As expected right off the bat there were injuries reported at stores across the country because of the Black Friday madness. In Covington, Washington a couple was struck by a man in an SUV. Both were airlifted to Harborview Hospital in Seattle.
In L.A. shoppers stormed into a Urban Outfitters, breaking glass and injuring 5 people. Explained here by Frank Shyong of the LA Times.
"Around midnight, at least 100 people had lined up for Urban Outfitters' Black Friday deals, which offered up to 50% off on some items. When the 12-foot all-glass double doors opened, the crowd pushed toward the doors and broke the left one.
Police officers were assigned to the general area but the store did not have its own security, Fine said.
An Urban Outfitters store manager declined to comment.
The store, which, ironically, features a stylized broken glass look to either side of the doors, was closed for a few minutes as injuries were treated and glass shards were swept away."
In Annapolis, Maryland, the Anne Arundel County police and the Baltimore Sun are reporting that a 14 year old boy was confronted by 5 men as he walked out of a store and then assaulted by one of the men. The 5 men ran off with the merchandise the 14 year old had purchased.
On this day not only are there injuries happening to shoppers but some of the workers of Wal Mart are refusing to work, due to how the company treats them. Wal Mart U.S president Bill Simon said "Only 26 protests occurred at stores last night and many of them did not include any Walmart associates,” However the pictures that are being posted on Twitter say something different, there seem to be many more people at these events, Bill Simon also said "last night" in his statement 26 protests can grow as the day proceeds. This again is a lack of understanding by Wal Mart executives. They do not care for their employees who are refusing to work and how they are treated, they only care if they work and don't talk. It again shows they do not value their workers because even if it is a minority of workers refusing to work, a good business who values employees would be open to talk to them, Wal Mart has not expressed such interests and are instead dismissing these crowds mostly of non-Wal Mart employees.
The day has been and will be filled with much more drama, from anything between injuries and workers having enough of it. We will see how the mainstream media will cover these stories, lackluster will probably be the performance.
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...]
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...]
[http://www.latimes.com/...]