US shoppers scrambled for bargains as “Black Friday” launched the retail sector’s holiday season on Friday and triggered sporadic outbreaks of violence across the country.
Although there were no fatalities reported as in previous years, the annual frenzy for discounted items saw tempers flare across the nation, with reports of fistfights, a stabbing and a shooting.
US media reported that police shot a suspected shoplifter in Chicago, while a man was stabbed in Virginia in a fight over a parking spot at a branch of retail giant Walmart. YouTube carried a video of unruly crowds at a Texas store. In New Boston, Ohio, a woman was “knocked down” at a Walmart and took herself to the hospital, a police officer said. The officer said the woman was not seriously injured.
Violence had begun on Thursday night, as many stores opened their doors early to get a jump on the stampede.
Police in Las Vegas said a shopper leaving a store with a television set was shot by a thief, while in Rialto, California, a police officer was injured trying to break up a fight in a carpark.
Meanwhile, shoppers in Manhattan reported huge crowds as night owls hunted for bargains.
“At three or four o’clock in the morning, it was very crazy. We went with the flow,” said Jason Flores, who was carrying bags from Macy’s and Zara, among others. “It’s best not to have a plan. It makes it more fun.”
Walmart meanwhile found itself the target of protests in Chicago, Dallas and other cities over low pay. Organizers said tens of thousands of people marched nationwide, spread across 1,500 stores in 46 states. More than 110 people were arrested, they said.
“Walmart jobs should be good-paying jobs, family-supporting jobs,” Walter Turner, pastor of the New Spiritual Light Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, said after his arrest at a protest, one of more than 110 reported across the country.
A Walmart spokesman defended the company’s wages as “on the higher end of the retail average” and said the company promotes good performers. This season’s holiday shopping season is a full six days and one shopping weekend shorter than last year’s due to the late Thanksgiving season. Holiday shopping traditionally accounts for 20 to 40 percent of an individual retailer’s annual sales, according to the US National Retail Federation.
One consequence of the Thursday launch to the weekend, however, was somewhat lower shopping volumes on Friday morning, Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy said.
“Traffic is down a little bit,” Hottovy said, saying that some shoppers may also have stayed away due to cold weather and increased online shopping.
Analysts say shoppers are anxious following the October US government shutdown and near-default on US debt. On top of that, global economic growth remains tepid and US job growth has been unspectacular.
The US National Retail Federation predicted that holiday shopping sales will increase 3.9 percent to US$602.1 billion over last year’s level. That is better than the 3.5 percent growth in last year’s season, but below the 6 to 7 percent increases before the financial crisis.
Hottovy forecast that sales will grow at just 3 percent this season. He cited higher payroll taxes and concerns that the new healthcare law will result in higher costs.
“I think the low-middle income consumers are still facing a number of pressures,” Hottovy said. “We do expect a slowdown.”
IHS Global Insight director of consumer economics Chris Christopher predicted holiday retail sales will grow 3.2 percent above last year’s. However, last year’s season was depressed by Superstorm Sandy, concerns about Washington budgets and the Newtown, Connecticut slayings at a school.
Next year’s season “is going to be okay,” Christopher said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia