UPDATE 3-Violence, pepper spray mar US Black Friday shopping

* Rush for bargains turns violent

* Woman uses pepper spray in swarm for Xboxes

* Videos become a YouTube sensation (Updates scope of incidents)

By Barbara Goldberg

NEW YORK, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Black Friday turned into a black mark against American shoppers as riotous crowds brawled over video games, waffle irons and towels, drawing international condemnation and even raising questions about the state of humanity.

One of the most outrageous incidents of the day was in the Los Angeles area, where up to 20 people were injured after a woman at a Walmart used pepper spray to get an edge on other shoppers in a rush for Xbox game consoles.

Walmart seemed to have a worse day than many other retailers as shoppers screamed, shoved and elbowed each other to save a few bucks.

Incidents across the country included a man shot by robbers in the parking lot outside the San Leandro, California store and shoppers pepper sprayed by security at a store in Kinston, North Carolina.

A fight for bath towels, purportedly recorded at a Michigan store, has become a YouTube sensation. Cheap towels also caused mayhem at a Walmart in Oregon, Ohio.

"They were fighting over bath towels on sale for $1.88, as ridiculous as that sounds," Police Sergeant Jason Druckenmiller said. "A woman tried to get her hands on some towels when she was pushed from behind, and that's when she came out swinging."

Company spokesman Greg Rossiter said violence at a handful of stores marred an otherwise safe start to the holiday shopping season at thousands of Walmart stores.

COMMENTARY ON HUMANITY?

Videos of shopping pandemonium crowded YouTube by late Friday. One clip showed a crowd crushing and tearing apart boxes in a free-for-all for inexpensive cell phones. Another showed people flooding into a store as the gates were raised.

"This is what the human race has come to huh??" asked one person who commented online. Another said it "looked like a piranha feeding frenzy."

The instant classic of the day was a video of an Arkansas melee over a $2 waffle iron. The shaky, 48-second clip shows a mass of squealing and shouting men, women and children climbing over each other, grabbing and tossing boxes, with one woman seemingly unaware that her pants were sliding down her backside.

"Oh my God!" a woman screamed in the only sentence discernible among the high-pitched shrieks. One person commenting on the video wrote: "The pinnacle of Western Civilization has arrived."

A Walmart in Cave Creek, Arizona, was evacuated Thursday night after a suspicious package was found in an employee break room, Maricopa County Sheriff's Department spokesman Christopher Hegstrom said. A police robot retrieved the package, and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the store before it was reopened.

A video of a grandfather injured when he was knocked down by police at an Arizona Walmart went viral on YouTube. The video showed the man unconscious and bleeding from his face as police rolled him over and mopped up blood. Witnesses screamed at the police, accusing them of brutality and shouting for someone to call "911" for emergency medical assistance.

According to reports, the man was knocked down by police after putting a video game in his belt to free his hands so he could pick up his grandson as the crowd surged around them.

In the Manhattan borough of New York City, shoppers unhappy that Hollister's flagship store was not opening at midnight, as other locations were, broke into the store and stole clothing, police said.

DAY DRAWS MOCKERY

Black Friday drew bad press and mockery outside the United States.

In Toronto, a headline on the website of the Globe and Mail proclaimed: "Pepper-spray, shootings and other Black Friday madness."

Dutch state television showed an overhead shot of hundreds of people camped outside a west coast store. "No tents from the Occupy movement here in California, but clients waiting hours until the stores open," the anchor said. (Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York, Harriet McLeod in South Carolina, Joe Rauch in North Carolina, Jessica Wohl and Eric Johnson in Chicago, Aman Ali in Ohio, Mary Slosson in Colorado; Writing by Barbara Goldberg and Ben Berkowitz in New York; Editing by David Bailey and Paul Simao)

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Midnight Black Friday start likely to become norm

By Phil Wahba

Fri Nov 25, 2011 6:19pm EST

n">Nov 25 (Reuters) - Earlier than ever store openings at Macy's Inc , Target Corp and Best Buy Inc this year were such hits with shoppers that their midnight start on Black Friday will likely become the norm.

Macy's said about 10,000 people thronged its Manhattan flagship at midnight on Thursday, while a Best Buy store in Union, New Jersey, had people lined up for hours before.

Most retailers last year kicked off Black Friday at 4 a.m. But this year, some decided not to cede an inch of opportunity to rivals. And the strategy seems paid off.

"Now that we're open at midnight, we're getting an entirely different customer," Macy's Chief Executive Terry Lundgren told Reuters, speaking of night owl shoppers under age 30.

More traditional shoppers, who prefer to sleep off turkey dinner before hitting stores, came later in the morning as usual, Lundgren said, giving the chain two waves of customers.

The crowds at Macy's, Target, Best Buy and elsewhere mean midnight openings will be irresistible to more retailers.

"After seeing what I saw last night I can't imagine that this is going to be a one year only shot," said Charlie O'Shea, senior retail analyst at Moody's.

A major benefit is that it gives shoppers more choices.

"I did Black Friday at Target (in a prior year), I stood in line from 12:30 to 6 o'clock in the morning. I don't have to do it this year," said Desiree Schoolfield, a 49 year old public servant from Queens shopping at a Toys R Us in Manhattan Wednesday evening.

For the retailers, there are competitive considerations in what promises to be a tough holiday season.

Soon after Macy's announced it would move up its Black Friday opening to midnight, rival Kohl's Corp followed. And it would be unthinkable for Best Buy to be closed while Target is open, and vice versa.

Still, some bucked the trend this year and suffered little if any consequence.

J.C. Penney Co Inc stuck to its 4 a.m. opening, with the only apparent effect of rivals' earlier opening being a morning shopper traffic peak that came minutes earlier than last year, said Penney executive Mike Thielmann.

At 4:15 am on Friday, the parking lot at North Point Mall in suburban Atlanta, which has a Penney and Macy's, was 80 percent full, hours after 1,500 lined up for Macy's opening, said general manager Nick Nicolosi. And the Penney at Newport Centre in Jersey City, N.J., was packed in the early morning.

Still, analysts say it is just a matter of time before the competitive pressure prompts holdouts to open at midnight too, in a continuation of "store hour creep" that has seen Black Friday sales start earlier and earlier. Only a few years ago, a 6 a.m. start seemed outrageously early.

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Worried US shoppers greet 'Black Friday' sales

By Dhanya Skariachan and Liana B. Baker

Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:25am EST

n">(Reuters) - Bargain hunters flocked to U.S. stores late Thursday and overnight Friday, searching for deals while fretting about their own shaky economic well-being.

Some stores, looking to grab as big a piece as possible of what is expected to be a middling holiday shopping season, pushed post-Thanksgiving openings into Thursday evening or opened at midnight for the first time in years, getting a jump start on 'Black Friday', the traditional beginning to the U.S. holiday shopping season.

The strategy appeared to be working, judging from the 300 people who were lined up at a Toys R Us store on Long Island, New York before it opened at 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Shoppers were looking for bargains, but customers like James McBreaty were just what retailers wanted -- those who will also buy things beyond the "doorbuster" deals retailers offer to entice customers.

"We came for the deals but we were just discussing if we will buy things that aren't discounted," McBreaty, 32, a paralegal who was waiting with his wife Nicole, said. "Most likely the entire store isn't discounted but we're here so we'll probably buy some crap anyway."

In reality, the shopping period has been underway for some time as retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) and Toys R Us started early by offering layaway programs.

Retailers, from Amazon.com (AMZN.O) to Wal-Mart, were also offering online deals as Thanksgiving has become one of the biggest online shopping days of the year.

Retail executives and analysts are predicting a more competitive season than 2010. Unemployment still remains at 9 percent, European debt woes are weighing on the stock market and consumer confidence remains spotty.

The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, forecast a 2.8 percent increase in sales for the November-December holiday season, down from the 5.2 percent increase in 2010.

Some shoppers even feel as though the recession has returned, even if it has not shown up in economic data.

"This year, we are going to do shopping but I don't think it is going to be as much shopping as we usually do. Because of the recession, we are not going to shop as much," Desiree Schoolfield, 49, a public service profession from Queens who was shopping at the Toys R Us in Times Square, said.

MIXED VIEWS ON EARLY START

Earlier on Thursday, a line outside a Best Buy in Union, N.J., included shoppers who had pitched a tent to stay warm until the store's midnight opening, according to Charles O'Shea, a Moody's senior retail analyst.

O'Shea said he was visiting various retailers to gauge consumer traffic. The big draws are deals, like t-shirts for $6, down from $12. Bargains like those will be a fixture for the season, he said.

"There is no question that the shopper is looking for deals," O'Shea said. "Nobody wants to feel like they're leaving money on the table, especially when they have less money now."

NRF expects 152 million people to hit stores this weekend, up 10.1 percent from last year.

Wal-Mart, Old Navy, which is part of Gap Inc (GPS.N) and KMart, owned by Sears Holdings'(SHLD.O), were among the few retailers open on Thanksgiving.

To narrow the gap in store hours with rivals, discounter Target Corp (TGT.N), electronics chain Best Buy (BBY.N) and department store chains Macy's Inc (M.N) and Kohl's Corp (KSS.N) will open at midnight - their earliest starts ever.

Those midnight openings drew online petition protests from store workers, and some shoppers also did not like the early openings.

"Tonight all the stores decided to open at midnight which is difficult when you're trying to enjoy dinner with your family," said Louis Clapper, 24, as he shopped at the Walmart in Farmingdale, New York. "Normally I leave the house at midnight, or 3-4 a.m. for a 5 a.m. opening. The stores are opening earlier and earlier."

At Macy's in Herald Square, several Occupy Wall Street activists chanted "boycott Macy's" and "stop supporting big corporations" even as 9,000 people lined up to shop at the store.

Others retailers, including J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N), are opening early Friday morning as they did last year.

Wal-Mart started its Black Friday "doorbuster" deals on Thursday at 10 p.m. at its stores. Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), not to be outdone, will offer its deals online at 9 p.m.

The knock-down-drag-out fight comes as the rebound in sales cooled in October, when many top chains like Macy's and Saks reported disappointing sales.

It will be even tougher for chains that have struggled with sales declines lately, like Gap and Penney.

Last year, after a strong Black Friday weekend, shoppers sat on their hands until closer to Christmas. (Writing by Brad Dorfman in Milwaukee. Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan, Liana B. Baker and Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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Black Friday draws crowds, but spending in doubt

By Jessica Wohl

Fri Nov 25, 2011 8:56pm EST

n">(Reuters) - Retailers were hoping for more shoppers like Shawn Elzia as the annual Black Friday bargain stampede marked the unofficial start of what is widely expected to be a middling holiday shopping season.

The Brooklyn, New York teacher, one of hundreds of thousands of shoppers jostling for deals around the country, said he ended up spending about 25 percent more than he planned, even while worrying about the state of the economy.

"I did not expect such deals," the 33-year old said as he left a Macy's store in Jersey City, New Jersey clutching bags full of clothing for himself and his family.

"It's slashed down to the bones," he said. "There were some great discounts if you showed up early."

Deals are always part of the picture on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year was notable for an earlier opening for some retailers and possibly for the one shopper using pepper spray to make sure she could get a popular video game system.

The early start by stores brought out younger shoppers such as Alina Ybarra, who spent the wee hours of the morning with her friends as they all looked for items for themselves.

"It's really chaotic," Ybarra, 17, said of her first Black Friday outing as she finished her shopping in Santa Monica, California. She said that she liked the deals at stores such as Gap Inc's Old Navy and Urban Outfitters.

"It seems like a lot of teenagers were the primary shoppers, maybe because of the hour, but I think net-net it's not really going to result in an incremental positive for retailers," Ed Yruma, senior equity analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, said after checking out crowds at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. He said shoppers were not carrying a lot of shopping bags.

Leon Clare, 24, and Shawn Sykes, 27, both U.S. Navy Corpsmen, drove about 125 miles from 29 Palms Marine Base to Santa Monica so they each could spend close to $175 on a pair of Air Jordan Retro 3 shoes in "Black Cement," popular new sneakers from Nike Inc.

"This is for me," said Clare, who plans to spend more on holiday gifts later on in the season.

"I'm leaving for Afghanistan in March. I'm getting something for everyone, just in case I don't come back."

WORRIED... AGAIN

More than 120 stores at the Mall of America opened at midnight. The crowd at that point was about 15,000 people. Mall operators estimated that it was the largest crowd ever at the mall, which is big enough to hold seven Yankee Stadiums.

While eager shoppers emerged from stores around the country lugging big-screen TVs and bags full of video games and toys, it was far from certain that people will pull out their wallets for much more than the best deals this year. Shoppers with limited budgets started using layaway at chains such as Walmart as early as October.

Retail shares fell more than the overall market on Friday.

"Americans are still worried about jobs, still worried about the economy," said Mike Thielmann, group executive vice president at J.C. Penney, who noted that shoppers were buying gifts and for themselves, and said jewelry was selling well.

In Houston, Rico Salvosa, 60, bought two cameras at Best Buy and said he had saved about $170.

"It's worse than before because business is slow," Salvosa, who wholesales stone countertops, said as he left the store with his daughters. "I don't have a lot of savings for holiday shopping. I told them, 'I cannot buy everything that you'd like.'"

Competition among the retailers was fierce as it was among shoppers, as some stores opened hours earlier than before.

Outside Macy's flagship store in New York, some Occupy Wall Street activists chanted "boycott Macy's" and "stop supporting big corporations" even as about 9,000 people lined up to shop when the store opened at midnight.

Opening early appeared to work, judging from the long lines at stores such as Macy's, Toys R Us, Best Buy, Walmart and Target.

"It was crazy around midnight and one in the morning," said a Target employee at the chain's East Harlem, New York store, where the crowd thinned out later on Friday morning.

Even after a Toys R Us in New Jersey had been open for nearly an hour, at 9:50 p.m. EST on Thursday night, there was still a line of about 300 people waiting to get inside.

The 24 hours that started at 9 p.m. Thursday will be the biggest in retail history, with sales estimated at $27 billion, according to Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, one of the few experts predicting a strong season.

The term "Black Friday" commonly refers to the day after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the busy holiday shopping season when retailers do brisk business. (See related story: Spirited 'Black Friday' has dark roots.

While it is the busiest day of the year in terms of store traffic, it does not always mean that sales will soar for the season.

Despite brisk sales right after Thanksgiving in 2008 and 2009, total holiday season sales fell as the recession gripped the country.

The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, expects 152 million people to hit stores this weekend, up 10.1 percent from last year. Yet it expects sales for the full November-December holiday season to rise just 2.8 percent, well below the pace of last year when sales rose 5.2 percent.

Luxury chains such as Saks Inc and those catering to lower-income shoppers, such as dollar stores, are expected to do well this shopping season.

"For our products that are $25,000 and up, growth is phenomenal," said Mark Vadon, founder of online jewelry retailer Blue Nile. "Price points under $100 are also doing really well. For the mass part of the market, consumers are strapped and being a lot more wary."

Overall, retail executives and analysts expect a more competitive shopping season than in 2010. Unemployment remains at 9 percent, European debt woes are weighing on the stock market, and consumer confidence remains spotty.

Online sales on Thursday and Friday surpassed last year, and more shoppers used their mobile devices to buy, according to IBM data. The amount U.S. shoppers spent via eBay Mobile more than doubled on Thanksgiving, while eBay's PayPal Mobile unit saw a five-fold increase in global mobile payment volume versus last Thanksgiving.

The online push put pressure on some companies. Walmart.com saw some very high traffic, so some customers may have experienced delays as they tried to check out, it said.

Even Apple Inc gets into the Christmas spirit on Black Friday, the only day that it usually offers discounts. This year it offered its typical $101 discount on its $900-plus Mac laptops and $41 or more off its $499-plus iPads.

(Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan, Liana B. Baker and Phil Wahba in New York, Mihir Dalal in Jersey City, New Jersey, Jessica Wohl in Chicago, Diane Bartz in Hyattsville, Maryland, Lisa Baertlein and Edwin Chan in Los Angeles, Alistair Barr in San Francisco and Bruce Nichols in Houston. Editing by Jon Loades-Carter, Phil Berlowitz and Robert MacMillan)

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