Black Friday has some seeing red / Some shoppers frantic for biggest savings literally fight crowds in Top of Utah stores
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By JaNAE FRANCIS
Standard-Examiner staff
jfrancis@standard.net
CLINTON -- The cliché about shoppers fighting the crowds for a good deal was true Friday.
Jeanne Hock sported a red, scratched neck and dig marks on her arm as she told of being attacked in the early morning rush over a child-sized, drivable car that she'd stood next to since 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving at the 24-hour Walmart Supercenter, waiting for the holiday sale to begin.
"I had a hold of it, and she's, like, choking me," Hock said. She said the woman who attacked her was also at the time sitting on top of her friend, Ashlee Van Voris.
"I've never been hit in my life, not over a toy," Van Voris said of the experience.
"She was underneath the box," said Mindi Fletcher, pointing to Van Voris. She said she, Hock and the woman who did the choking were on top of it.
The three Clinton women discussed their battle while standing in a checkout line 20 carts deep just moments after the 5 a.m. scheduled start of the sale.
Black Friday, as the day after Thanksgiving has come to be known, brought near pandemonium at some Top of Utah stores.
A shopper at Sears in Riverdale reported being so confused in a huge crowd of people that he gave up trying to buy a $600 washer and dryer set shortly after the store opened at 5 a.m., because store clerks could not tell him in a timely manner whether the items were in stock.
Checkout lines at Toys "R" Us in Layton were reported to reach from one end of the store to the other just moments after that store opened early Friday.
Screams rang out at 5 a.m. at Walmart when store clerks, doubling as store security, stepped away from a display of remote-controlled helicopters and cars as shoppers scrambled for their share of the bounty.
Another shopper said she was smashed by a man who pushed a cart at her as she tried to grab a toy.
"I don't think I'm ever doing this again," said Shauna Cooper, who drove from her Eagle Mountain home to reach the sale. "I'm going to take a Xanax and chill somewhere."
Alisa Graham, of North Ogden, said she had to hold up a stack of Hannah Montana guitars that plug into the television to keep them from falling down on other shoppers as they grabbed for them.
Other stores with advertised "door-buster" savings stayed busy, but without such confusion.
An orderly crowd filed into Staples in Layton at 6 a.m. Friday. The buyers of a handful of the hottest-priced items already had been determined as early arrivals were handed vouchers guaranteeing their sale.
As doors opened, these first-in-line shoppers gathered at a prespecified table where employees traded the items for the vouchers.
"It's calm here," said Danelle Birch, of North Layton. "We came for this camera, but they only had six of them. When we got here at 5:30, they were gone."
She also was at the store for a rotating digital image frame for $40, which she did find.
But Birch and her husband, Pete, managed to spend $80 more on three flash-drive memory cards, which they decided to buy while standing in the checkout line for 15 minutes.
These calm shoppers were not the only ones who were polite Friday.
There were many shoppers at even the busiest stores who made pacts with strangers to get items for each other in opposite ends of stores.
Graham was fighting the crowds on a mission of charity. She and eight of her friends had each adopted a child from the Salvation Army for Christmas.
After carefully studying the advertisements Thursday, most of the group members split up to hit stores in different areas of town.
The group targeted Davis County stores they believed would be less busy.
"We live in North Ogden, and so we typically go to the Harrisville Walmart," she said. "We heard rumors that the Clinton Walmart was less busy."
At 3:45 a.m., Roy Boy Scouts Austin and Josh Weeks started helping shoppers with the biggest loads get to their cars in the Clinton Walmart parking lot.
On the way, hoping their good deeds would help their own sales, they would tell the shoppers about the popcorn and treats they were peddling to earn their way to the national Jamboree.
Retailers were speculating that Friday's sales would be closely watched by the nation.
In a news release inviting the media to cover sales at his stores, R.C. Willey CEO Scott Hymas called this year's Christmas shopping period "the most scrutinized Black Friday and holiday shopping period in decades."
Black Friday is a reference to the first day of the Christmas shopping season and the time when retailers are assumed to be making a profit for the year, or moving from red ink to black on their books.
Brent Parkin, senior general manager for Newgate Mall in Ogden, said there is a pronounced emphasis this year among retailers to create as many sales as possible.
"I don't know if (retailers) are doing things differently, but they are trying to maximize their opportunities," he said.
"I think everyone is working hard to capture as many retail sales as they can."
GGP, the parent company that owns the mall, offered a chance to win a free computer or a flat-screen television by giving shoppers at any of their stores in the country a code and instructions for sending a text.
"Other years, we have given gift bags and opportunities to win gift cards by coming early, but we don't have to do that. They can do it by texting," Parkin said.
One trend he has noticed this year is more people shopping locally who normally shop in other areas.
"I think more are staying at home."
Add Your Comment
Don't you love the way people pretend to be someone else to justify bad behavior. This only proves one thing. That Carl Marx was right. If you say it loud enough and long enough people will believe it.
Anyway, enjoy selling your cars on ebay. You and walmart can enjoy your ill gotten booty. Again, we won't be supporting walmart. People actually died in other parts of the country because of walmarts greed. I hope they get sued for millions.
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