If capitalism were a religion, Black Friday would be one of its most sacred celebrations. The day after Thanksgiving has had its fair share of incidents of overzealous consumerism, and here we look at 10 of the most absurd examples of how the need to shop, on Black Friday or otherwise, has manifested into madness. It is our hope that this list will serve as a reminder to keep your shopping missions within the realm of reasonability this weekend.
10. Fresno, Calif.: PS3 riot
The PlayStation 3 release on Nov. 17, 2006 was the subject of a number of violent incidents of consumerism. Police used nightsticks at a store riot in Fresno to push back shoppers desperate to get their hands on a PS3. Two were arrested after trampling other shoppers in the Best Buy parking lot.
9. Torrance, Calif.: Gift certificate stampede
Black Friday 2006 resulted in hospitalization for one California woman who was seriously injured in a 2000-person stampede at a shopping mall. The stampede was instigated when as a promotion, the mall dropped some 500 free gift certificates from the ceiling for prize hunters to collect.
8. Sunrise, Fla.: BrandsMart stampede
A 72 year-old woman was hospitalized on Black Friday 2005 when she was literally trampled by a panicked rush of shoppers trying to get into the store when it opened. Shoppers stomped on the woman’s back as they hastily ran into the store, dying to get their hands on the scarce deals.
7. McLean, Va.: Shopper riot pepper-sprayed
Police in Virginia used pepper pellets to control a crowd of about 200 outside a Circuit City store before the 2006 PS3 launch. At least one of the shoppers was hospitalized in the incident and several others were arrested trying to purchase one of the store’s few PS3s that day.
6. Lincoln, Neb.: Wal-Mart product fight
The desperate battle for a limited number of discounted HP Pavilion notebooks turned violent in a Wal-Mart on Black Friday 2005, when several shoppers were shoved to the ground just after picking up one of the prized computers. Other shoppers tried to violently seize the product from their fellow shoppers’ hands after pushing them down.
5. West Bend, Wis.: Pole injury
A Wisconsin man was hospitalized after another PS3 stampede, when he was shoved head-first by other shoppers into a Wal-Mart flagpole. He suffered serious head and bodily injuries, and was taken to the hospital after the stampede.
4. Wilmington, N.C.: PlayStation battery, death
A student at UNC Wilmington was severely beaten by three other students in a robbery of two PS3s, shortly after the scarce product’s 2006 release. The incident got worse later when police, trying to retrieve the PS3s in the execution of a search warrant, fatally shot one of the robbers at his home.
3. Sullivan, Ind.: PlayStation knifing
A man who had waited in line for more than 36 hours to buy a PS3 was willing to defend his position by any means necessary. When two men attempted to rob the shopper of his prized possession, he stabbed one of the men nearly to death in the parking lot of a Super Wal-Mart.
2. Englewood, Ohio: Employee hold-up
The PS3 release of 2006 wasn’t just a dangerous day for shoppers. Two men clad in black ski masks and sunglasses robbed two employees at an Ohio video game store of their PS3 inventory at gunpoint, just before the release.
1. New Putnam, Conn.: Armed robbery
A man waiting in line for a PS3 during the 2006 release was hospitalized when two robbers demanded the $2,500 the man had brought with him to purchase several of the consoles, shot him in the chest and fled. The man initially refused to leave the line despite his injury, but paramedics eventually convinced him to go to the hospital. He survived the incident.
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