Black Friday 2008

At one Fry's last year, the police had to come.
The manager came out around 5AM or so, about an hour before opening, and told everyone to condense the line as it wrapped around the store more than once.
So rather than do it calmly, it caused this huge surge of people leaving a ton of shit behind, people in tents getting fucked over and a whole bunch of jazz.
Understandably, the line DID compress greatly, as people were now excited, however, it was about 5-6 people deep. A giant mess, really and somehow I ended up near the front because of how deep it was.
Then, to counter-act this, I SHIT YOU NOT, the manager got on the megaphone and said "If your hand isn't touching the wall, you're out of line."
At that point I went pale. I was against the wall, next to a small mother and her child. I had to brace myself because a shitload of people were pushing against us and would surely crush them.
A few metal shopping carts got torn apart, one car got wrecked, the railings were all ruined and a fight broke out at the front of the line and multiple police had to show up to break it up.
It doesn't stop there.
By that point, the line had everybody freaking out, but at the front of the store, it was the worst. Now people just showing up were joining that huddle and ruining the whole point of arriving early.
So, to get rid of the mob in front, he and a few assistants got on the megaphone to tell everyone only in the front of the line to take 3 steps back.
Think about this, giant crowd in the front and he's only talking to them.
We shout back "Tell the people behind us!" because in their infinite wisdom, they couldn't do it. The yelling went back and forth multiple times, because the manager STILL wasn't talking to the people behind us to back up, and let's be honest, you can't back up when someone is there, even if you tell them.
Eventually the store opened and it was a mad rush to each department to get what you need. Typically at Fry's, big ticket items are picked up at the register OR from a stock clerk after you talk to someone else to pick up a claim ticket. Things like TVs, computers, etc.
Well, apparently the 32" LCDs weren't stocked in the back, rather on the top of aisles, about 8ft off the ground. Most people were able to grab a stack, keep one and give out the rest to the other people, but more than one stack was yanked, crashed to the ground, probably broke and people grabbed them and ran off.
They were out of stock of the TV I wanted, so I got a bigger one, roughly the same price, and slowly proceeded to the front, watching everyone else run around like crazy.

I can't wait for this year. I want a cheap little netbook. I got one for my mother-in-law and after spending a week to set it up, I fell in love.