The Dark Side of Capitalism

The Black Friday hype.

The deep discounts Black Friday is known for and a shortage of those items turned people ugly Friday morning at two New Jersey stores.

"It was a brawl, a little brawl. It was terrible," witness John Knight said.

At the Wal-Mart in Hamilton Township, Atlantic County, witnesses said Black Friday became "Black Eye" Friday among shoppers early Friday morning.

"Pushing, hitting, everything," shopper Yolanda Williams said.

"It was a big crowd, like 50 people, crowded in," shopper Ivanessa Rosado said.

Merchandise in short supply triggered very short tempers.

"They were fighting over the laptop or the Xbox, and they ran out of both of them. I think the store should have had more on them. They knew there was going to be a big dash like that," Knight said.

Is getting a smoking deal for a low quality laptop really that important?

Authorities said it took a dozen police officers to control a disorderly crowd in the store's electronics department after shoppers began forcibly removing items from the area and forcing their way past other people at cash registers. It was all part of a violent and chaotic morning that required police from two communities to descend on the Wal-Mart and a nearby Circuit City, after crowds of more than 1,000 people at each store engaged in what police describe as mob-like behavior, which began with a rush to get inside around 6 a.m.

Unreal.

I must admit, I once waited in line at 5am in front of a mall inorder to participate in the mad Furby rush of '98. It got pretty heated as the toy store was in the mall kind of between two entrances. When the doors opened, it was a mad dash for the Kay-Bee. It was ugly. But I scored two Furbies which I promptly flipped for a handsome proft.

Capitalism ain't all bad, after all.

Economics and Markets Posted by AlexC at November 25, 2005 9:49 PM