Holiday songs proclaim the Christmas-Hanukkah season as the best, happiest, loveliest time of the year with thoughts of peace, goodwill and love among people.
So, what happened on the day after Thanksgiving when frenzied shoppers pushed, shoved, honked and grabbed their way to bargains, turning the traditional first day of the holidays into a mean-spirited display of greed and materialism?
The headlines on this year’s Black Friday were expected to foretell a soft start to the shopping season as the nation’s woeful economy put a damper on Christmas lists.
Instead, the headlines reflected violence among people anxious for a bargain.
The holiday buying frenzy turned deadly at both a Wal-Mart store in Valley Stream, N.Y., and a Toys “R’’ Us store in Palm Desert, Calif.
A temporary Wal-Mart worker died after a throng of unruly shoppers broke down the doors and trampled him moments after the store opened early Friday, police said.
Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.
At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.
Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store. When told to leave, they complained that they had been in line since Thursday morning.
Nassau County police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the Wal-Mart store doors at the mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the man to the ground as he opened the doors about 5 a.m., leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.
Nassau police spokesman Lt. Michael Fleming described the scene as “utter chaos.” Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a “tragic situation” and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store.
A shooting inside a Toys “R’’ Us in California killed two people, authorities said, though it was not clear whether it involved any shopping frenzy. The shooting reportedly occurred after two women with two men began arguing which then escalated into a bloody brawl, witnesses said. The shots were fired by the two men.
Elsewhere at malls and stores, it was the usual hectic start of the season, as crowds of shoppers frantically picked through piles of discounted merchandise.
Locally, shoppers went out at midnight after Thanksgiving dinner for an early opening at Philadelphia Premijm Outlets in Limerick.
Cars were reportedly lined up on Route 422 in both directions late Thursday night, and every parking space was filled in the outlets’ massive lots by midnight.
Others rose by 4 or 5 a.m. for early openings at malls, department stores and discount stores. By the end of the day, stores looked like they’d been ransacked. Merchandise was strewn helter-skelter on floors, off shelves and throughout the stores.
The traditional start of the holiday shopping season seems to arrive earlier each year, but this year it also got nastier.
The violence and lack of human decency in that Long Island Wal-Mart and California Toys “R” Us was a tragic commentary on the human condition.
So much for peace and good will in “the happiest season of all.”