American consumers are often lambasted by outsiders for their questionable behavior on Black Friday – or now Gray Thursday – as they scuffle, yell profanities and beat up their own grandmother to get $50 off a Polaroid television. Well, now that type of behavior has inflicted British consumers, too.
New video footage is making the rounds showing hordes of Britons trampling and fighting each other to get their hands on a line of HD LED televisions. Things got so bad that the police were called to locations in Dundee, Glasgow, Cardiff and London after reports of arguments and possible injuries.
Although the cops say only a small number of stores were affected by the madness of Black Friday, they did say the results were predictable and criticized shop security for their lack of preparation and handling of the situations. Nevertheless, it is a sign that Black Friday has now become a British tradition, too.
A few incidents from Wembley and Manchster, predominantly at Tesco stores, are gaining international notoriety, especially images of one woman who held onto a television and was being dragged. As one tweet noted, “This woman just won #BlackFriday in the UK http://huff.to/1rChu0Z @dkaszor @noahlove @HuffPostUK.”
This woman just won #BlackFriday in the UK http://t.co/ID5rkY3Zhm @dkaszor @noahlove @HuffPostUK pic.twitter.com/Bwyj26Y1Eq
— James Martin (@ByJamesMartin) November 28, 2014
BBC News outlined an in-depth list of what transpired at Tesco stores on Black Friday in England: fights unfolded in Stretford and one woman had been injured by a falling television; a Salford man was arrested for allegedly threatening to assault a staff member; a woman’s wrist was broken after a stampede; 200 shoppers refused to leave the store when they were informed the stock had gone; and one man was arrested for assault.
“We have definitely hit a tipping point and this has become a permanent part of the British retail calendar,” said Bryan Roberts, an analyst at Kantar Retail, in an interview with the London Telegraph.
The most interesting aspect of the footage is that it is quite similar to those images of African men, women and children holding their hands out for bags of rice. The footage now awaits from the United States and Canada.
