The store called police for help at around 2:44 a.m.:
Employees said customers began tearing into merchandise that had been shrink-wrapped and were supposed to be opened at 5 a.m.
[...]
Several officers were sent and stood by as shoppers were kicked out and the store closed down. The bargain hunters were told to line up in the parking lot.
Meanwhile, the carts were emptied and all the items returned to the shelves, employees said. But they said that outside, people began “yelling and screaming,” pounding on the glass doors and trying to sneak into the store through the lawn and garden section.
"Black Friday: Wal-Mart in Upland temporarily closes after 'fighting inside'" [Los Angeles Times] (Thanks to Crazytree!)
jackasses. mob mentality is an explanation, not an excuse. frenzy whipping by the media does not help at all. more jackasses.
]]>Lambs too end up as dog food.
Sheep end up as sweaters and worse.
Option 2-Electric shock doors!
]]>I hate black friday. It is the STUPIDEST thing ever. I fail to understand the mindset behind stores having a huge sale for just a few hours on ONE day of the year. Why not just have moderately lowered prices for like a week or something? One year I went to CompUSA for a $5 SD card & had to wait in line for 3 hours. 3 HOURS.
]]>Really, this is a win-win scenario for me; WalMart looks incompetent and the customers look like greedy children.
]]>PURE evil, slaves at that. Pretty sure there is a lot of credit cards used as well. I was hoping this was the year we did not feel compelled to show up.
If you are one in a million, then there 300 just like you, real close by. Think, people, they are us.
]]>Besides, this story pokes a big old hole in your "blame the media" theory. Namely, the media wasn't there, and people still went nuts. How do you explain that, hmm?
Yes, you can get a deal on a TV, but chances are while its 50" its also the entry model with limited inputs, its an HDTV but not 1080P etc.. and may even be last years model, or a model made just for the store and sold no where else.
The person talking about mob mentality was correct, no one would buy it normally but if you put up a 2 for 1 Sale, people will buy sweaters even if they live in the topics.
]]>http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2009/11/black-friday-walmart-rancho-cucamonga-fight.html
]]>If they're going to leave the merchandise out in the aisles, why don't they do like most other sane retailers and use merchandise lockers? I mean, when the only thing keeping the customers from grabbing the merchandise early is a flimsy piece of stretch wrap, why are they surprised when customers tear it open early? Or better yet, do like everyone else has done and just hand out tickets instead of leaving the merchandise out. Every year it seems like Wal-Mart does this stupid crap.. then afterwords, they act all surprised and give all these arguments how they'll do better next year.
]]>I wish I was there.
]]>Around 430am, we heard yelling and a ruckus towards ahead of us, and quickly moved away. One man decided he wasn't going to wait until 5am, tore off the wrapping on the RockBand, and began taking two boxes out. That was all it took and everyone in the entire store went nuts over all the items that were in the aisles. The store went nuts and we promptly found a safe area to stand back and just watch.
There was a fist fight between two women in the toys area. In another part of the store around the same time, a woman fainted and the EMS came. And the store called the police to stand around the big ticket items, which the store decided were not going to be given out until 5am.
This was our first Black Friday WalMart experience, and will be our last. It is neither worth fighting over, nor putting your well being in danger over material goods.
]]>Well Said.
Now take a valium and do a bit of relaxing before you go out to join the crowds.
Although I do blame walmart for this matter as well. If they're going to have black friday sales, at least have something that'll line up the customers. Walmart has plenty of money and I'm very positive that they can come up with some method of making the whole ordeal more orderly.
]]>I just locked the farking gate and dared the Dollar Crap Store vermin from even trying to park in my lot.
PS: I am 3 blocks from the Dollar Crap Store. 3 blocks. From the flashing lights it appears the local PD was having to direct traffic in and out of the Dollar Crap Store parking lot.
]]>I always wondered what 24 hour wal-marts do in this case. Sounds like they didn't have it well planned - of course everyone in the store at 2:30 AM are there to jockey for position for the HDTV's, Blu-Ray players, and notebooks.
It occurs to me that since it was a wal-mart that had the horrible trampling death last year, that they would have really, really made sure that they had this planned out - customers *outside*, given tickets for the high-demand items, waiting in well guarded lines. Not inside, allowed to mingle around the doorbuster items.
]]>...I got this electric blanket I'd been eying for a while at 60% off, and some $45 all cotton button-downs for $19.99.
]]>Ya know, they should have just told those people pounding on the windows and trying to sneak in to go bugger off... NO DEALS FOR YOU! Come back when you can be a mature, responsible being.
]]>1. They reap what they sew - trailer trash store attracts trailer trash shoppers (of all colors). It is truly shameful that people are salivating like rabid pit bulls to shop at a place that uses slave labor to make most of their products and "cheat" to pay getting essentially something for nothing, and doing massive economic damage in the process to American workers.
2. Clearly WM secretly loves this and many WM stores learned nothing from the previous tragedy where a store employee died, and clearly weren't ready with security ALREADY at the store. What can be better for business than people savagely killing each other to jump in line just to buy their products?
3. Why weren't each of the troublemakers, intruders arrested or at least told to get off the property for good? They are a danger to other shoppers and employees. I saw in another WM story they just taunted police at another store after rushing in before opening and being told to leave.
4. I'm glad to be fair they did at least call the police and "do over" this time with no deaths to employees or shoppers.
5. I wonder if the receipt nazis will use the same amount of savagery in checking receipts this season.
What the hell is this, a new Christmas tradition or something?
I remember first seeing this kind of shit go down on "Black Friday", 2003; at the very top of the show on NBC Today, the opening shot of the top story was a shot of people stampeding into a Wal-Mart, just as the store opened -- no doubt to coincide with the beginning of the Today Show; the event was shot from inside the store, by a camera at the far end of the space in front of the entrance, so that the view was of a mob bursting through the doors and charging at the camera. As it seemed as if the crazed pack of "consumers" was about to trample the cameraman, NBC cut to a shot of people pushing and shoving each other at an electronics counter, presumably fighting over PlayStation 3's or something -- while, over all this horrifying melee, Matt Lauer is intoning some upbeat rap about how "consumers" are buying, buying, buying, with the implied message being "why aren't you in this mob? Do your duty, get out there and buy some shit!" Then, they finish off the top-of-the-show segment with an interview with some smarmy prick from the Retailers Association pissing and moaning about how shopping mall store owners might not make their Christmas sales targets. Ewww.
The entire half hour of the early-morning local news on the local NBC affiliate, prior to the Today Show, was peppered with what was obviously advertising for Best Buy and Wal-Mart, very poorly disguised as news, read to us with a straight face by the anchors. One "news" report featured a remote "stand-up" telecast from in front of a Best Buy where, in the background behind the "reporter", I could see the beginnings of a fight breaking out in the line. It was positively sickening, and it's only gotten worse -- and I really do think the mainstream media have willingly played a large part in this.
]]>It really is sad that shopping has become such a huge part of our culture. It seems the holidays are now more about getting and giving crap rather than a time to appreciate your friends and family.
]]>People are sheep, easily led to a slaughter. Walmart is guilty of allowing this sort of thing to happen but who can blame them when they're not held accountable by us?
It is downright scary that people get this excited about saving at most a few hundred dollars on a CHEAP item. These are the same people who will resist using coupons and filling out rebates throughout the rest of the year even though they can easily save thousands that way.
I agree with other posters- the media is a guilty party here too.
What the hell is wrong with people? Is buying cheap crap really that important? People really bought into the whole consumerism thing, eh? Gotta have more cheap crap.
]]>"Better get back out there, sport. Looks like the mob is starting to pry the demos off the WHOA! Did you see that lady just shiv a guy in the neck and snatch his netbook right out of his cart?! Clean up on aisle AWESOME! You know, on second thought, maybe you should just stick with me. No need to make your wife a widow just before the Holidays."
]]>It's the same primal behavior that resulted in the death of the employee last year.
I work just down the road from a wal-mart and upon driving to work this morning I saw the Wal-Mart parking lot was FULL (and think for a moment how big those lots are) as were two adjacent lots. Also some of the lots ACROSS THE STREET were partially full. It had to be Wal-mart traffic since none of the businesses that use those lots were even open yet.
That's a lot of people in a damned Wal-Mart, no wonder this crap happens all the time.
]]>