They said/We said: The lowdown on Black Friday madness across the border (including a $2 waffle iron riot!) | yohana
By Bianca Teixeira
The boiling point of holiday marathon shopping in the U.S. is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving (today!) when prices have been slashed and slashed again. The likes of Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and many, many others have items on sale for as much as 90 per cent off and those promotions started as early as last night. In an effort to keep sales in the country, Canadian retailers have dropped their prices today as well, but we’ve been mostly spared the insanity that ensued south of the border with reports of a Los Angeles woman pepper-spraying 20 people around her (including children) to make sure she got to her desired items first. Elsewhere in L.A. a man was shot and robbed on the way to his car leaving Wal-Mart with his purchases. Fire departments are saying that shoppers everywhere are being injured from “rapid crowd movement.” So far no one has been killed (unlike the Target trampling victim of 2008), but there was a close case at this Wal-mart, where a riot ensued over a $2 waffle iron.
THEY SAID…
Maria Karagianis: The real losers in this scenario are the thousands of low-paid, powerless retail workers who are being bullied with increasing brazenness into leaving their homes, Thanksgiving celebrations, and children in the middle of the night to sell stuff imported from China consumers who in many cases neither need, nor can afford to buy it. [Boston Globe]
@peoplesrev: WalMart has taken Christmas from Miracle on 34th street to Blood BAth on any Highway USA [Twitter]
Shamika Sanders: Black Friday has become tradition for some; a punch here or there is nothing new. Are the sales that great? You can probably find the most expensive gift on your Christmas Lists for half off but is it worth yours or anyone else’s life? [The Urban Daily]
NYMag.com: Polls indicate 17 percent of consumers will shop on this terrifying day, up from 12 percent last year [but] you’re pretty much guaranteed to find deals leading up to Christmas, after Black Friday and Brown Thursday and what — Gray Wednesday? Where is Nicki Minaj to name a day of the week when you need her? [Nymag]
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