Well, it’s been another thanksgiving, and you know what that means. Friday Morning Wal-Mart Pandemonium.
Here’s how it played out this year:
- Customers were climbing on top of each other to get laptops hurled 20 feet in the air in Orlando.
- Security guards had to mace crowds in the electronics department in Beaumont.
- Police were called as customers in Renton, Washington knocked counters out of the way to get to sale items.
- In New Jersey, over a dozen police officers were called in to quell riots in the electronics department, and police were driven to user pepper spray to subdue a particularly beligerant shopper. Criminal charges are pending for several shoppers.
- Police were called in to calm crowds down in the tri-city area of Tennessee/Virginia after three Wal-Mart employees jumped on a customer and put him in a headlock.
- And, of course, it wouldn’t be a proper Wal-Mart Black Friday unless someone had to be driven to the hospital in an ambulance. Thanks to shoppers in Michigan for obliging. Update: They’re not the only ones; Oak Grove, TN served as our backup “trampling victim taken away in an ambulance” site.
Retailers hope the big crowds set a positive tone for the entire holiday season.