Black Friday turns red with blood.

I actually participated in some Black Friday shopping. I rise early and so I decided that I might as well head over to a nearby Office Depot store here in Washington D.C. that was opening at 6 AM. I need a new printer that would work with a new HP laptop I had purchased a few weeks ago. They had a great deal on one multifunction unit for twenty five bucks. I arrived at the store about five minutes before 6AM and there were about thirty people already on line. A store employee came out a few minutes before and handed out papers for some of the sale items like laptops etc. If he had one to give you were guaranteed the item when the store opened. I got my HP printer and was out of the store in about 45 minutes. It was nice and orderly.
Others where not so lucky:

"A stampede of shoppers in a Valley Stream Wal-Mart on Friday morning left one worker dead and at least three patrons injured after an impatient crowd broke down the store doors and trampled the seasonal employee, Nassau police said.
Jdimytai Damour of Jamaica, Queens, was pushed to the ground by the 2,000-plus crowd just before 5 a.m. as management was preparing to open the store, which is located across from the main Green Acres Mall building. Hundreds stepped over, around and on the 34-year-old worker as they rushed into the store."-Newsday

Even worse is what transpired in a Toys R Us store in Palm Desert California:

"Two men pulled guns and shot each other to death in a crowded toy store Friday after women they were with got into a bloody brawl for unknown reasons, witnesses said. Scared shoppers fled but no one else was hurt.
The violence erupted on Black Friday, the traditional post-Thanksgiving start of the holiday shopping surge, but authorities indicated the shooting shortly after 11:30 a.m. was not prompted by shopping frenzy.
Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said the fight was not over a toy. He said handguns were found by the men's bodies. He would not answer a question about whether the shooting was gang-related."
The victims were identified as Alejandro Moreno, 39, of Desert Hot Springs, and Juan Meza, 28, of Cathedral City."

I wonder if we will ever get the full story of what happened here. At least these two only shot themselves. But, it gives new meaning to the term shop til you drop.