Crime & Safety
Black Friday: Too Much?
The city's big retailers were packed for midnight and early-morning deals, while across the country violence squelched the holiday spirit.
The busiest shopping day of the year? Check. The most wonderful time of the year? Well, we're not sure.
Macy’s Herald Square store had an estimated 9,000 people were waiting outside for its Black Friday midnight opening, according to officials who spoke with the New York Times. The earliest had arrived four hours before the doors opened.
The Times also reports that 300 people lined up outside of the Best Buy in Union Square for deals on electronics, while the Times Square Toys ‘R Us opened at 9 p.m. Thanksgiving night to accommodate shoppers. Old Navy was open throughout Thanksgiving Day itself.
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Old Navy, which was giving out digital cameras to the first customers through the door, was joined by H&M and Bloomingdale’s in giving out prizes and coupons as incentive for shoppers to drop their forks and head to the stores.
The night of free-for-all shopping wasn’t without incident, of course, as the Observer reports that the Soho Hollister was burglarized by angry and impatient Black Friday shoppers. A shopper in San Leandro, CA, was shot in a Wal-Mart parking lot after refusing to give up his purchases, according to ABC. And at a Porter Ranch, CA Wal-Mart, a woman used pepper spray to knock out 20 people in order to purchase an Xbox, according to the LA Times. The report also notes that a shooting at a Wal-Mart in South Carolina may be tied to Black Friday, as well.
