15 Christmas Shopping Horror Stories You Won’t Believe

By Samantha in Holidays On 11th December 2016

The holidays are a wonderful time to enjoy all that the year has given us. And while this is a time to share and give to others, a lot of people take that idea to the next level. The holiday now is all about finding the cheapest deals to get the best possible stuff. We’re obsessed with buying things for ourselves and others, especially when it’s at super low prices. Getting and giving gifts is always fun for any occasion, but as consumerism is on the rise and capitalistic viewpoints get brainwashed into our heads daily, it’s hard to imagine a time when holiday shopping wasn’t all about trampling people so you can save a few bucks on a TV you’ll replace in a few years anyway.

advertisement

#1. Assault In A Kohl’s

Kohl's is great; they have clothes, shoes, and beauty products. They also have jewelry, home goods, and even luggage! The best part- all at great prices. What a modern miracle. But let's be perfectly honest. Is there really anything that good sitting inside a Kohl's that would cause you to get angry enough to get into a fist fight? The thing that's crazy about all of these Black Friday fights so far is that they happen so quickly, like right when everything starts. No one gets in fights at 5 pm on Friday afternoon. It's always as the doors open as if people only show up ready to throw fists. I mean sure, maybe if you're not quick enough, who knows what deals you might miss out on. But is a couple dollars off clothes you'll only wear a few times really worth spending the night in a jail cell?

#2. Remember What It’s Really Worth

We get so caught up in saving money and getting a good deal that we lose all sight of reality and things that make sense in our lives. A lot of these people found themselves in stupid scenarios that landed them in a tough position in their life. If you're going out in public and even think for a second you might stir up some trouble, you should probably consider emptying out your pockets before you leave. But it's safe to assume, based on what's in his pockets, that this guy described in Reddit user BoNamath's story is in no way in his right mind:

"Guy tried to steal a Bluetooth speaker this Black Friday at Best Buy. After we caught him and called the cops he was searched. The cops ended up discovering three items he was hiding.

Loaded Gun (he did not have a concealed carry permit nor was it a registered weapon)

Bag of Black Tar Heroin

JBL Flip 3 Speaker

This man will now be serving hard time because he wanted an $80 speaker.

advertisement

#3. Victoria’s Got A Dirty Secret

Sexy underwear can be essential for certain women. It's all about feeling confident and knowing just how good you look in your undergarments. But at what point does the want for the perfect pair of panties cause you to start throwing fists? Especially in such a crowded store, like the one in the video above. Imagine both girls looking down and simultaneously realizing they actually grabbed the wrong size and don't even want the pair they're fighting over. Who can really be that quick at a bra and panty store anyway? It's hard enough to remember what your perfect size is in varying brands, not to mention they put the size so small on the inside anyway that it's like you need reading glasses to figure out which pair to buy. But this just proves that it's not really about the product after all. In a way, this is our modern "Purge" and a chance for us to let loose for one night a year like the wild turkeys we just consumed.

#4. When A Customer Calls The Cops

The police are put in place in order to protect us from danger. Danger doesn't seem to include missing out on a sale. But maybe for some, it does. Just read Reddit user Thebootydiaries' holiday shopping horror story:

"We had a lady call the police on our store because we sold out of a TV. I really wish I was lying they came too."

Do we even need to get into the whole, wasting tax dollar money lecture here? It's bad enough that this lady actually thought it would be acceptable for her to call the police for such a minuscule issue. But for them to actually show up is an entirely new, and frightening idea! But hopefully it was in an area with low crime rate, and perhaps they were already in the area so they thought they'd check it out just to be sure. Hopefully, they at least gave the lady a lecture about when and when not to not call the police.

#5. Don’t Get Caught In The Stampede

Remember that terrifying scene in Jumanji when the stampede ran through the town almost crushing poor Robin Williams and a young Kirsten Dunst? Imagine that happening when you're trying to make your way into Target so you can snag the deal on the BOGO socks. If you don't remember that scene, just check out the video above. The screaming sound you hear in the first part is a man who was pushed down while entering the store. No one stopped to help him up and instead decided to keep pushing past. Sure, you could say that if you can't handle a wild crowd, stay home instead. But isn't it still pretty frightening to know that we live in a world filled with the type of people who would push past a man struggling to get up off the ground? At what point do people start to realize that's a pretty messed up logic?

#6. Is The Sale That Great?

Some people wait in line for things we wouldn't even normally go out of our way to buy in the first place. Just read Reddit user Lineman72T's story:

"Worked security at Target for 5+ years. For being a store in the rougher part of town, I don't have too many horror stories. The funniest one I like to tell is a couple [many] years ago, I was there early doing crowd control. I would always talk to people in line, try to keep them entertained while they waited in the cold. The first couple in line had been there for about 13 or 14 hours. So we open the store, and we have deals on all sorts of electronics, toys, etc. They get in line and have 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"

advertisement

#7. Just Your Average JCPenney Brawl

The video above is pretty comical if you pay close attention. No one seems to really know what they're doing or who they're fighting. And that's the reality of the situation. None of the people above ended up getting hurt and dismantled after a couple of security guards broke them up. No one had a straight answer either when asked why they were fighting in the first place. But Black Friday really gets people excited. It must be all the energy created in the air by people who can't control their excitement over saving a mediocre amount of money. It doesn't even look like this group of young men were interested in buying anything either. But Black Friday has become a social event that attracts people of all sorts. Who isn't grumpy in the late hours of the evening and early hours of the morning? It's time to be in bed but instead, people are standing for hours under bright lights listening to the same Christmas music play over and over. Madness is bound to happen.

#8. Locked And Loaded

Being a Black Friday shopper can be terrifying enough, but sometimes, being the one behind the register is even worse! You can't pick and choose when you work when you have a retail position, so many people are forced to work the holiday when all they want to do is hide. Just read one retail worker's story as told by Reddit user KittyKatie0628:

"I work at the largest lingerie retailer in the country. We had a security guard last night for the beginning of black Friday. A southern belle mother decided she didn't want to wait in a 50 person deep line and she would cut. Our security guard asked her multiple times to step to the back of the line or leave. She proceeded to ream 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."

There seems to be a strange trend of people bringing guns with them while Black Friday shopping.

#9. Was It That Nice Of A TV?

What's Black Friday without someone getting punched in the face over a TV? What is it about a discounted electric box that makes people think it's OK to just start throwing fists? TVs are cool, arguably one of the best inventions ever, right up there with the toilet and microwave. But honestly, is getting a police officer's knee in your back and your face spread all over YouTube worth saving a couple of bucks? The saddest part is (well, maybe actually the best part), that these people never even walk away with the items! Surely both of the people that participated in the fight in the video above got kicked out, and the woman being held on the ground most likely was arrested. But hey, a deal's a deal, right? Plus, you probably look pretty cool telling your cell buddies you got booked for the night over a half off sale at Wal-Mart

advertisement

#10. The Battle Of The Label Maker

At one point in time, we used to have to fight each other over food. Animals still do it now which is why you might see a dog or cat getting territorial over their food bowl. It used to be crucial for us to be equipped with the skills needed to put up a fight and earn your next meal. Now, we can walk into any store or restaurant and have someone bring food right to us. The ability to fight over things physically doesn't really exist. But on Black Friday, it sure does. Reddit user awsnapitsrachel proves that with his short story:

"At staples, I watched two grown men get into a brawling fist fight over a $30 label maker.

it wasn't even the last one."

Could you imagine someone complimenting all of your labels and then explaining to the person you only got the labels by sucker punching someone in the face?

#11. Shopping Trip Full Of Pepper Spray

Imagine standing in line for hours after stuffing yourself full of turkey and bread- all so you could save an extra 10% off the brand new XBOX games. As soon as the store worker gives you the go ahead to grab your merchandise, you suddenly get hit with an overwhelming burning sensation in your cheeks and your eyes. That is what happened to 20 North Carolina Black Friday shoppers just a couple of years ago. One woman was so eager to ensure she would be getting the XBOX games she wanted, that she equipped her bag with pepper spray so she would be ready to set it off as soon as other customers went for the things she wanted. Did it never occur to her that this is still assault? You wouldn't take a baseball bat to other shoppers knuckles as they reached for a game, so what made her think that pepper spray would be acceptable?

#12. Who Needs Sleep?

A lot of the stories on the list so far have been rather comical. Most of these people got themselves into their messes in the first place, and no one has come out too banged up just yet. But what about when innocent lives are taken at the cost of someone's desire to not miss out on a sale? One family felt the danger of Black Friday after losing two members in a fatal car accident.

In the car was the dad driving, mom in the passenger seat, and their four daughters in the back seat. The only problem? All four were crammed in just three seats, meaning not everyone got to wear a seat belt. They, unfortunately, got into an accident, and two of the girls didn't survive. The most sickening part of the whole story? The car was equipped to carry those many people, but the third row of seats, where the two girls who were killed could have sat with seatbelts, were folded down to make room for all the Black Friday merchandise.

#13. Boycott Black Friday

One thing that really got people upset this year was when people involved in #blacklivesmatter groups decided to boycott Black Friday. This was in response to another innocent unarmed black man being murdered by police just the week before. They decided that in order to grab people's attention and take money away from the city, they would block off the entrances to the stores and not allow people in to shop.

This made shoppers mad as they couldn't spend their money, stores mad as they couldn't make money, and the city mad as they weren't making sales tax off of the mass amount of purchasing during the day. But the protest groups got just what they needed: attention to their issue! The funny part is, is that people were furious over these protests, but they didn't even last that long. And they took place in Chicago, so most of the stores that were closed off had a second location just a few blocks away.

#14. Killed Over A Parking Spot

The fight that we mentioned above was rumored to be gang related, so it's likely there was some premeditation before the murders broke out. Who takes a gun to a toy store anyways? The same can be said for two different men, this time in a parking lot. Only their crimes weren't gang related. Instead, one opened fire on the other simply over a parking spot. Unfortunately, the shooting was fatal. It's one thing to be that jerk who parks so no one else can fit in the spot next to you. But even a guy who does that doesn't deserve to be shot for what he did, which makes this case all the more unfathomable.

#15. Two Shot In A Toy Store

Toy stores are the most innocent stores. They're the first places we decided we wanted to spend our money, and getting to pick something out was exciting enough to make our entire week. If you're a kid, Toys ‘R' Us is probably the only place you'd want to be during Black Friday. But not the store in California during Black Friday of 2008.

It was on this day that two men were shot to death, by each other, right in the front of the store. The cause appeared to be a fight between two women the men were with. From there, it escalated until one pulled out his gun and shot, and the other ended up shooting back. Both men lost their lives but the women were safe. There were children all around the store as well. The cause of the fight was still unknown, but there can really never be a good reason to shoot another person, especially in a Toys ‘R' Us.