BARGAIN hunters have brawled in stores and even attempted to pose as staff to beat the lines as Black Friday sales madness takes hold in the US.
Police were called to the Riverchase Galleria shopping centre in Hoover, Alabama to break up a fight between at least two women, which forced the shopping centre to be shut early.
A video of the incident posted online showed a security guard holding one woman down on the floor while two women continued to punch and kick each other, with tables of clothing being pushed over and a crowd of onlookers watching the chaos.
JUST IN: @HooverPD say they responded to several reports of fights at the Galleria Thursday night. Here's video of one incident outside the Buckle store. More on @WBRCnews this morning. pic.twitter.com/UZEZQGykGE
— Clare Huddleston (@Fox6Clare) November 24, 2017
A witness told a local Fox 6 TV reporter that a shoe was thrown during the melee, flying over a railing and hitting a baby.
Reports of gunfire spread on social media, but authorities said they were not confirmed and that no one was shot.
A 19-year-old man sustained life-threatening injuries when he was shot in a shopping centre car park in Columbia, Missouri on Thursday night, however local authorities said it appeared to be an accident and not related to Black Friday shopping.
Police said two men who knew each other were sitting in a vehicle when one fired a shot as he placed his gun in his holster, KSHB Kansas City reported.
Elsewhere, some went to extreme lengths to bag a bargain by attempting to pose as store staff to get inside first.
A Twitter user wrote it was a “good thing [he] kept [his] vest from Walmart when [he] quit” and that he would be “skipping everybody” by wearing it to pose as a staffer.
Soon after the post went viral, other former staff offered to sell their Walmart uniforms for $100 or more to anyone hoping to pose as a worker and get to the deals first.
Selling ALL 3 of my Walmart vest!! $100 per vest. You can go in the store for Black Friday and take anything you want. I even have a yellow one to look like the manager as well. 😏 hmu
— RED (@xonaeexo) November 22, 2017
Americans are predicted to spend $US20 billion ($26 billion) during the Thanksgiving weekend, according to the National Retail Federation.
A survey found 115 million Americans planned to hit the shops on Black Friday alone.
While hundreds continued the annual tradition of lining up outside store doors in the early hours, others opted to stay in bed and make the most of online sales.
In the UK at least the big moment for many stores was a bit of an anticlimax as they opened in the early hours to just a few, or in some cases, no customers queuing up to get inside.
On London’s Oxford Street one shop pushed open their doors to just one person, as a video posted online revealed.
And the doors are open.... the rush came and went (quickly) #BlackFriday @BBCLondonNews @BBC_HaveYourSay pic.twitter.com/jkUjFnhwMo
— Frankie McCamley (@Frankie_Mack) November 24, 2017
Elsewhere enthusiastic, but relatively calm, shoppers were pictured moving through the doors as staff swung them open ready to grab some bargains.
With the US jobless rate at a 17-year-low of 4.1 per cent and consumer confidence stronger than a year ago, analysts project healthy sales increases for November and December.
The National Retail Federation trade group expects sales for that period to at least match last year’s rise of 3.6 per cent and estimates online spending and other non-store sales will rise 11 to 15 per cent.
Analysts at Bain say Amazon is expected to take half of the holiday season’s sales growth. And Amazon is the top destination for people to begin holiday shopping, according to a September study by market research firm NPD Group.
About 69 per cent of Americans, or 164 million people, intend to shop at some point during the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.