Legal News

Holiday Shopping & the Law: Black Friday and Wal-Mart?s Blitz Sale

By Dan Slater

In the wee hours of . . . Black Friday, the defendant’s seeds of chaos were bearing fruit, as the swarm of would-be shoppers was burgeoning. Badly hit by a grievous recession, these people had elected to barter sleep, in order to put substance in their Christmas stocking. The multitude was spilling out of the sidewalk and pouring across the parking lot . . . taped next to the [Wal-Mart] doors a handwritten sign saying, “Blitz Line Starts Here.” — from a Dec. 16 complaint filed against Wal-Mart for injuries allegedly suffered by a customer on Black Friday.

Shoppers climb over each other seconds after the yellow tape was cut at 5:00 a.m. to reach the 32 laptop computers that were on sale at a Wal-Mart store in Puyallup, Wash., Nov. 25, 2005. (AP/ Russ Carmack)

Yesterday, the New York Times ran a front-page story about recession-hit retailers continuing to sweeten their discounts in an effort to off-load inventory.

Clearly, these are tough times for shoppers and stores alike. But will certain sale tactics risk consumer lawsuits? One has. Two women, Jennifer Jones and Alicia Sgro, have sued Wal-Mart and others for alleged injuries — including punches to the face from an unknown assailant — that took place during the stampede that preceded Wal-Mart’s Black Friday ‘Blitz’ sale. (Black Friday is that day after Thanksgiving when the holiday shopping season officially kicks off.) Here’s the complaint, via Courthouse News.

According to the complaint, Wal-Mart “strived very hard to create a menacing, unruly crowd,” expecting “mayhem to occur.” In an apparent effort to make out the element of foreseeability that’s required for a negligence claim, the complaint states:

Upon information and belief, integral to the design of the sale was emplacing in the shoppers a feeling of anxiety. Each member of the crowd would experience fear of being smashed, while vertical, or trampled, while horizontal: that fall to the ground would be a prelude to burial thereunder. Afterwards, once inside the store each shopper would have a feeling of emotional freedom and release that would cause him or her to do more purchasing.

The complaint — alleging negligence, gross negligence, false imprisonment and assault — claims that the plaintiffs sustained punches to the face from an unknown female assailant. They’re represented by Brooklyn-based Bruce Baron. We’re still waiting to hear back from Wal-Mart. We’ll update the post when do.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 29, 2008 (boomark / email).