Thanksgiving is not only an amazing holiday where families get together and spend quality time together but also a holiday that brings Black Friday. The Retail Sales for online shopping in the United States is $1.33 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively. The sales increase yearly for online retail. People become so competitive that they get into careless injuries. In the last seven years, there has been four deaths and seventy-six injuries. To take advantage of Black Friday, about 5.1 million Canadians crossed the US border.
There have always been violent shopping injuries during Black Friday such as:
In 2008, a mob of unruly shoppers broke down the doors and trampled a temporary Wal-Mart worker and two shoppers to death on Black Friday in Valley Stream, N.Y.
A crowd of shoppers storms the gate to Urban Outfitters just after midnight inside the Thousand Oaks Mall in California in 2011. Hundreds of people destroyed the gate to the store, knocking down the metal detectors in the process.
When the doors opened at a North Buffalo, N.Y., Target store on Black Friday in 2010, the crowd waiting outside turned into a chaotic mob. Several shoppers were injured as they were crushed trying to get through the door.
Several people were injured in 2005 when a Wal-Mart store in Grand Rapids, Mich., opened its doors to a stampede of customers.
In 2010, several people were injured while fighting over towels that cost $1.28 at a WalMart on Black Friday in Atlanta, Texas.
In 2011, a woman at a Porter Ranch, Calif., Wal-Mart used pepper spray on shoppers battling for XBox 360 video game units. Roughly 20 people were injured.
Online shopping during Black Friday prevents anyone from getting injured, but the ones who shop at the stores need to take precautions to avoid getting hurt. According to CNN, “OSHA and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970” focus primarily on employers providing workers with safe and healthy workplaces, but their guidelines speak to preventing all injuries at retail sales events” specifically to Black Friday.
In addition CNN also reported, “According to the guidelines, there should be adequate security, and sufficient crowd control measures. A store is not automatically liable if a customer sucker-punches another customer over an X-Box, but it may be liable if the assault were foreseeable and the failure of security measures contributed to the assault”. Overall, people will be liable if they are injured by unsafe and known conditions. This is, especially if stores fail to take necessary security measures for the safety of all customers.
Enjoy Thanksgiving and Black Friday but use safety tips to avoid getting injured.
