By Michael Kaplan, New York Post
Black Friday could be one of our country’s darkest days.
The shopping holiday is a favorite for bargain hunters, but for many, it’s one of the most dangerous outings — and the outcomes can be gruesome.
Between 2006 and 2018, according to the Hustle, 44 Black Friday incidents in America left 11 dead and 109 injured — including one man who brought home a shattered hip after being shoved into a shelf of cut-rate presents.
There’s even an entire website devoted to tragedies on the commerce holiday, called Black Friday Death Count, which documents some of the worst melees.
Danger be damned, customers are willing to put up with it so long as the sales are on. In 2018, stores raked in $6.2 billion in the single day, according to Digital Trends.
Here are some lowlights from more than a decade of holiday-season shopping violence.
The first dark day
In 2008, a Walmart employee on Long Island was trampled to death when more than 2,000 enthusiastic gift-grabbers busted through the store’s front door and could not be contained. This marks Black Friday’s first stampede fatality.
