Black Friday began and with the rock-bottom sales and busy shopping malls it has also, as always, brought out an ugly side of human nature — fighting.
Already on Thursday, videos of swelling crowds, people jostling each other and holding televisions over their heads were emerging on YouTube, prompting wagging fingers among online commenters who were probably browsing Black Friday sales at home.
Walmart stores, especially, have seen trouble, with reports of a man in Virginia stabbing another and three people brawling over cutting the line in Rialto, Calif. Police pepper sprayed another man in New Jersey, also at a Walmart, because of an argument over yet another television, according to the Telegraph.
The Twitter is documenting all of the dispiriting moments that make this annual day in shopping history the bizarre ritual it is.
But neither Walmart, nor the U.S. were alone; Yahoo! U.K. reported there was chaos at Asda supermarkets across Britain, with at least one woman landing in hospital after she was slugged in the face.
In addition, an attempt to shoplift at a Kohl’s store near Chicago led to a police officer being dragged by a vehicle, and one man being shot in the shoulder by another officer, according to the Associated Press.