Despite my own advice I went out to Walmart Thursday night to see how crazy Black Friday could be. It was wild! A friend of mine wanted a movie for his wife that was ultra cheap. At least we weren’t looking for a big-ticket item, and he wasn’t going to be upset if we couldn’t find it. That was a good thing, because deals started at 8pm, we got there a couple minutes before hand, but the store was already open and packed with people.
I was trying to get pictures of the crowd, just because it was incredible. The first picture I took was a line (for what I have no idea), but a lady got out of line and followed me around telling me I needed to delete that picture of her. At first I told her she was in a public place and I could take pictures, but then she was nice and I really didn’t have a good reason not to. So I ended up deleting the picture just to get along. Finding a place in the crowd to look at my phone was the hard part.
The people were actually civil and there was just a large crowd to deal with. All the movies where already gone, so we went to the next Walmart down the street. The crowd was the same size but the displays where set up worst. Some of the extra displays where set in walk ways that you couldn’t get around. I saw a couple of them pushed over so people could walk through.
Ironically the calmest part of Walmart was by the gun counter. Since I was at Walmart I had to go see what they had for Black Friday. Here in Texas they do have Sig ARs on sale for $50 off. People were lined up to get them at 5am when they went on sale. I’ll just spend the extra $50 and not have to spend the night at Walmart.
The crowd acted as expected. No one was really crazy, but using a wall worked to move faster. Everyone used the main isles, so to get around the store I was able to use the side walkways and cut through the clothing section. There was only one area that worried me, the electronics department. One store had the department open and people could walk through. The other store had put up display cases surrounding the electronics area and then people where waiting in a line to get something out of the locked display case. There was one employee handing them out. The only problem was there was no way out. If the crowd pressed forward, the people in the front and/or against the display cases would have been in trouble.
When you go out places do you notice things like that? Are you looking for possible dangers? Next time you go out in a crowd, see if you can identify possible problems areas.
Stay Safe,
Ben
PS Thanks to Billy and his family for taking me in for Thanksgiving and for taking me on the “Walmart Adventure.”
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We were lucky to get those deals, they only had about 15 700’s and about 25 scopes. All sold out in about 10 minutes. Dick’s still does the paper form for gun purchases instead of on a computer so there was all these people filling out forms and one guy calling in the NICS for everybody. Crazy. We went to Wal-mart too and there were lots of cops patrolling the store in teams.
It was crazy in Charlotte NC too. I went with my buddy to Dick’s Sporting Goods at 12am to get him a Remington 700 ADL varmint 308 for $349. Then we went to Bass Pro at 5am for the Leupold VX-1 scopes for $167. We were up all night and I ended up going about 40 hours without sleep but it was worth it for those deals. That Leupold is on my AR now with Nikon P-Series mounts and it rocks.
That rocks! Glad you got some good deals for staying up all night. I couldn’t believe people where waiting in line to all night to save $50. Sounds like I should have been at Bass Pro to pick up a scope instead of messing around at Walmart.
It’s funny that you wrote this. I had the exactly same experience at the Walmart in my town. It was odd how polite people where as they were bumping into each other because there was too many people and not enough room to walk.
As I was trying to cut through isles and other places I realized that had there been any sort of emergency there would have been no way to get everyone out of the store safely.
I’m glad to hear people where actually nice in other places. Glad it didn’t go bad. There was a lot of cops at the Walmart here in San Antonio, where cops there too?
No I didn’t see any police, but I live in Nebraska and honestly I think a lot of people have a false since of security, due to the idea that “things like that don’t happen here”.
I’ve heard that before (a lot). But I’m glad nothing happened and hope it doesn’t. I was just wondering, the two Walmarts I went to had tons of police (I counted 5 different cops at one store). I’m not sure if it made me feel better or worst, but they were there and it is nice to have a cop there then need to call one.