Matt O’Connor Media Credit: Syracuse
As the holiday season begins, shoppers across the country are preparing to engage in one of the most important and simultaneously stressful days of the year for retail chains. Black Friday has built up a reputation defined by a lack of awareness and selfish intent. Discount deals from some of the biggest retailers on highly popular items have driven both shoppers and employees alike down a concerning rabbit hole of jealousy and a concern for their own safety. While the chaos of Black Friday has subsided in recent years due to the rise of online shopping, there have been numerous instances of the day with the biggest sales of the year going horribly wrong.
Trampling Stampedes
When the retail doors open, the first impulse for many customers is to book it to the aisle they want to get to the most while having little regard for the wellbeing for their fellow shoppers and the employees managing the crowds. There have been multiple instances of employees being trampled to death by frantic shoppers. A Walmart employee sadly lost his life during his Black Friday Shift in Long Island, New York in 2008. 34 year old Jdimytai Damour was ambushed by a wave of shoppers and was knocked to the ground. Despite attempts from considerate shoppers and his fellow coworkers, Damour passed away from his injuries. A similar casualty occurred a few years later, when 61 year old Walter Vance was shopping for Christmas decorations at a Target in South Charleston, West Virginia. Vance suddenly fell to the floor, all while Target shoppers chose to ignore him. Some nurses came to help Vance, performing CPR until he was taken to the hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead. Both of these incidents brought much needed attention to how shoppers should treat each other. After these tragic events, retail stores began to drastically increase their safety policies to prevent further incidents from occurring.
Parking Lot Conflicts
It’s not just shoppers in the stores themselves, injuries and deaths have also occurred in various parking lots between irate customers before they even enter the Black Friday madness. With millions of shoppers participating in Black Friday, good parking spots were often difficult to come by without getting into arguments, such as what happened in Tallahassee, Florida when a man and a woman were shot in the parking lot. Thankfully, they were able to recover from their injuries after being rushed to the hospital. But other customers weren’t so lucky. A shooting broke out outside of a Macy’s in southern New Jersey. Both a 20 year old man and his 26 year old brother were shot multiple times, with the former of which being pronounced dead at the scene of the crime. These violent displays shined new light on the dangers of engaging in public arguments with others.
Punches And Pepper Sprays
During the 2011 Black Friday festivities in Buckeye, Arizona, police were called to the city’s Walmart location where they arrested 54 year old Jared Newman. After a flurry of shoppers sprinted to the store’s electronics and video games section, Newman hid a game underneath his shirt to avoid engaging in the fights that had broken out. Once Newman found himself confronted by an officer, the situation began to escalate. The office body slammed Newman into the ground and handcuffed him after he refused to comply. That same year, there was an incident where a woman sprayed shoppers with pepper spray. San Fernando Valley Walmart customers found themselves in the middle of a massive brawl between shoppers fighting for video game consoles. 32 year old Elizabeth Macias fired off pepper spray into the frenzy after shoppers began attacking her two young children. Over 20 people were injured, and the Macias turned herself in. She was not charged, but the incident would become one of the most infamous examples of Black Friday causing panic and chaos.
Conclusion
In recent years, Black Friday has become much less problematic as many of the once rampant shoppers have turned to online shopping to avoid engaging with large crowds. Even with this drastic change, the chaotic and unpredictable nature of midnight shopping has not left public consciousness. During the frantic holiday season, Black Friday would (and sometimes still does) bring out the worst people.
