Black Friday madness

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Fights break out at Asda as shoppers descend on Black Friday deals

US tradition of post-Thanksgiving discounts brings scrambles to stores in UK with customers eager for cut-price electrical goods

Shoppers desperate for bargains caused chaos in Asda stores on Friday as the Walmart-owned supermarket brought the US tradition of Black Friday to Britain.

Customers scrambled and pushed to snatch cut-price electrical goods after queueing for several hours outside Asda stores around the country.

Shoppers took to the social media site Twitter to describe early morning queues and fights. A woman in Merseyside was reportedly taken to hospital in the morning after being assaulted in a queue outside an Asda store. A man was arrested in Bristol after another fracas. 

There were similarly frenzied scenes at Asda in Benton, North Tyneside, where some shelves were cleared in minutes as shoppers overran the store. Margaret Green, 55, from North Tyneside, told newswires: "It was bedlam, chaos. It was absolutely jam-packed. There was lots of screaming and shouting. I'm surprised there weren't people on the floor. I found it disgusting. It was horrific." 

Asda said it had tried to ensure safety by putting security guards in all its stores. A spokesman said: "This is the first time Black Friday has been done on this scale in stores across the UK and our customers were eager to take advantage of the great offers available to them. We planned for high demand and the half a million Black Friday products on offer to our customers have been selling quickly since 8am." The store group knew certain products would be popular, but "no one expected some of them to be sold out within a few hours", it added. 

The US tradition of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when shops cut prices to encourage sales on what is a national holiday on other side of the Atlantic, is gathering pace in the UK. It is being driven by US retailers with a presence in Britain, including Apple, Amazon and Asda. 

British retailers, including John Lewis and Dixons, have also begun offering special deals on electrical goods to encourage shoppers to spend early. 

Amazon has been offering discounts all week while Asda, owned by the US retailer Walmart, had discounts of up to 70% on products including plasma TVs and tablets.


 Vocabulary:

to break out -
to descend on sth -

deal (v, n) -
scramble (v, n) -
eager (adj) -
cut-price (adj) -

goods -

a bargain -
to snatch -

queue (v, n) -
to assault -

arrest (v, n) -

a fracas -

frenzied (adj) -

a shelf -

to overrun -

a newswire -

bedlam -

jam-packed (adj) -

to ensure -

on this scale -

to take advantage of sth/sb -

a retailer -

to encourage -
up to 70% -

Comments

José said…
When the bargains begin, the TVE gives a pictures of stores (Usually from The Corte Inglés) assaulted by an eager shoppers. They show a frenzied crowd entering in store across a narrow door. It seems like a bedlam in a movie of war. I already see that in other countries is the same, although the face of Spanish people is different. I think.

Hi Graham,

I think we are a bit foolish. If I see “bargain” in a good, I take it without check it´s true. It´s psychological. We buy goods what we don´t need it. I know that several companies (maybe all) make goods only for bargains. I´m sure that I won´t be never on a queue for several hours, although they give me goods free. Regards. José.
Sunday, 29 December, 2013
Graham said…
Hi José,

Happy New Year!

How are you enjoying the hols?


When the bargains begin, the TVE broadcasts pictures of stores (usually from The Corte Inglés) (being) assaulted by eager shoppers. They show a frenzied crowd *entering the store through a narrow door. It seems like bedlam in a war movie. I have seen that it is the same in other countries, although *I think that the face of Spanish people is different.

In what way are Spanish faces at the sales different? Are they less serious?

* No preposition after "enter".
* Try not to put "think" at the end of a sentence.


I think we are a bit foolish. If I see “bargain” on a good, I take it without checking to see if it´s true. It´s psychological. We buy goods which we don´t need. I know that several companies (maybe all) make goods only for the sales. I´m sure that I wouldn't ever stand in a queue for several hours, even if they gave me the goods for free.

I try to avoid the sales, *as crowds looking for bargains annoy me.

So I doubt we will bump into each other hunting for bargains.

*as = because

See you on Tuesday.


Saturday, 04 January, 2014
Graham said…
José,

PS It's good to see you using vocabulary fro the article - keep up the good work.
Saturday, 04 January, 2014
José said…
Thank you very much great teacher. Happy New Year and see you. José.
Saturday, 04 January, 2014
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