The year 'all hell broke loose' at Manchester Black Friday sales with 'punch ups and broken bones'
24.11.2023 - 07:09
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
While it was once the Boxing Day sales that were the most anticipated shopping day of the year, the last decade has seen a new challenger. Black Friday sales have long been a staple in the US, but the tradition of the final Friday of November price slash only made it to these shores just over 10-years ago.
Beginning in the 1960s, Black Friday can be traced back to the anarchic shopping scenes the day after the US national holiday, Thanksgiving. Since then, the annual event has become a chance for Americans to grab a great deal just before Christmas.
Internet shopping giant, Amazon, established their first Black Friday deals in 2010. However, the craze didn't fully take off in the UK until a few years later, when the big stores like Argos, Asda, John Lewis, and Tesco, started dropping their prices on the last Friday of November.
Since then, the annual sales event has become something of an established date in the UK's retail calendar. Before the online sales were fully embraced, Black Friday saw hordes of shoppers brave midnight queues just to get the hands on a bargain.
But it was in November 2014, with high-street retailers fully embracing the event and suddenly dropping their prices, that started a day of widespread shopping chaos across Britain. Like many areas, Greater Manchester saw the sales take a dark turn and police were called to a handful of supermarkets following a number of reported incidents.
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At the time, the Manchester Evening News reported how fights broke out when desperate punters stormed the supermarket chain outlets at midnight to get hold of bargains. Officers were deployed to Tesco in Irlam,