Horrific Black Friday frenzy fells bargain hunters
WHAT HEELS: The Walmart shopper who spritzed bargain-hunting rivals with pepper spray in suburban Los Angeles has turned herself in to authorities, Reuters reports:
The woman, who was not publicly identified, surrendered at the Los Angeles Police Department's Northridge station on Friday night, about 24 hours after the pepper-spray incident, and was released on her own recognizance, police said. …
"The investigation is ongoing," police Sergeant Jose Valle told Reuters. "We still have additional victims and witnesses to interview before we determine what action needs to be taken." …
Authorities said the woman then grabbed one of the consoles, quickly purchased it and left the scene as fire department personnel arrived to treat about 20 people who were injured by the spray, including some children.
The woman, who has not yet been charged or booked, could be prosecuted for battery.
Meanwhile, Black Friday shopper Walter Vance collapsed while shopping for Christmas decorations at a Target in South Charleston, WVA, and died in the hospital. WSAZ.com reports that some shoppers walked around and even over the stricken man's body:
One of the late night shoppers tells WSAZ.com what really disturbs her about the situation was the lack of concern by the rest of the shoppers.
An E.R. nurse happened to be one of the late night shoppers and tried to administer CPR. She and an off-duty paramedic who was also shopping did try to help Vance while he was on the floor.
Black Friday used to be known as the turning point when retailers realized their first profits of the year but has recently come to symbolize people’s worst instincts (“Pepper-sprayed customers, smash-and-grab looters and bloody scenes in the shopping aisles.”), leading The Associated Press to ask, “How did Black Friday devolve into this?”:
[E]xperts say a volatile mix of desperate retailers and cutthroat marketing has hyped the traditional post-Thanksgiving sales to increasingly frenzied levels. With stores opening earlier, bargain-obsessed shoppers often are sleep-deprived and short-tempered. Arriving in darkness, they also find themselves vulnerable to savvy parking-lot muggers.
Add in the online-coupon phenomenon, which feeds the psychological hunger for finding impossible bargains, and you've got a recipe for trouble, said Theresa Williams, a marketing professor at Indiana University. …
"The difference this year is that instead of a nice sweater you need a bullet proof vest and goggles," said Betty Thomas, 52, who was shopping Saturday with her sisters and a niece at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, N.C.
Perhaps the Occupy Wall Streeters would have done us all a favor had they succeeded in disrupting Black Friday sales just enough to tamp down some of the frenzy. Alas, they were inept and disorganized, as always.
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