Customers shopping for games at the Walmart in Porter Ranch, San Fernando, got a little more than they bargained for last night when they were blasted with pepper spray amidst scenes of commercial chaos.
Here’s the thing, though; the spraying wasn’t done by police or security. It was the result of one crazy woman, looking to get an edge over other shoppers.
By all accounts the store was a mess, as the video game section was “torn down”, and several of the 100 people “waiting in line to snag Xbox gaming consoles and Wii video games got into a shoving match”.
It was during this chaos that the woman blasted other shoppers with pepper spray.
“People started screaming, pulling and pushing each other, and then the whole area filled up with pepper spray,” one shopper told the LA Times. “I guess what triggered it was people started pulling the plastic off the pallets and then shoving and bombarding the display of games. It started with people pushing and screaming because they were getting shoved onto the boxes.”
Customers hit by pepper spray at Wal-Mart describe scene of chaos [LA Times]
Daniel
Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 10:40 AMhahaha why don’t they police and regulate these events? From what i hear, it seems to be a massive fighting match that ends in lives to get to a cheap game, when it doesn’t have to be. So what if you end up paying the proper price for the game. If you want it, you’ll pay for it. It’s like a 2 dollar store, people will just grab it because it’s cheap.
Mind you, it’s america – land of the un-free, civil unrest and economic recession.
noko
Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 10:58 AMIronic that some of these people might have also attended the OWS movement.
Splinton
Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 11:05 AMMore reason to feel safe in my decision to have my games Digitally Distributed. Or in console games cases, shipped.
Powalen
Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 1:05 PMSo… How much of a discount are we talking to get a crowd of people to this stage? I’ve never understood people who go crazy over 10-20% off…
Snacuum
Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 1:53 PMWhen I was over there I noticed that stores did not try so hard to push a competitive edge on each other so much. The sales I saw were relatively low key in comparison to the likes of JB or HN SALE SALE SALE!!!! promotions. Not to mention the fact that taxes and gst are considered external costs unrelated to the retailer.
When you consider this and the fact that, yes, Black Friday’s sales ARE ridiculous with huge price discounts: The Americans knee-jerk reaction to save some money.
-shinobi-
Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 3:16 PMDon’t worry guys, according to Fox News it’s ‘basically a food additive’. :P
Gaz
Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 4:40 PMWelcome to America ….
mchaza
Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 9:31 PMthankgod for steam, grabbing a bargin is as simple as pressing 3 clicks of a button. Now to buy that discounted mass effect 2.
Kotov
Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 12:17 PMCapitalism at its best!
N3RD1001101
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:39 AMThat photo-shopped image is an absolute pisser, its never going to get old…