{"id":5120,"date":"2011-11-25T17:13:33","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T22:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=5120"},"modified":"2011-11-28T11:10:41","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T16:10:41","slug":"black-and-blue-friday-for-walmart-shoppers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/11\/25\/black-and-blue-friday-for-walmart-shoppers\/","title":{"rendered":"Black (and blue) Friday for Walmart shoppers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian Mann blogged earlier about all the attention<\/a> Saranac Lake’s community store is getting…now here’s another, altogether weirder, retail story:<\/p>\n

Today’s Black Friday, the day when businesses across the country look to break even\u2014get \u201cinto the black\u201d. Some 152 million people are expected to holiday shop today, tomorrow and Sunday. And they\u2019re expected to spend nearly $500 billion during the holiday shopping season, or about 3 percent more than they did last year.<\/p>\n

Over the last few years the competitive shopping has become more and more extreme\u2026And things seem to have gotten particularly weird<\/a> at the giant discount retailer Walmart.<\/p>\n

Already today a woman at a Southern California Walmart pepper sprayed other shoppers <\/a>in her effort to get a good deal on electronics; and a man was found shot overnight<\/a> after an attempted robbery in the parking lot of a Bay-area walmart. And the AP reports a fifty-four year old man was bloodied by police<\/a> at an Arizona walmart\u2014they say he was trying to shoplift a video game while shopping with his grandson.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just the Walmarts of the Southwest that are the site of black Friday violence\u2026<\/p>\n

Police say two women have been injured and a man has been charged<\/a> after a fight broke out at an Onieda County Walmart store that had just let Black Friday shoppers into its electronics department.<\/p>\n

The County Sheriff’s Office tells the Post-Standard of Syracuse that several fights erupted shortly after 12:01 a.m. today near a cell phone display at the Wal-Mart in Rome, 35 miles east of Syracuse.<\/p>\n

Officials tell the newspaper that some shoppers were pushed to
\nthe floor and several fights broke out. Deputies say two women from Rome suffered back injuries in the melee.<\/p>\n

Police say a Rome man has been charged with disorderly conduct.
\nDeputies say charges are pending against other people.<\/p>\n

Now, I’m not trying to pick specifically on Walmart here…and I drove past the one in Ogdensburg earlier and nothing seemed to be going down. But, attention shoppers, what on earth is going on?<\/p>\n

Now–please enjoy the holiday season, and watch yourselves out there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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