These Black Friday Shoppers Could Make You Avoid the Stores

I worked in a Best Buy for a few years. The one that definitely takes the cake was the time my general manager had to call the police and fire departments when a family became irate when he told them they couldn't deep-fry their Thanksgiving turkey in the parking lot.

They started threatening to torch cars and burn the store down.

| JQuilty

2. A dreadful deal

I've worked for Best Buy for three and a half years now. One year I go in at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving to prep for our midnight opening.

We hand out tickets at 9 for the doorbusters. A few of the people at the front of the line aren't there to keep the product, just sell it for profit. One lady sells her ticket to someone closer to the middle who didn't get one.

The "buyer" gives her $200 cash. When she gets inside to pick up her TV that was on sale for $200 she insists she paid for the TV already. She couldn't comprehend the fact that she bought a ticket from another customer, not a TV.

We spent about an hour with her before she left mad without her TV and $200 less in her pocket.

| SurfNC02

I used to work at Best Buy in college a few years ago. They had zones [that] us blue shirts couldn't move from. So I got zoned for Wii systems and games, not so bad.

One lady comes running up and asks if we have Christmas-themed baby music on CD. I say there is no way we have that, but I can't help since I'm zoned for gaming. She storms off like I had just become Scrooge to her Black Friday.

Probably two hours later she comes back pushing a CD [in] my face like she had bested me. All I said was congratulations for taking two hours to find it.

| serpicoded

4. Karma got him good

I had a rude/obnoxious customer refuse to leave the store after we closed (we were re-opening an hour later for a sale event), so I told him "OK" and just let him be.

Once we reopened I told him that he had to get at the end of the line before he would be allowed to purchase anything.

| ff7jordan23

I was in a Walmart a couple of years ago when a guy got in a fight with a woman over a toaster. It got really heated and the woman took out a switchblade/pocketknife.

She started swinging all over the place trying to scare others away and she ended up slicing the guy down his arm. The guy sprinted to the front of the store, and the woman grabbed her toaster and sat down across the aisle.

An employee came by a few minutes later and mopped up the blood. She got the toaster.

| imnotpopular

6. Granny went gangsta

I worked at RadioShack for a year in college. During Black Friday, one of the sale items was a $10 calculator marked down to $5. Two sweet, elderly women came into the store looking for them.

When I told them there was only one left in the display, it was ON. It turned in to a geriatric version of roller derby without the skates.

I always imagined some little kid opening presents on Christmas morning and getting this stupid $5 calculator, not really wanting it and having no clue about the back story behind it, as his grandma, sipping her tea, looks on with a triumphant gleam in her eye.

| Jsquaw

I remember once when I used to manage a department in Walmart on Black Friday there was this plastic kayak for like a really low price with the oars and everything.

Some guy got in the kayak while scooting himself through aisle with the oars just tossing stuff onto it.

Was pretty funny. I didn't tell him anything cuz, well, it made me laugh.

| Griim004

8. Why not Wi-Fi?

I stood behind a lady at Target who was returning a newly bought iPad. She was livid because her iPad wasn't charging. She claimed that the tablet had [a] Wi-Fi connection to the store, and it wasn't charging like it was supposed to.

She was told that the cord [that] came with it was the only way to charge it.

She balked at the statement and adamantly said that since it's hooked up to Target's free Wi-Fi, it should be charging. Sadly, this is not the case ...

Sad to think she thought Wi-Fi charged her iPad.

| djchristensen

One woman thought that it was a good idea to break the glass on the game display case to get to the games rather than asking for me to unlock them.

As she cradled her bloodied elbow and forearm, she yelled at me for not using tempered glass.

Sorry lady, [I] didn't realize that someone would be using their arm as a battering ram on my cabinets.

| PityandFear

10. She wasn't ready to be 'paid forward'

A woman I was working with was at Best Buy waiting in line on Black Friday. There was a gentlemen in line, two people in front of her. He tells the cashier he will pay for the next two people in line's items.

The guy in front of her had like a big screen TV and a few other items. She only had a Celine Dion CD. Why only a Celine Dion CD? Who knows.

Turns out the person who said he would pay for the items was Chad Johnson. Former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver.

| TheOpen

On Black Friday at ASDA (British Walmart) there were these microwaves like 70% off, and the store ... was so busy you couldn't move.

There were empty shelves all along the aisle up to these microwaves, and a guy laid down on the shelf and army-crawled along the shelves, grabbed a microwave and army-crawled back with it.

| VeryLazyLewis

12. Mother of the Year

[I] worked at Walmart and there weren't anymore shopping carts. [I] saw a man lift a car seat with a baby in it out of the shopping cart and leave said baby in the middle of the aisle while Mom was busy trying to get $5 DVDs.

I'm watching as this goes down, and I pick up the car seat with the baby and tell the mom what happened. Do I get a "thank you"? NO!! She proceeds to yell at me for touching her kid and letting the man steal her cart!

... I just walked away as she continued yelling and digging through the DVD bin.

| babadaboopi83

[I] worked at Walmart during college a few years back. Because Walmart keeps the store open, unlike say Target or other stores, we are setting up the merchandise right in front of the customers, it's literally like setting up a buffet in front of hungry bears or something...

We opened up the display for the board games. This old lady, I'm talking maybe in her 80s, had two empty carts, and when we opened it up she grabbed as many as she could fit in the two baskets ...

Nothing really wrong with this until she started ripping the games from some little kid's hands and throwing them in her cart.

You see the worst of people on Black Friday.

| LikeMike2224

14. Leapin' lizards!

A pet store near a store I used to work at caught a lady on Black Friday trying to smuggle a lizard out of the store by sticking it down her pants.

... I believe that this must be a common idiot's way of trying to steal stuff. In their pants.

| Anonymous

I worked at a Toys R Us. While I was walking around to find people that need help, I found this guy in a corner covering his face and crying his eyes out.

When I asked him if he needed help with something, he just kept saying "I just want to go home... I just want to go home..."

He looked to be about 50 years old.

| sunsetblud

16. The cafe creep

I was working at a mall bookstore's cafe. I had the opening shift. Unfortunately, the late shift person called in sick, so I had two hours off before a 4 p.m. to close shift.

I actually had a customer who was stalking me and spent the ENTIRE day sitting in the cafe reading a book and occasionally coming up to order something new.

Any time I wasn't behind the counter or in the back room he followed me around, including during my two hour shift gap. Worst Black Friday ever.

Two weeks later he did approach me while I was working and asked if he could clip my fingernails as a keepsake. That was enough to get him banned from not only the store, but also the mall.

| NeedsMoreYellow

The worst moment for me came when a customer tried to buy a pack of scrapbook page protectors.

The customer was attempting to buy a pack of 25 but was convinced the price was wrong because she was looking at the sticker for the pack of 10. She screamed at me for a good five minutes while I calmly tried to explain the price.

Finally, it ended with the quote, "You're ruining my Thanksgiving, you stupid witch."

Trying not to scream back after that comment, I replied with "I'm sorry to hear that, but unfortunately, I cannot give you the lower price as it was not mislabeled."

She responded to that by throwing a punch, which I ducked. My manager saw the whole thing and the customer was escorted out and banned from our store.

| pictures_of_success

18. Knife to meet you

I wasn't that great at my job, so they had me running people from the line they had set up to different registers and quickly answering questions from customers. No big deal.

At about 1 a.m. as I'm running customers back and forth we hear a commotion on the other side of the store and a few police officers come in.

Turns out some guy had broken a bit of plastic off one of the information plaques and tried to use the pointy bit to stab an employee in the neck. I never found out why he did it. People are crazy.

I am so incredibly thankful not to be working retail anymore.

| npc_Human

Get to the store around 3 a.m. and there was a line around the building.

Usual busy as heck story up until I was asked to help some elderly ladies with a carryout. They smiled as we were walking out, but, as we passed through the doors, our alarms went off.

Our policy says we have to rescan or recheck the items and these ladies start to freak out. Saying our systems are screwed up, they didn't do anything, that I put something in their cart.

We open up their boxes and find several cartons of ammo. So at this point, we have to call the cops but they decide to (very slowly) book it, but we're not allowed to follow them out so I see them make it to their van and drive away.

| Wet_napkins

20. You’ve got to be shipping me

It was the first year we did nation-wide online orders, and so I went to one of our shipping locations.

Turns out the computer system that communicates with our store server was down and we had no way of knowing.

We showed up at 1 a.m. to pull orders, and they trickled in, about three per hour — obviously, it felt like a waste — and at 5:30 a.m., we had 600 orders pop in to pull immediately.

Of course, since it was such a waste of time, the location manager sent the receiving team home at 5 a.m., and I had stuck around in protest. So I was the only one on hand to fulfill the orders. Rough day.

| Thirdwhirly

One year while working at Kmart on Black Friday, I stood up too close to an end-cap, and ended up gashing the top of my head on a sharp shelving corner. The cut was just inside the hairline, and blood starts going everywhere.

Luckily, I thought, I'm near the back of the store, and I was only about 20 yards away from the "employees only" area. I got stopped three times by customers. With blood pouring down my face, in a span of about 50 paces.

Only one of them asked if I was okay (after I helped them with their shopping problem FIRST, of course), and they all gave me this dull look as they talked as though they were consciously trying to block the fact that, yes, they WERE talking to someone who needed medical attention, but they REALLY needed to find that $20 DVD player first.

| lordhellion

22. Bear on a rampage

I went to a local Target and the store had already opened by the time I got there.

My friend and I were browsing some of the PS3 accessories and games on sale there and we heard a giant crash from the other isles. I kid you not, I heard a massive "ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR."

I peeked out of the aisle to see some guy dressed as a grizzly bear completely tearing up this store. He had techno music playing from every stereo system at Target.

I watched as he tackled shelves and other things in each aisle.

When the workers came to realize what was going on. I watched as they chased this bear throughout Target and it was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. Eventually the bear got tackled by some security guards.

| AngryCherry

One year at Best Buy, we had several complaints where just was someone would grab something they'd feel an incredible shock and fall down.

My manager was terrified that some wiring under the laptop display had come loose and the display was shocking people.

After a quick review of the tape I discovered the truth. Some guy was standing behind the first wall of people and had a small handheld taser. When the cops were taking him away he was commenting that he was only getting the jerks!

Sure enough he would wait until someone was shoving their way to the front or throwing elbows and would wait for them to grab whatever they wanted then zap them.

| AKBigDaddy

24. A smashing good time

One man tells me he drove over an hour to get to me, only to wait another hour in a line, to have the concierge say no appointments.

He gives me this huge sob story, blames the fact that he's pissed off due to waiting in line and wants me to comp him a new iPad for his troubles. I tell him I can't and it will be $320 to replace it.

The next bit happened like a flash. He flipped out and started smashing the iPad on the studio wall table. Threatening me with my life and job...

Glass was going all over the place, the store which was packed came to a halt to watch this dude flip out on me. My manager runs over and what I witnessed astounded me.

We comped him a replacement iPad and a case...really? Retail is the worst.

| xxthegreekxx

One year I had to sit on top of a ladder because I was stuck on it once I got up there — the customers had managed to pull down a section of slat wall digging through some heavy items and I had to fix it in the middle of the madness.

I was just digging out sizes of merchandise at the top of the wall for customers all day while they screamed out sizes. The aisle was so packed, no associates could break through to even get to the wall for other customers.

So I was the last person standing in that area and had to shout out orders to other areas of the store and call down sizes at the same time.

It was surreal. I even had to talk an associate through the return process and give them my code because I myself couldn't get down off the ladder to get to a register.

| morgueanna

26. Screeching nightmares

Circuit City. I worked 16 hours that day. Got in at 4 a.m., and there was a line wrapped around the store already. I worked in the back, so we handled all the larger items (TVs, stereos etc.).

Whenever an order is placed from a sales associate on the floor, it makes a loud screech noise once.

6 a.m. comes and everyone starts flooding in. Grabbing everything. We are all in the back observing this madness because it hasn't hit us yet.

Then the orders start. It's screech after screech for the next 14 hours that I'm there. It never stops. You'd think it would take a break for few minutes? Nope. That thing screeched non-stop.

By the time I left, I heard that screech noise in my sleep. In my dreams. When I woke up. For the next two weeks I couldn't get rid of that noise. It was awful.

| CarnitasWhey

A lady actually beat me with one of the store advertisement books.

I was helping another customer find something and holding her booklet, when another lady grabbed it from me. I told her it wasn't mine to give, but I would find her one in a second.

She proceeded to beat me with it. It didn't hurt, but it was very demeaning. Instead of getting mad, I went and tracked down another advertisement book, found her and gave it to her.

The look of horror on her face that someone would be kind to her after that was better than anything. I made her feel like a bad person all while I remained a good person.

| Fervidor

28. Merry freakin' Christmas

A lady came in, loaded up her cart with TVs that weren't on special and thought she could just walk right out with them.

Needless to say security tackled her at the door, and she punched the security girl right in the stomach. Big mistake! She got slammed HARD against the brick wall before being cuffed.

She was dragged back into the store kicking and screaming about how we were "ruining her children's Christmas."

As security dragged her in two young college boys in line started a slow clap for her that led to every guest in line clapping and shouting "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" It was glorious.

| Pearl725

First job after moving was at Fry's. Also the first real day of work was Black Friday.

Had a family come in. His kid starts screaming that he wants an Xbox. So dad decided to buy one, but unfortunately I had just sold the last one.

Dad and kid went into berserk mode screaming at me, I get knocked to the ground.

Could have stopped there but no Dad starts kicking me in the ribs, his kid decides its okay that daddy is beating me for not having an Xbox for his son so he starts kicking me too.

Ended up having to be rushed to the hospital. Several broken bones, nose and ribs.

After my brief stint in the hospital I decided I never wanted to go through that again so I moved to Sweden. Much safer here.

| SevrenBG

30. Sew much trim, sew little time

I work at a large fabric and craft store. To purchase fabric, you have to first take the bolt(s) to the cutting counter.

People bring their fabric to us [at the register] and expect us to cut it. When I tell them I can't do that, some of them understand. Some of them argue.

One man brings a basket of unmeasured trim to the front. Sent him back to the counter, guy flat out refused. Wouldn't listen to us, yelled over our explanations. Called us all idiots and some other colorful obscenities.

He keeps getting louder and more aggressive.

He turned and started chucking the spools of trim in the direction of the cutting counter. Took out a candy display and some other stuff.

It was kind of terrifying, this guy was out of control, for a second I thought he was going to actually assault one of us, but thankfully once he ran out of trim he stormed out of the store.

| antiquarked

Source: Reddit

I used to work at Victoria's Secret PINK and for my first Black Friday, I was stationed to work at the front of the store. People were outside waiting to get in — some had camped out since midnight.

When the gates lifted, I was pushed backwards by the crowd and almost fell to the ground. Luckily I fell on our launch table. I climbed the table and stayed up there throwing customers hoodies and yoga pants.

It was fun yelling, "Green hoodie, size small, who wants it?" And everyone jumping and yelling for it.

Also, a girl fainted and I had to stop people from walking all over her.

| starfoxbella

32. Cutting cashier

I worked retail through college.

The store I worked at was holding a special sale leading up to Black Friday, and a ton of people were paying with gift cards. With lines leading out the door, my shift was a nonstop run of cashiering.

After several hours I had turned into a robot. Greet customer, ring stuff up, swipe gift card, cut up gift card, hand receipt and stuff back. I think you can see where this is going...

A client handed me their gift card and their ATM card. I swiped both, handed the gift card back, and cut her ATM card in half. She freaked out.

It was horrible.

| Opinions_Like_Woah

A guy is standing by himself at our customer service desk. Finally somebody notices him and asks what he needs.

"I'd like to pay," he says.

"I'm sorry this isn't a register," replies the attendant.

The guy then proceeds to try and convince the attendant to let him pay.

Of course, the service tech couldn't ring up his purchases, because the service desk doesn't have a register.

After 15 minutes of arguing back and forth, the guy finally left to go find the actual line. The trouble is, people saw him standing at the customer service desk, thought it was a cash register and lined up behind him.

Then people saw the shorter line and got in behind them.

With nobody to control it, the line to nowhere grew quickly. Fifteen minutes was all it took for the not-line to snake all the way around the department.

| IntentionalTexan

34. Tackle Me Elmo

My dad was a police officer when the toy of the year was the Tickle Me Elmo.

(I'm sure every kid who grew up in the 1980s remembers.)

He responded to a call at Walmart or Target (can't remember which one exactly) of two women beating each other up over the last one in the store.

When he went to break up the fight, one of the women bit his arm.

She bit him so hard that she actually drew blood.

He had to get his blood tested every six months for two years after that incident to make sure he didn't get any diseases from her.

People are crazy!

| jennyanydots711

I worked for a golf superstore as a cashier. Black Friday customers come rushing in and the line starts.

I proceed to scan the first item and ... nothing. The screen went completely black.

I turned the monitor on and off. Scanned another item.

No dice.

As luck would have it, the registers are down, all of our debit/credit machines aren't working and the lines are growing fast.

The only thing we could do was take every transaction manually. Write down SKUs, calculate tax and use the old credit card swipers. This went on for three hours.

I never worked retail during Black Friday again.

| Steelergrl2310

36. Boo you

Years ago, I worked as a cashier in a department store.

On Black Friday, every available cash register was staffed and the lines were ten-people long.

I offered to work through my break, but my manager came over and insisted I go on my lunch break. Apparently it's against the law in my state to have people working for more than four hours without a break.

I'd been on my feet all day, so I needed a little refreshment anyway.

I signed off of my register.

That's when people started booing.

I've never been booed in my life. Forty-ish customers actually booed at me as I closed my register.

| oferpetessake

I worked for six years at a Johnny Rockets as a server and manager.

Although we were inside a mall, we didn't open early on Black Friday like the rest of the stores because we are a separate restaurant.

Also, we don't serve breakfast, so it made no sense to open at 6 a.m.

When I got there to open up, we had people shaking our gates screaming that they wanted food.

I pointed them toward the food court and told them we didn't serve breakfast.

A lady spat at me and yelled, "I know you have bacon."

We do. In a fridge waiting to be cooked and put on a burger.

| Kidou

38. A Wii bit of trouble

I'm a former GameStop manager. The worst shift I ever worked was Black Friday, 2006. Everyone wanted a Nintendo Wii.

When I got to the store at 4 a.m. to prep for the 5 a.m. opening, there were people wrapped around the shopping center in a line for the thing, even though I had a sign on the door explicitly stating that we could only guarantee them for the first six people.

When I made the announcement to the folks in line, I thought I was about to get mobbed by more than a couple of angry grandmas and impatient moms who had been waiting since midnight.

| CowabungaM8

A woman comes into the store with her two children — probably aged 5 and 7, no older than that. I overhear her say "I'll be back, stay here" and she just leaves them. Not a word to us, she just vanishes.

Within minutes it got busy — as in, 50 customers plus kids. There are only three employees in the store: two on register, then there's me, the shift manager, supposed to be helping people shop. ...

... Mall security called the cops. The officers show up about 25 minutes after this lady left her kids — the lady gets down and makes small talk with the boys while the man waits outside.

Things slow to a crawl in the store, so my fellow employees entertain the boys while I speak with the officers.

Apparently their mother had gone to THE OTHER MALL ACROSS THE EFFING FOUR-LANE STREET. At 7:30 p.m. During crazy-busy shopping time.

| StarCraftTenor

40. Furby or bust

When I was in college I worked at a toy store and it was the year of the Furbys. They were really hard to get and our location only got 10 of them.

We were instructed to pass out numbers (rather than the actual toys) to the first ten people in line. I was the lucky one to pass out numbers.

I gave the first person their number when all of a sudden I'm on the floor — I've been tackled from behind.

This woman had slammed into me, knocked me to the floor and ripped the tickets out of my hand, breaking two fingers.

The store refused to give her a Furby and we detained her until the cops showed up.

| CharistineE

I worked as a greeter at American Eagle.

My job was to stand at the front of the store and tell you about our Black Friday deals. Pretty mind-numbing work, but I made the most of it.

Anyway, at some point during the day, a lady walked in with like eight bags. The alarm went off.

So I smiled and said that it went off most likely because there's possibly still a tag on one of her items.

This was her response: "I JUST WALKED IN AND YOU'RE ALREADY ACCUSING ME OF STEALING?!" And then she stormed off.

Nothing special honestly, just another day of retail.

| ToSay_TheLeast

42. The TV buyer's poor resolution

A man showed up the Tuesday before Black Friday with a tent, ice coolers, generator, TV and everything he needed to brave the three nights he would be staying over.

He kept bragging about being first in line. He said he was going to get a plasma TV, and how he was hosting the next Super Bowl party, so this was just going to be the best thing ever.

At 5 a.m., the doors opened and the man goes straight to the plasma TVs. They were all gone. Completely sold out. What happened?

Turns out the garden center at the Walmart opened up about 10 seconds before the front doors. Those that came the night before scooped up all 15 plasma TVs.

This guy who had been there since Tuesday afternoon was dumbfounded and argued with management but was told there was nothing that could be done. That guy's Thanksgiving was a bust for sure.

| smuggling_info

The store I was working at held a sale on Christmas trees. They normally cost $250, but on sale they were going for as cheap as $80.

It was my first Black Friday, and I was a new employee still getting my bearings.

Well, as soon as the managers opened the door, I was like a deer staring at headlights. All the customers ran in and pushed me left and right.

I immediately got nervous.

I was being yelled at and screamed at for one tree, and then another and another. Some women were arguing and pulling either side of one of the boxes. Then a man came and grabbed it from both and started dragging it off.

It was bedlam. I literally ducked into a supply closet and disappeared 'til the chaos stopped.

| BozoWantsACookie

44. Black Friday can be a scream

Our Black Friday event started Thursday at 6 p.m. I had to be out front to guide traffic.

At 5:56 p.m., one of the assistant managers at the back of the store decided it would be a great idea to start opening the plastic on some of the displays, so customers wouldn't savagely rip them open.

A customer nearby made eye contact with her, looked at the ceiling and let out a VIKING SCREAM.

This viking scream echoed throughout the store, and everyone else started screaming too. The whole thing lasted about seven minutes.

It was a surreal experience. I actually froze with terror.

| Duane_

My first day working retail was on Black Friday.

I got hired at Home Depot, and they didn't know what to do with me so they put me in the Christmas tree lot.

Basically somebody would come pick out a tree and I would cut it to their specifications with a chainsaw, which I had never used before in my life.

I wasn't given any gloves, and whenever I asked for some somebody would tell me they'd grab me a pair, but no one ever came back. My hands got all sappy.

The worst experience was when a woman started yelling at me because she insisted that I was the one who promised to save her some Christmas tree clippings so she could make a wreath. I had not seen her before in my life.

| hahauknowwhatitis420

46. Not fine with the fine print

Our sale was a nightmare.

It was a deal you could get any other time of the year, but people went nuts just because it was Black Friday.

Our sale was, "Buy one pair, get the next pair 50% off" on all shoes, except in small print, the coupon stated that the discount could not be applied to Nike shoes.

Cue customers throwing a huge fit when they came up to the register and heard that they couldn't claim the coupon.

After 20 minutes, my manager got so fed up that he just started overriding the transactions because he was tired of getting screamed at.

| Anonymous

I was working at a retail store and this women leaves her cart alone for one second to go check something out, and customers just raided her cart and took everything in it.

Worst part was that we were out of everything she had in the cart, so she had no way of getting it back.

| shadowrider666

My Black Friday two years ago was just the opposite of crazy — I used to work in a grocery store, so it was absolutely dead the whole shift.

I have never been so utterly and thoroughly bored before or since.

I would have killed for some crazy stuff to happen just so I could have a chuckle about it the next day.

| Anonymous

48. Don't blame crabby kids

I worked at Toys R Us some years ago.

No standout bad customers, but it surprised me how many parents brought their young children to the stores at 3 a.m. to stand in line and wait for the sales.

These kids would still be in their pyjamas, hair matted and they'd be falling asleep in line.

Then the moms would get mad and would yell at their children for whining/crying because, "You won't get any toys! Christmas is next month!"

Your kid is exhausted and you dragged them to a toy store, of course they're gonna be cranky and tired.

Working there really changed my perspective on people.

| because_science

Worked at Walmart on Black Friday last year.

The first couple in line had been there for about 13 or 14 hours. They had actually camped out overnight.

We open the store, expecting that they'll make a beeline for the electronics or toys. You know, the expensive stuff.

Nope. They entered the store and filled a shopping cart full of towels that we had on sale for $2.

That's it. Just towels. They were first in line outside and waited over half a day for $2 towels.

When I left after my 12 hour shift, we still had shelves full of these towels, along with tons more in the stockroom.

| Lineman72T

50. Customer chokehold

I worked at Old Navy in college. We would usually have several items on one table, but only one of them would be on sale.

It was clear though: We would have T-shirts, skirts and sweaters all on the same table, but the sign would say, "T-shirts $5."

During Black Friday, a guy got super angry that everything on the table wasn't on sale and started flipping out about false advertising.

We wore lanyards and he grabbed my manager’s lanyard and started choking her.

We were ready to call the police, but she was a pretty tough older woman and got him to stop.

| CeeDee

[I] worked at Walmart when I went to college a few years back.

On Black Friday, when we sold out of one item we’d have to restock the merchandise in front of customers. It felt like setting up a buffet in front of a bunch of hungry bears.

I was restocking video games when a guy literally jumped over the crowd of people and into the game display, knocking it over.

Games went everywhere. It turned into a mob trying to get their hands on Call of Duty. Luckily no one got hurt.

Another fun story from that day happened when we opened up the display for the board games. This old lady (she had to be at least 80) had two empty carts and FILLED them with board games. As many as she could fit.

I guess there’s nothing really wrong with that, until she ripped a board game straight from a little kid’s hands and threw it in her cart.

You see the worst of humanity on Black Friday.

|*likemike2422

52. She couldn't wait

I had a lady saying she was going to faint.

She kept saying, "Please just let me pay so I can get to a doctor." I knew she was lying and called my manager over so he could talk to her.

He said, "Ma'am, they told me you were in need of medical assistance. I've got an ambulance on the way."

She freaked out, yelling at my manager about the line being too long and how it was his fault she was feeling sick.

She then yelled at me, saying, "This is all your fault! If you would have just let me cut the line we'd be out of this mess."

My manager told her to leave and if she didn't he would call the cops. She tried to stay until a random cop came in to check out the crowd. She left so quick.

By the way, my manager never called an ambulance in the first place.

He was just pulling her leg.

| mamajrocks

Black Friday a few years ago.

We were giving away free DVD players with certain purchases. This woman picked up the most expensive Blu-ray player from electronics and insisted we give it to her for free.

I informed her that I couldn't do that. She pressed on.

We went back and forth for a few minutes and I was beginning to stress out, because a huge line was developing behind her. She refused to leave until she spoke to a manager.

When management showed up, she screamed at them until they told me to just give it to her at 50% off.

It's people like her that make my job intolerable.

| mrrogersinasvubasuit

54. Power play

One evening during the Black Friday rush at the big-box retail store I worked at, one of my cashiers called me over.

This lady had her dad's credit card and about $1,000 worth of merchandise.

The cashier refused to sell it due to her using someone else’s credit card — it’s just protocol. The woman got defiant and the crux of her argument was that she had power of attorney (POA) over her father, he was quite ill, so she had the right to use his credit card to buy Christmas presents.

I didn’t buy her story, and I refused the sale. I was going through the same thing with my grandfather, so I knew all about POA. Our attorney had emphatically told us that we couldn't go shopping for personal uses with the POA, so I knew this woman was lying.

Anyway, she would not back down. Busy Friday night, lines longer and longer, she thought she could yell me down, wait me down — I would not budge. She stormed off, but an hour later came back with her very ill-looking father.

I felt bad for the guy and I apologized to him, but explained the situation and he was cool with it. I felt bad for the cashier, too — she felt bad for causing all the trouble.

I hated retail.

| Anonymous

I was working at a Best Buy-type of place and was "line busting" — that’s where you head out to the line outside, get customer orders, and prep temporary receipts in the system so that the cashiers can rapidly ring people out.

This was the year that netbooks first made their appearance.

These were in high demand, and my store had a door-crasher netbook special, so the lines were really huge and people had been waiting a long time.

I noticed a scuffle breaking out towards the front of the line, so I went to break it up (silly mistake, should have let them fought).

I break it up, while giving them grief for being immature jerks.

As I walk away, the guy I have my back turned to tries to punch the other guy. Misses, hits me square in the back of my head.

Ow.

| splashdown

56. Shoeless and clueless

I worked at a shoe store for six years. Black Fridays were the worst for theft.

Every year I’d find huge mountains of empty (stolen) shoe boxes scattered throughout the store. I hate shoplifting with a passion — one time I saw that someone had walked out with a pair of $250 shoes and it burned me up.

I also hated that every year we opened earlier and earlier.

First it was 7 a.m., then 6 a.m. and eventually 5 a.m. Oh, and the store would be open until 10 p.m. the night before.

Many co-workers had family hours away, and they had to turn around on Thanksgiving to drive back to be there that night when the store opened.

I don't work retail anymore but I refuse to go anywhere on Black Friday.

| currywursts

I held a seasonal position at Target.

The first lady to come into my line had a large screen TV, maybe a 40 or 50-inch model, that barely fit in the cart.

I whip around the register with my scan gun… and notice the barcode is on the bottom of the box inside the cart.

I lift the front of the box out of the cart, balancing it on my hand and the handle of the car and scan it.

I check the computer at the register to make sure it scanned, and that's when I felt the weight start to shift. Uh oh.

It revolves around my right hand and tips over, hitting the lady right on top of her head.

I was so embarrassed but she assured me she wasn't hurt and everything was fine.

| pepsivanilla

58. A real headache

I was scheduled to work a 12 hour shift, starting at 5 a.m.

Not much of a breakfast person, I chose to only consume a granola bar before going to work. As the hours go by, I found that the demanding circumstances (I was behind the register) coupled with hunger makes me feel a tad light-headed.

At 2 p.m. I was denied a 15 minute break to eat something a bit more substantial.

At 3 p.m. an ambulance arrives due to the fact that a young, female sales associate has collapsed from exhaustion and hit the tile, and is probably suffering from a concussion.

That sales associate was me. I recovered just fine, but at 4 p.m. my boss called me from the hospital bed and inquired, "Are you coming back to work?"

And that's why I am now a bartender.

| peacelovewaffles

Two years ago a pair of ladies were throwing down fisticuffs over a Dyson vacuum. It wasn't even on sale.

Some of the people that shop on Black Friday have this mentality that they must fight and shove. It’s preposterous. There’s really no need for it.

| Areniker

Not so much a horror story, but something I just couldn't believe.

Black Friday at Walmart there were these microwaves being sold for like 70% off, and the store was so busy you couldn't move.

There were empty shelves all along the aisle up to these microwaves, so a guy got down on his belly and army-crawled along the shelves, grabbed a microwave and army-crawled back with it.

| verylazylewis

60. Alone and afraid

It was technically the day AFTER Black Friday, but it was still busy as all heck.

I worked as a customer service supervisor at a CompUSA before they closed down (it was like Best Buy), and ALL of my employees called in sick that morning.

ALL OF THEM.

So I am the only one ringing people up for the first six hours of the day.

When I finally got a 15-minute break, I went into the back area and blew up at the first manager I could find. I was so flustered and stressed. He just sat there and let me vent.

After a little while I went back and apologized to him, but he understood my frustration.

That day was no fun.

| zechgroove

I work at the largest lingerie retailer in the country.

You know, the one with the racy fashion show every year? That's the one.

Anyway, we had a security guard last night for the beginning of Black Friday. Some lady decided she didn't want to wait in a 50-person-deep line and tried to cut.

Our security guard asked her multiple times to step to the back of the line or leave.

She proceeded to start screaming, hitting him with every curse word in the book, and ended by threatening him with a gun she had in her bag.

This will be my last holiday in retail.

| kittykatie0629

62. Positively swamped

When I was 15, I got my first actual job.

It was at a clothing store and my first day was Black Friday. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal because I was hired for men's formal wear and it looked like it was a slow department.

When I show up at 4 a.m., they manager tells me I'm working women's shoes instead. Someone had called in sick and they needed people to help out on the sales floor.

Absolute madness.

The worst part was that I didn’t yet have an employee number, so I didn’t earn commission for that day. I lost hundreds of dollars in extra pay.

| beardedbooty

About 15 years ago, I was working at a bookstore in a mall. Somehow, around 5 p.m. maybe, I was the only employee in the entire store — not a single co-worker to be found, and we were slammed with customers.

We usually had music playing in the store, controlled by an ordinary five-disc stereo in the back office, and of course this is the day the inoffensive holiday music gets brought into circulation.

Around the time I found myself alone, I noticed the stereo had become stuck on repeat, just playing the same song over and over.

It was at least an hour before I was able to get away from the counter, and so that was the day I was forced to listen to some kind of generic "A Very Jazzy Jinglebells" some 30 times back-to-back.

| heynomad

64. Not my problem

I sold a couch to a guy who drove a Prius with no roof-rack.

We do not deliver and he wouldn't leave until WE found a way to get this thing secured to his car somehow.

Not only had he clearly not planned ahead or thought it through, he was a total jerk about it and insisted on making it our problem.

We ended up using half a spool of twine to tie this thing down and he had to climb in through the window because the twine went through his doors. I REALLY wish I had taken a picture.

At one point he complained to our manager, who had no idea what we were supposed to have done to appease this doofus.

Finally, we insisted that he sign a waiver before leaving because we were not about to be held responsible for his own poor planning.

Of course, this was also during the busiest part of the day.

| uberhypnotoad

About six years ago I was working at a mall bookstore's cafe. I had the opening shift, which was 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

I actually had a customer who was stalking me and spent the ENTIRE day sitting in the cafe reading a book and occasionally coming up to order something new.

When I wasn't behind the counter or in the back room he followed me around, including during my two hour shift gap.

I didn't dare go to my car on my break, because I didn't want him knowing what it looked like, and my manager didn't want to call security on him if he didn't actually approach me. Worst Black Friday ever.

Two weeks later he did approach me while I was working. He asked if he could clip my fingernails and have them as a keepsake.

That was enough to get him banned from not only the store, but also the mall. My manager also made sure someone walked me to my car for the next few months.

| needsmoreyellow

66. Caught with his pants down

I worked at a restaurant that is right across the street from the mall. I'm sitting in the back on Black Friday morning, waiting for my inevitably long shift to start. It was incredibly busy already, it was but I wasn't about to clock in early.

I was chatting with one of the managers when I heard a hostess scream, "HELP HELP!"

I immediately rush to the entrance to see two grown men on the ground fighting. One was wearing nothing but his underwear.

My shift lead tried to pull them off each other while screaming, "STOP. THIS IS A FAMILY RESTAURANT. THERE ARE CHILDREN HERE!"

I jolted forward in an attempt to break up the fight. This is where it gets weird.

Everyone is gathered around this small area watching or trying to help when someone grabbed a fire extinguisher and started spraying us with it.

So, we have a bunch of people trying to break up a fight between a man in his underwear and some other dude, and someone spraying us with a fire extinguisher. All while we have wholesome Christmas carols playing in the background.

Finally we get the fight broken up. Cops show up. Turns out the fully dressed guy got the last TV from Best Buy, and the other guy got angry and followed him over to try to buy the TV from him.

The one who got the TV told him, “no,” so this guy took off his pants and they got into a fight.

| usernamesarestupid12

I work at a gas station, so I'm somewhat shielded from Black Friday craziness. I do see it second hand, though.

Just this morning, we had a few Walmart workers come in, and they looked like they just came back from the war. Two of them had ladies ram their carts into their legs to get at the merchandise.

Another guy said once the doors opened, it was just a flurry of shredded plastic and hands grabbing at you.

Nobody got a full break, and the catered food was cold by the time they could stop by the breakroom to eat.

One girl said she was practically trampled. She's a petite little thing, and got tripped by one customer, fell down, and had several more walk on/over her.

She's okay, she's just sore and a little bruised.

We seriously thought she was joking, but she was dead serious.

| abbyabsinthe

68. Made out like bandits

I worked at Wal-mart during Black Friday about 12-13 years ago. The hot items that year were $10 DVD players and trampolines.

The DVD players were stacked on two tables near the registers and the trampolines were in sporting goods.

I'm walking to the receiving area in the back and someone from sporting goods asks if I can grab a trolley to load up the last trampoline.

I had to go all the way to the grocery section to get one and as I'm coming back, a customer pulls me aside for a minute.

I walk two feet away from my cart and some woman grabs it and runs towards sporting goods. I get there and the woman and husband are loading up the trampoline and it wasn't even for them.

The other lady that had it and purchased it (she the had receipt and all, just needed a carryout) said, "Hey, that's mine," and the husband got in her face and said, "What are you gonna do about it?!”

They started to walk off. I was shocked, my jaw dropped. The husband looked at me and said, “You got a problem, huh?”

I just smiled and told the sporting good guy to call management.

The husband then said, "Run, honey!" And they booked it to the front. They made it out of the store with the trampoline too.

| duckmunch

SOURCES: 1, 2, 3, 4.