nooks, which were on sale for $49. But while waiting in line they were also using their iPhone to do some online buying at rival stores.
'If you're going to spend, I want to make it worth it,' said Caitlyn Maguire, a college student, who spent a total of $175 on Amazon, Best Buy and Radio Shack during her two-hour wait.
With 41million people predicted to have shopped on what has been dubbed 'Gray Thursday', police responded to fights and threats between bargain-hungry customers, some of whom have camped outside stores for days.
Anticipation: 11,000 people were thought to have lined up outside Macy's in New York
In at last: Shoppers at Macy's flagship store in New York City celebrate as they enter at midnight
Mob: The world-famous department store was so full shoppers could barely move
Popular: Even trendy Manhattanites were keen to grab some savings on Black Friday
Scouring deals: Shoppers look over items on sale at a Macy's store in New York on Black Friday
Job done: People carry shopping bags as they walk through Herald Square in New York
The spats added to the discontent surrounding the stores, with employees frustrated about working on Thanksgiving, and Walmart workers threatening to protest over their pay, schedules and benefits.
Outside a Kmart in Indianapolis, which opened at 6am on Thursday, officers responded to a brawl between shoppers as some attempted to sell vouchers the store had handed out for limited items.
'Everybody started going crazy about it, and then the cops got called in and it just became a madhouse,' one shopper told News 8.
And at a Kmart on Stockton Boulevard in South Sacremento, one shopper threatened to stab people while waiting in line for K-Mart's doors to open and told people he 'wasn't joking'.
Police arrived at the scene shortly after the threat - made after shop staff came outside to hand out 'doorbuster deal' vouchers to the first in the line - to help control the crowds.
In a bid to minimize trouble, the Los Angeles Police Department deployed helicopters over some malls, while a cavalry of police officers on bikes and horses monitored from streets below.
Family outing: A father and his two daughters celebrate being let in to Best Buy in Mesquite, Texas
Casual: Shoppers were seen in their pyjamas as they snapped up deals at Best Buy in Rockville, Maryland
Organisation: Staff ensure that customers are limited to one super-discounted television per person at Target in Burbank, California
Stocking up: This boy was intent on grabbing as much as he could at Toys R Us in Manchester, New Hampshire
In line: Hundreds of shoppers queued up at Toys R Us in New York's Times Square on Thursday evening
Scramble: Bargain hunters rummage through stacks of DVDs and video games at Walmart in Fairfax, Virginia
Success! Jovel Cetoute feels it was all worth it after queuing for hours in Pembroke Pines, Florida
DISGRUNTLED WORKERS FIGHT EMPLOYERS OVER THANKSGIVING
Workers across the country are lambasting stores for opening on Thanksgiving - and stealing them away from their families.
'It's all about what the consumer
wants,' Target security guard John Crable told The Detroit News. 'I feel
this is a tryout. I don't think (retailers) will find the experience
will justify cheapening their employees' Thanksgiving experience.'
Workers from stores including Target and Walmart have signed petitions at Change.org demanding shops stay closed.
One petition started by a Target employee, Casey St Clair, gathered 350,000 signatures.
'I felt like that was kind of
crossing the line, breaching into the day that we all had off,' St Clair
told WCCO after taking the signatures to Target's headquarters in
Minneapolis.
But in response, Target said that other workers were happy to have the overtime hours.
'The first thing we did was reach out to all of our store leaders and ask them to have discussions with their team members and seek volunteers wanting to work,' said Tina Schiel, executive vice president of stores for Target.
'We had so many team members who
wanted to work on Thursday that hundreds of our stores are now keeping
lists of volunteers who want to work if shifts open up.'
Roughly one-third of Target's store employees will be working on Thanksgiving, earning overtime pay for the holiday.
According to the L.A. Times, others scoured crowds from rooftops and signs warned shoppers against becoming victims of theft.
It comes after a series of previous Black Friday incidents; at a Wal-Mart in the city last year, scores of people were injured when a woman pepper sprayed her competition in a bid for discounted video games. Two years ago, gunfire broke out at a Toys R Us, killing two people.
'For some people, shopping is a competitive sport,' LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith told the paper. 'But it should not be a contact sport.'
Officers
are also working with stores to keep violent outbursts under control,
and Best Buy even participated in training drills to handle the large
crowds.
The Walmart where the pepper spray incident occurred will hand out vouchers for some items to avoid a scramble. If customers do not get a voucher for the item, they should expect there will be none left, management told the Times.
Police have
also spoken with other stores about staggering entry times to control
the numbers of shoppers in the store at any time.
Officials told shops: 'This process has been very successful at many of the major theme parks and can help to ensure organized, safe entry into your business.'
Adding to the chaos could be strikes from Wal-Mart employees who are planning protests after they felt the company punished them for speaking out for better pay, fair schedules and health care.
After a
pre-Thanksgiving walkout and repeated actions, Walmart filed a
complaint last week with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming
that the protesters had violated labor laws.
Yet no ruling is expected to be reached in time and unions believe thousands will take part, raising uncertainty over how the giant retailer will be able to cope with millions of shoppers.
Oversized: But Glenview shoppers were not going to miss a bargain on a widescreen TV
Family: Some heavy-duty Christmas shopping at North Bergen, New Jersey on Thursday evening
Gridlock: Shoppers wait patiently to get through the crowds at Toys R Us in Manchester
Shock: An unlucky shopper can't believe the chaos she encounters at Toys R Us
But on Monday, Walmart tweeted: 'Don't believe everything you read in the union press releases. We don't think their #BlackFriday activity will have an impact on customers.'
The preparations come after some of the nation's largest chains, including Toys R Us and Target, opened through Thursday in a bid to make more money than ever over the Black Friday weekend.
'Retailers are now commercialising Thanksgiving, giving the opportunity to the consumer who doesn’t want to watch 12 hours of football,' said Marshal Cohen from consumer research firm NPD Group.
'It's no longer Christmas creep, it's the Christmas crush. This is about beating the competition.'
And for retailers, it makes sense. Last year, stores which extended their hours saw sales soar by up to 22 per cent over the weekend, while those retailers that did not lost up to 8 per cent.
Patience: Customers wait in line at Target in Fairfax, Virginia
Held back: Toys R Us in Fairfax had to employ crowd control to manage the hordes of bargain hunters
Huddled masses: The scene outside a branch of Best Buy in Mesquite, Texas
Mindboggling: Thousands of bargain-hungry shoppers queue at dawn before a Best Buy opens
[caption
Joel Waldfogel, chair of applied economics at University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, told WCCO: 'Once your competitors open on Thanksgiving, it’s a disaster for you if you’re not open on Thanksgiving. There is actually believable evidence that the longer the holiday shopping season is, the more people actually spend.'
The National Retail Federation predicts 147million Americans will shop over Thanksgiving weekend, and that there will be an increase of holiday sales of 4.1 per cent on last year.
Queues have been snaking outside large stores for days. Tents began gathering outside Best Buy stores on Tuesday as bargain hunters hoped to get their hands on gadgets when doors open on Friday.
Stores are enticing shoppers with discounts including $7 board games at Target, $19 sweaters at Gap and $299 Toshiba 50-inch LEDs at Sears - down from $849.
Packed: This mall in South Florida had its parking lot completely full around midnight on Black Friday
On your marks... Customers wait in line at a Kmart in Chicago, which opened at 6am on Thanksgiving
Early deals: Rocio Garcia, left, and Maria Chavez, shop the Kmart toy department for doorbuster deals
Police presence: Officers watch a Walmart in Porter Ranch, California where a woman pepper sprayed her shopping competition last year. The LAPD are deploying helicopters and more officers this year
Aware that many customers plan to shop online, Target and Best Buy are also matching prices offered by online competitors such as Amazon, Bloomberg reported.
And in some stores, there will be kiosks and mobile checkouts to integrate online and in-store shopping, while Apple customers can simply scan their products and pay remotely.
Independent stores and entire malls
nationwide are also opening early. In South Florida, for example,
Dolphin Mall in Sweetwater and Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise each open at
9pm on Thursday for 24 hours.
With
stores opening earlier, the retail industry has crossed the Black
Friday barrier and it might creep further forward still, Kimberly
Taylor, an associate professor from Florida International University,
told the Miami Herald.
'It is becoming almost a whole season,' she said. 'Where is it going to end? Will it take away the whole Black Friday if it is the whole week or the whole season?'
Happy shoppers: Soalina Agers, left, and Val Gray, leave Kmart with their pre-Black Friday deals
Long wait: Tony Avitar sits in his tent outside the Best Buy in Cuyahoga Fall, Ohio after setting it up last Thursday to snag the best deals. This is his ninth year camping out
Comfort: People bring beds and sleeping bags to wait outside a Best Buy in Scottsdale, Arizona
Camping out: A crowd gathers by Best Buy in Victorville, California. The store opens at midnight Thursday
There will also be early sales online as discounts are offered ahead of the internet's equivalent of Black Friday - Cyber Monday.
The deals are expected to boost sales made on Thanksgiving last year, when online spending rose 18 per cent to $479million.On Black Friday, sales soared 26 per cent to $816 million.
But not all employees are happy about the changes, with some workers signing petitions at change.org demanding stores including Target and Walmart stay closed on Thursday.
One petition started by a Target
employee, Casey St Clair, was entitled 'Target: Take the High Road and
Save Thanksgiving' and had gathered 350,000 signatures.
'I
felt like that was kind of crossing the line, breaching into the day
that we all had off,' St Clair told WCCO after taking the signatures to
Target's headquarters in Minneapolis.
But in response, Target told the Orange County Register that other workers were happy to have the overtime hours.
Devoted: Nick Valencia, left, and his friend Ashkan Aghassi light a heater at their camp in Irvine, California
Worth it: Others queue in Tempe, Arizona. This year, more stores than ever will open on Thursday
'When we made the decision to open our doors at 9pm on Thanksgiving, the first thing we did was reach out to all of our store leaders and ask them to have discussions with their team members and seek volunteers wanting to work,' Tina Schiel, executive vice president of stores for Target, said.
'We had so many team members who wanted to work on Thursday that hundreds of our stores are now keeping lists of volunteers who want to work if shifts open up.'
Opening
on Thanksgiving - which was virtually non existent three years ago -
begs the question whether stores will soon be open on Christmas, causing
even more heartache for families.
But Waldfogel, from Carlson School of Management, suggested this might backfire.
'It’s possible that some people would find it so distasteful that you're open on Christmas that they’d actually get upset with you and not patronize you for the rest of the year,' he said.
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This is the most insane ritual in the US, mad crazed shoppers the day after Thanksgiving, Buy, Buy, Buy!. It started with "Opening at 8am!" Next is was "Open at 6am!" then "Open at Midnight!" and now they might as well disregard the whole Holiday. If you work in Retail, you may as well kiss your Thanksgiving away.
- annie w , Los Angeles CA, 23/11/2012 13:45
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