The day after Thanksgiving is usually a time to relax and enjoy oneself, unless one goes Black Friday shopping. People who want to score the best deals before the holidays go to stores like Walmart, Macy’s, and Best Buy to get different items, but Black Friday is becoming more known for something other than the great deals; it is becoming known for the madness that ensues while shopping that day. Often times, violence is reported during Black Friday when a shopper does not get a certain item but instead another shopper does. This can often leads to some type of physical confrontation. These fights have led to an increase in security in stores during the shopping sprees. This year was no different than any other year, as fights continued to occur across America on Black Friday, despite the increase in security.

Black Friday madness kicked off when a video surfaced of four adult men fighting over a toy car at a Walmart store. The video shows the four adults trying to pry the box with the toy car away. Eventually, two of the adults remained fighting for the car before a worker at the store took the box away and told the men that none of them would be getting the toy car. Sophomore Charlie Ben-Ami had a strong opinion about the incident “I think it is terrible people care enough about the sales to fight over [the toy car].” Sophomore Jake McDonald agreed, “This shows that people are selfish and that there should be more security in stores on Black Friday.”

Black Friday customers also had to deal with the long lines that come with shopping on that day. Customers tried to get creative in their attempts to cut the line and get to the front  in order to escape the madness quicker. According to Daily Mail, some customers used employee vests to get in front of the line. These customers were said to have obtained these vest from prior employment, or purchasing them online. It is unclear if any of these attempts to cut the line worked.

With all of the madness that occurs in the stores on Black Friday, increased in security has played a major role in keeping people safe. Although the security is tight, many scuffles and skirmishes still occur as a result of the sales on this day. Sophomore Evan Ostroff is calling for even tighter security on Black Friday to avoid the brawls in stores: “There should be a change by making [Black Friday] less chaotic and more organized. They should allow certain amount of people in the store at a time, so it is not overcrowded.”

McDonald agrees: “I think there should be a little more security, other than that, nothing should change.” Many stores have hired more security to try and make the day a safer day for all the people involved, and it may be paying dividends. Since 2006, ten people have been killed, and over 100 people have been injured in Black Friday incidents, according to WFMY-TV in North Carolina. There were no fatalities this year and few people were injured, so the increased amount of security seems to help make Black Friday safer.

Black Friday may continue to be a chaotic day for years to come. People will continue to fight to get what they want, as the sales can prove to be worth all the chaos that comes with it. Although security will continue to get better, Black Friday will always be a day in which fights will start and people will get hurt, due to the madness of great money-saving deals.