Sale! This sweet word excites the blood of shopping lovers, as well as sellers dreaming of an influx of customers.
However, the days of the biggest sales, such as Black Friday (the first Friday after Thanksgiving in the US) or Christmas sales can turn into a real nightmare. After all, there are so many people who want to buy, and so few goods.
This is what causes the incidents described in our top 10 most shocking sales incidents. After reading them, you will understand why the best strategy during sales is to stay home and order goods online.
10. Stabbing brawl over lack of parking spaces
Finding a parking spot is a challenge even on a normal day when stores aren't teeming with anxious shoppers. But on Black Friday, finding a parking spot near a store can be as difficult as snatching a box of your favorite merchandise from another shopper (more on that below). That's what happened in 2013 to Ronnie Sharp, 61, and Christopher Jackson, 35, who got into a fight over the only parking spot in a Walmart parking lot in Virginia.
The argument quickly escalated, with Mr. Sharp threatening Mr. Jackson with a gun and also pulling out a knife. He ended up stabbing Jackson in the arm. The police were called and both men were charged: Sharp with causing injury and brandishing a firearm, and Jackson with disorderly conduct, assault and battery. Both men were released on bail. Needless to say, neither made it to the sale.
9. Tug of war
While many Black Friday shoppers are adults, their actions sometimes suggest otherwise. In 2017, four shoppers competed for a single TV box at a foreign store. One of the competitors quickly dropped out, but the other three continued to fight until store employees separated them.
8. Rain of laptops
In many cases, the quantity of merchandise available at a discounted price is limited. At Walmart in Orlando, Florida, a discounted price on laptops caused a scuffle among shoppers trying to get into the electronics section.
According to eyewitnesses, employees, in an attempt to stop the fight, began throwing laptops into the air for customers to catch.
7. Death and injury due to discounts
The Chinese are no strangers to discounts. And for their sake they are ready to put pressure on their neighbors, literally. This happened in November 2007 in the city of Chongqing during an advertising campaign to mark the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Carrefour supermarket.
A crowd of shoppers formed a stampede outside the store, leaving three dead and 31 injured.
6. Assault on Media Markt
On the night of January 9, 2004, in the Polish city of Lodz, two stores of the Media Markt chain were stormed. However, it was not the security forces who initiated it, but ordinary customers who learned about significant discounts.
It is a miracle that no one died, because there were about 3,000 people at the entrances to the hypermarket at the time. As a result of the crush, 12 people were injured, they received damage to the chest and limbs.
5. "Summer Sensation"
Do you think that only the Chinese, Americans and Europeans can fight each other for goods with a big discount? Well, the Russians also know how to conduct aggressive sales. In 2009, a mass crush occurred in one of the Moscow stores of the Eldorado chain. And all because of the "summer sensation" - Acer laptops with a 17-inch display, priced at 9,999 rubles.
Information about the sale was published on the Eldorado website, but the company did not calculate the size of the promotional batch of laptops (there were only 250 of them). It also did not foresee the number of people wishing to acquire a cheap device. Eldorado employees even had to call the police to restore order.
It is funny that during this promotion some customers were left with a laptop but did not receive a receipt for it, while others went to print a receipt, but by that time the laptops had already been snatched from the display cases. Eldorado management then stated that the “checked in” customers would definitely receive their goods.
4. Sparks are flying
Women are ready to fight sales no less (or even more) actively than men. On Black Friday 2013, a fight broke out in a Philadelphia mall over an unknown product.
The two women got into a verbal and then physical altercation. One of the women pulled out a stun gun and used it on her to break her grip. Bystanders intervened to break up the fight and called mall security. The fighters were later escorted out of the store, empty-handed, of course.
3. 1 item = 1 ruble
And this sale took place not so long ago - in September 2019, in Vladikavkaz. One of the local stores held a promotion called "1 item = 1 ruble", and a lot of people came to it, mostly women of different ages.
The most impatient ones almost broke down the doors and literally threw themselves at the shelves with things, while the store staff retreated in horror. And some of those who did not get things tried to take the goods from more fortunate customers.
2. Didn't run away
Waiting for discounts can be a torturous experience for many. In 2008, at a Walmart on Long Island, the wait was too long for the crowd that had gathered, who eventually stormed the store. Employees had to step out of the way as people “ripped the doors off their hinges” in their haste.
During the stampede, one employee was unable to escape and was trampled to death by a crowd of more than 200 people. Four more people were injured during the pogroms.
1. Death in the sewers
One of the most horrific incidents related to sales occurred in December 2001 in the city of Dunyapur, Pakistan.
A local soap manufacturer organized a large-scale campaign for residents of nearby villages, offering their goods at a very attractive price. But the path to the trading stalls, located in the town square, led through a wooden platform that passed over a 15-meter sewer manhole. You probably already guessed what happened next.
Unable to bear the weight of the people, the platform collapsed. As a result of this tragedy, 14 women and children died, another 15 were pulled out of the well, they were seriously injured.
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