Fights break out over cheap TVs as Black Friday dawns in UK
Print Edition
POLICE blasted stores for bringing “Black Friday” to Britain, with the United States sales event descending into fist fights as frenzied consumers battled to grab discounted goods.
In scenes of pandemonium around the country, common civility went out the window as customers wrestled one another to secure cut-price televisions and coffee makers.
Police in Manchester said three people were arrested as the sales spiralled “out of control” after stores in the city in northwest England opened at midnight.
“The events of last night were totally predictable and I’m disappointed that stores did not have sufficient security staff on duty,” said Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Peter Fahy.
“This created situations where we had to deal with crushing, disorder and disputes.”
His deputy Ian Hopkins said they had to close several outlets of Tesco.
“It’s been akin to a mini-riot in some of the stores,” he said.
“A lady’s had her wrist broken, a member of the public in a wheelchair had a TV dropped on them and a security guard in one of the stores has been punched.”
They urged stores to learn the lessons for next year and work with the police to reduce the risks of disorder.
Jamie Hook was buying food at the Stretford Tesco in Manchester late on Thursday when “the screaming started.”
“I looked at the massive crowd to see people climbing over shelves and displays, staff running for cover, fights breaking out, stock flying through the air, people breaking through carrying televisions — and this was before the sale had even started,” he was quoted as saying by the BBC.
Shaun Thompson, 21, said he saw a female member of staff in the store with what appeared to be a black eye.
“It just went mad. People were shouting their heads off and a few minutes after that it exploded,” he said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was quite scary.”
Furious exchanges
Footage from an Asda outlet in Wembley, northwest London, showed security staff struggling to contain a crowd of shoppers grappling for cheap TVs.
Some customers had to be separated amid furious exchanges, while two women were seen wrestling over a TV.
London police sergeant Paul Marshall said on Twitter: “Even on Black Friday shoving people to the floor so you can get 20 pounds off a coffee maker is still an assault.”
The Black Friday event takes place in the US the day after the Thanksgiving holiday.
The surge in spending is said to make it the day when retailers finally show a profit for the year, or go “into the black.”
With no national holiday in late November, people in Britain had no reason to notice the day until online retailer Amazon brought its Black Friday sales across the Atlantic in 2010.
Last year marked the first time major UK store groups like John Lewis and Asda participated in a serious way, but this year saw the trend explode across the British retail sector.
A survey commissioned by Barclays found that 65 percent of British retailers planned to take part in the event.
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