Arrests and wounded people
Manchester police were forced to head to seven Tesco stores as huge discounts led to serious problems. Three men were arrested and one woman was hit by a “falling” television. Dundee, Glasgow, Cardiff and London experienced issues.
The police force has stated it was disappointed in store management and this type of situation could have been predicted and therefore avoided. Tesco says that only a few stores fell victim to the huge disarray.
Alongside the aforementioned issues, there were plenty of other incidents: 200 customers refused to leave a Middleton store, even after being told the entire supply had been sold. A Salford man got arrested because he threatened to punch an employee in the face.
There were some online issues as well: Tesco’s, Argos’s and John Lewis’s websites all crashed because of huge visitor numbers.
Black Friday used to be a typical American phenomenon, where the day after Thanksgiving was turned into a huge discount day for unsold inventory. It has now been blown over to European shores over the past few years.