The annual fights across America during Black Friday have thankfully lessened as the years press on, but that doesn’t mean the unsightly trend has completely halted.
Outside a Forever 21 in Pennsylvania, video captured a fight breaking out between two young men that erupted into a battle royale, as the fever of rage infected the surrounding bystanders like a viral contagion.
“The scuffle initially appears to involve two young men, but as they fall to the ground others become involved,” reported The Sun. “Some join the melee, pushing and punching the two men, while others appear to be trying to break the fight up.”
As the brawl continued, a man behind the camera could be heard shouting: “Yo, Kemi, Kemi, baby, what’s going on?”
Wild 😂 #blackfriday #fight #BlackFriday2019 pic.twitter.com/mcDZuAGPI4
— custom iphones (@iphones4sale145) November 29, 2019
At a Walmart in Dallas, Texas, photos captured a crowd of people fighting each other over a collection of SmartTVs. “Took selfies w/the Black Friday fight at Walmart,” Twitter user Angel Garcia said as he shared the ferocious scene.
Took selfies w/the Black Friday fight at Walmart pic.twitter.com/B37t4J7EGF
— Angel Garcia (@boffathesenuts) November 29, 2019
Fortunately, the fights and brawls during Black Friday have slowly petered off over the past few years, which may indeed become a thing of the past as Americans move toward cyber retailers.
“Passions still flare in stores, but Black Friday has become increasingly sedate as it stretches into Black November and shoppers find deals online through events like Amazon’s Prime Day and Cyber Monday,” The New York Times reported in 2018. “Walmart, Target and other retailers are also trying to keep customer frustration under control by equipping employees with mobile checkout technology, uploading store maps to their apps and offering shoppers free coffee and snacks this year.”
However, as cyber shopping becomes the norm, new problems have arisen. As CNBC reported, websites for major retail outlets experienced technical difficulties due to a surge in web traffic:
Costco’s website went down entirely for a brief period of time early on Thanksgiving Day. Costco.com was experiencing “intermittent slow load and transaction times” starting late Wednesday, according to website performance monitor Catchpoint.
By Friday morning, Costco had a banner on its website that said “all Thanksgiving Day-only promotions have been extended into Friday, November 29th, WHILE SUPPLIES LAST.”
Apparel retailer H&M’s website was also down for a short period, less than 5 minutes, on Thanksgiving morning, Catchpoint said. The site also had intermittent outages on Friday morning.
Nordstrom Rack customers also reported some technical issues.
The website monitor also said Home Depot’s website had “slow load times” during the middle of the day on Thanksgiving.
In fact, according to The Washington Post, Black Friday arrived with an anti-climactic thud this year with some stores reporting no shoppers at all despite the massive promotions leading up to the big shopping day.
“Macy’s was ready for Black Friday,” reported the outlet. “Shelves were stacked high with $25 fragrance sets and $15.99 puffy jackets. Signs promised ‘incredible doorbusters’ and 75 percent off silver jewelry. But when the store at the Arlington, Va., mall opened at 6 a.m., an employee rolled up the gate to the first floor entrance and shrugged. There were no shoppers in sight.”
One shopper reported going through a Gap in Pentagon City seeing hardly any faces amidst a sea of 50% off signs.
“I thought it was going to be packed,” said the shopper. “But no. All I see are 50-off signs and no people.”
“This is nothing compared to previous years,” said another shopper. “The sales are better, but the crowds are light.”
The times, they are a-changin’.