Black Friday Turns Ugly at Wal-Mart
Shoppers get rowdy looking for a head start on their holiday shopping
AFP/Getty Images
Shoppers wheel their purchases out of a Wal-Mart store in Los Angeles, California, before dawn on Black Friday, November 27, 2009. No problems were reported at this Wal-Mart. AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)
Black Friday turns a little ugly again this year, as early morning Wal-Mart shoppers ripped into shrink-wrapped items that were supposed to remain closed until the 5:00 a.m. sale time.
Management at the Upland Wal-Mart called local police to the store at 2:44 a.m. when customers began "fighting inside," reported the Los Angeles Times.
About 300 people were in the store, which had remained open all night as a security precaution after a Wal-Mart worker on Long Island, N.Y., was trampled to death last year on Black Friday when a surging, impatient crowd rushed the doors after the store opened.
“This was without a doubt the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said one employee, who said she has worked a dozen Black Fridays.
“They wouldn’t let people line up,” she added. “They were belligerent. They just bombarded the store.”
Several officers were sent and stood by as shoppers were kicked out and the store closed down, Etchason said. 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.
Store managers had to be sent outside to try to calm the crowd, workers said.
The store reopened just before 6 a.m., allowing customers inside in groups of 30, and “people were proceeding inside in an orderly fashion,” according to the Times report.
Employees and shoppers admitted the event was "very scary" but that the police had everything in control by the time they left just after 6:00 a.m.
