Chaos at Wal-Marts

The retail giant decided to keep many of its stores open on Thanksgiving Day after a security guard was trampled to death last year when an impatient crowd rushed the doors. But Wal-Mart didn't put its Black Friday specials on sale until 5 a.m., and that led to a real mess in at least several locations, including a store in Upland. Customers already in the store apparently tore into shrink-wrapped items that were going on sale later that morning. The cops were called in and the store was closed for a couple of hours. From the LAT:

"This was without a doubt the worst I've ever seen it," said one employee, who said she has worked a dozen Black Fridays. "They wouldn't let people line up," she added. "They were belligerent. They just bombarded the store."

Wal-Mart had problems elsewhere. From the NYT:

In a Wal-Mart in Rolling Meadows, just outside of Chicago, the more aggressive bargain-hunters tried to rip open the plastic surrounding the stacks of eye-popping limited quantity deals -- known as doorbusters -- before the goods were officially on sale at 5 a.m. At the Wal-Mart in Tucson, Cristy Wilson, 27, got her "hot items" -- two Hannah Montana pink guitars -- but when another woman arrived late and tried to get past her, shopping carts and egos clashed. "She said some choice words; I said some choice words," Ms. Wilson said.

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And in some cases, Wal-Mart workers were as baffled as customers as to what was in stock and where in the store it was being sold. That was despite Wal-Mart posting store maps on its Web site. "People have been yelling at each other all night," said Jessica Storts, 21, who was shopping at a Wal-Mart in Columbus, Ohio. "The employees don't know where any of the sale stuff is. They didn't even get the newspaper fliers to the store until midnight, after they had already put everything out. Some employees asked me 'Where do these DVD players go?' Do I look like I know? I don't work here.' "

Hard to know whether these incidents were isolated. Wal-Mart has thousands of stores, and reports from other locations report few problems, apart from the usual pushing and shoving. I myself was baffled by ads that promised doorbuster sales at 5 a.m., even though the store was going to be open all night. Clearly, I wasn't alone.