Lines, Lockdowns And Lunacy: Top 5 Black Friday Melees
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The ultimate boost to U.S. retailers and the economy at large from the "Black Friday" sales still remains to be seen, but reports from local malls and shopping centers around the nation point to a disturbing trend: shoppers are increasingly less concerned with public safety in pursuit of holiday discounts.
Here are the top five worst examples of consumerism run amok in the nation's malls and shopping centers during the "Black Friday" sales:
1. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were called to the Los Cerritos Center mall in Cerritos around 2:30 a.m. on Friday following a midnight opening afterreports that a half-dozen men got into a fight in the food court.
2. Crowds impatiently waiting outside a Target store in Buffalo, New York early Friday morning suddenly become chaotic once the doors opened, trampling at least one man waiting in line:
3. Police were called in to evacuate an unruly crowd at a Wal-Mart in Sacramento after there were reports of "pushing and shoving", although store employees sought to downplay the incident.
4. A near-riot broke out at one Wal-Mart in Texas, when customers began shoving each other out of the way to get closer to discounted items:
5. Police say they arrested a female shopper in Middleton, Wisconsin for allegedly threatening to use a gun against fellow shoppers who objected as she moved to the front of a check-out line.
Maybe next year shoppers may want to skip the brick-and-mortar outlets and wait for "Cyber Monday" instead, which some analysts say is poised to boast sales figures of between $900 million and $1 billion this year.
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