Below is the story that happened at our local Wal-Mart where LAPTOP computers went for $478! I got my desktop computer at Best Buy for only $150 including monitor and speakers, keyboard and mouse! But I got lucky to get that since someone abandoned it in the store. At our local Best Buy, people camped out the night before it opened at 5am and by 5:10 am, 3000 people were in line to enter the store
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Thousands of Southeast Texans were up before the sun Friday to begin their Christmas shopping, but bargain-hunters at one major retail store in XXXXXXXXX got out-of-control and the crowd was pepper-sprayed by a police officer.
At major outlets like Best Buy, Circuit City and Wal-Mart, the lines started forming Thursday evening. When Wal-Mart's doors opened at 5 a.m. Friday, chaos reigned.
More than 100 customers descended on the electronics section to grab one of the handful of laptop computers on sale, with those at the back of the line pushing and shoving their way to the front, according to a XXXXXXX police report.
An off-duty police officer working security for Wal-Mart warned the crowd, but the officer, who the department identified only as Officer Ownby, was shoved against a counter.
After a second warning, Ownby released a two second burst of pepper spray into the air, subduing the crowd.
Pepper spray causes irritation and burning in the eyes, nose, throat and lungs, leading to gagging and difficulty breathing.
There were no arrests and nobody had to be taken to the hospital, but the police department did not report whether any of the customers received on-site medical attention.
A Wal-Mart manager referred questions about the incident to the company's media relations department, which declined to comment.
At Best Buy, the situation was more controlled. About 2,000 people were waiting outside when the store opened at 5 a.m., said store manager Jarrod Parks. To prevent a stampede, they were let in the store in groups of 30.
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The lure of $150 desktop computers and $380 laptops had customers lining up almost 12 hours before the store opened.
Travis Talant, a 19-year-old xxxxxxx, was tossing a football to pass the time Thursday night and even had a pizza delivered. Sleep would have to wait until he got home.
"We're trying to keep ourselves entertained," Talant said.
Darrell Boudreaux brought a cot, but doubted he could get any sleep with all the chatter.
The 38-year-old xxxxxxxx resident was holding a place in line while his wife and children were eating dinner across the parking lot at IHOP.
The discounted computers that attracted the early crowd at Best Buy went quickly -- there were about four dozen of them.
Other popular items include Apple's Nano iPod and flat-panel television sets, Parks said.
The costs inflicted by Hurricane Rita have not dampened holiday shoppers' appetite for pricey electronic gadgets.
Last year, about 10,000 customers walked through Best Buy's doors the day after Thanksgiving. That figure likely doubled Friday, Parks said.
Willie Shaw, a xxxxxxxx resident, is staying with her daughter because her home was damaged in the storm.
But Rita or no Rita, Shaw's two grandsons still need Christmas presents, and so Shaw, 68, was waiting in line Friday night at Wal-Mart to get two Gameboys and a laptop.
Shaw's daughter was camped out at Best Buy to increase the chances one of them would get a computer.
"Good bargains are worth the wait," Shaw said.
For a few, Rita has meant a holiday windfall. Wesley Myers, a xxxxxxxxxx resident who lays fiber optic cable, has been working lots of overtime since the storm. And it showed in the full shopping cart he was pushing through the aisles at Toys R Us.
"This will be the best Christmas my kids ever had," Myers said.
Some holiday shoppers strictly adhere to a per-person gift limit. Some do not, and some, like Marie Lopez, set limits and then invariably break them.
Taking a lunch break at the Parkdale Mall food court surrounded by several large shopping bags, Lopez said she already had spent a lot more than she expected to when she set out from her Tyler County home that morning.
Among her purchases was a $300 toy truck for her 2-year-old granddaughter Kynlee.
Lopez's husband sometimes takes her credit card away after one of her shopping sprees, but Lopez said she spares no expense when it comes to Kynlee, who has undergone three heart surgeries.
"I'm just so grateful she's around for another Christmas and that I can buy things for her," Lopez said.
Many shoppers said indulging small children is relatively inexpensive, but those with teens on their Christmas lists were shelling out for video games and designer clothes.
Paula Palmer ventured into chic clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch to shop for her teenage grandchildren and was almost driven out by the pop and hip-hop music the store plays at full blast.
"It's so loud we couldn't even discuss the clothes we were looking at," said Palmer, a 72-year-old Port Neches resident. "They need a day for grandmothers to come and shop and not have to hear all that."
Friday saw congested traffic and crowded stores along Dowlen Road, xxxxxxxxx main retail area. But the worst could be yet to come.
Although the day after Thanksgiving is considered America's busiest shopping day of the year, in 2004 that distinction actually belonged to the Saturday before Christmas, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.
"Black Friday," which the day after Thanksgiving is often called because it kicks off a shopping spree that puts retailers into the black, was the second busiest shopping day in 2004.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thousands of Southeast Texans were up before the sun Friday to begin their Christmas shopping, but bargain-hunters at one major retail store in XXXXXXXXX got out-of-control and the crowd was pepper-sprayed by a police officer.
At major outlets like Best Buy, Circuit City and Wal-Mart, the lines started forming Thursday evening. When Wal-Mart's doors opened at 5 a.m. Friday, chaos reigned.
More than 100 customers descended on the electronics section to grab one of the handful of laptop computers on sale, with those at the back of the line pushing and shoving their way to the front, according to a XXXXXXX police report.
An off-duty police officer working security for Wal-Mart warned the crowd, but the officer, who the department identified only as Officer Ownby, was shoved against a counter.
After a second warning, Ownby released a two second burst of pepper spray into the air, subduing the crowd.
Pepper spray causes irritation and burning in the eyes, nose, throat and lungs, leading to gagging and difficulty breathing.
There were no arrests and nobody had to be taken to the hospital, but the police department did not report whether any of the customers received on-site medical attention.
A Wal-Mart manager referred questions about the incident to the company's media relations department, which declined to comment.
At Best Buy, the situation was more controlled. About 2,000 people were waiting outside when the store opened at 5 a.m., said store manager Jarrod Parks. To prevent a stampede, they were let in the store in groups of 30.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></P>
The lure of $150 desktop computers and $380 laptops had customers lining up almost 12 hours before the store opened.
Travis Talant, a 19-year-old xxxxxxx, was tossing a football to pass the time Thursday night and even had a pizza delivered. Sleep would have to wait until he got home.
"We're trying to keep ourselves entertained," Talant said.
Darrell Boudreaux brought a cot, but doubted he could get any sleep with all the chatter.
The 38-year-old xxxxxxxx resident was holding a place in line while his wife and children were eating dinner across the parking lot at IHOP.
The discounted computers that attracted the early crowd at Best Buy went quickly -- there were about four dozen of them.
Other popular items include Apple's Nano iPod and flat-panel television sets, Parks said.
The costs inflicted by Hurricane Rita have not dampened holiday shoppers' appetite for pricey electronic gadgets.
Last year, about 10,000 customers walked through Best Buy's doors the day after Thanksgiving. That figure likely doubled Friday, Parks said.
Willie Shaw, a xxxxxxxx resident, is staying with her daughter because her home was damaged in the storm.
But Rita or no Rita, Shaw's two grandsons still need Christmas presents, and so Shaw, 68, was waiting in line Friday night at Wal-Mart to get two Gameboys and a laptop.
Shaw's daughter was camped out at Best Buy to increase the chances one of them would get a computer.
"Good bargains are worth the wait," Shaw said.
For a few, Rita has meant a holiday windfall. Wesley Myers, a xxxxxxxxxx resident who lays fiber optic cable, has been working lots of overtime since the storm. And it showed in the full shopping cart he was pushing through the aisles at Toys R Us.
"This will be the best Christmas my kids ever had," Myers said.
Some holiday shoppers strictly adhere to a per-person gift limit. Some do not, and some, like Marie Lopez, set limits and then invariably break them.
Taking a lunch break at the Parkdale Mall food court surrounded by several large shopping bags, Lopez said she already had spent a lot more than she expected to when she set out from her Tyler County home that morning.
Among her purchases was a $300 toy truck for her 2-year-old granddaughter Kynlee.
Lopez's husband sometimes takes her credit card away after one of her shopping sprees, but Lopez said she spares no expense when it comes to Kynlee, who has undergone three heart surgeries.
"I'm just so grateful she's around for another Christmas and that I can buy things for her," Lopez said.
Many shoppers said indulging small children is relatively inexpensive, but those with teens on their Christmas lists were shelling out for video games and designer clothes.
Paula Palmer ventured into chic clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch to shop for her teenage grandchildren and was almost driven out by the pop and hip-hop music the store plays at full blast.
"It's so loud we couldn't even discuss the clothes we were looking at," said Palmer, a 72-year-old Port Neches resident. "They need a day for grandmothers to come and shop and not have to hear all that."
Friday saw congested traffic and crowded stores along Dowlen Road, xxxxxxxxx main retail area. But the worst could be yet to come.
Although the day after Thanksgiving is considered America's busiest shopping day of the year, in 2004 that distinction actually belonged to the Saturday before Christmas, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.
"Black Friday," which the day after Thanksgiving is often called because it kicks off a shopping spree that puts retailers into the black, was the second busiest shopping day in 2004.