20 of the Most Insane Black Friday Brawls Captured on Camera

Black Friday is as well-known for bad shopper behavior as it is for bargain-basement prices, and for good reason. Here, we take a look back at the 20 craziest fights it’s caused – from jaw-dropping mass brawls to seriously intense tug-of-wars. And we’re kicking off with this incident in which a police officer felt it necessary to place a female Walmart shopper in a headlock after her aggressive attempts to get her hands on a 23-inch TV. Happy shopping, everyone.

The Black Friday tradition, which began shortly after the turn of the millennium, is all about shops selling a limited number of high-end products at knock-down prices, but all too often things end up in knockout bouts. The reason why these girls started fighting at Kohl’s in Tustin, California is unknown, but their brawl got so violent that two of them suffered facial cuts and one was taken to hospital.

Following Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday also marks the start of the holiday shopping period. As this mid-aisle brawl shows, though, not everybody feels the festive cheer when there are presents to be bought. At a Walmart in Great Bend, Kansas, these three Black Friday shoppers prepared to battle for what appears to have been the last Fisher Price Power Wheels in stock. Crazy.

Indeed, sometimes it almost seems inevitable that a crowd of angry shoppers will turn into mob, which is exactly what happened at this Walmart store in Elkin, North Carolina on Black Friday 2013. Certainly, shoving and pushing seemed to be the order of the day, especially for the guy in the orange jacket.

No doubt shoppers and retailers alike will be approaching this week’s upcoming Black Friday with a little trepidation. And the sad likelihood is that scenes like this – in which three customers fought over a shopping cart and its contents – will be replicated in certain areas across the U.S.

In fact, some shoppers are so badly behaved that they have to be restrained by force, and not just bare-handed force. Take this man, for example, who had to be tasered while being wrestled to the ground. Truly shocking.

These two managed to wrestle a TV from a crowd at the same time, but they unfortunately both fell over when they did. It was the cue for an almighty tug of war in which no clear winner emerged – apart from some delighted news photographers who were also on the scene.

With scenes like this – when tens or sometimes hundreds of people rush through a gate that hasn’t finished opening – it’s no surprise that tempers can end up flaring, particularly when so many end up on the floor. That would have been the worst position to be in on this day.

Things got hectic at this unidentified store when some strong words between one woman and three men quickly boiled over into fisticuffs. And much as with some other situations, the fighting was so intense that no one dared to help.

It’s a little unclear here, but the guy standing has just floored a poor dude with a single punch. The reason? A dispute over a pair of Nike Air Jordan 11 Gammas, which were released just before Christmas 2013. Well, that’s okay then.

It turned out that people really wanted to get their hands on those Air Jordans, with fights over them breaking out in California, Texas and New York. One of the worst clashes was between these two; the guy on the floor seemed to have lost his shirt in preparation for the fight. Just do it, indeed.

One woman definitely had her panties in a bunch when she decided to slap – or possibly poke – another lady at a Victoria’s Secret store inside Maryland’s Annapolis Mall. The latter party responded by taking a swing at the former, which enraged the former’s friends to such an extent that they tried to take her down.

These three women have really let Black Friday get to them. It’s not clear what exactly caused their disagreement, but it certainly escalated pretty quickly, what with all that pushing, hair-pulling and punching. They need to Netflix and chill.

Walmart, it seems, has really borne the brunt of Black Friday violence. For example, at one branch these three guys engaged in a full-blown fist fight. It looks like things got so insanely violent that onlookers were too shocked to intervene.

There’s a solid reason why this woman with blond braids is being restrained; moments earlier she and another woman were embroiled in a fight so violent that three men were required to restrain them. Is this what Black Friday has become?

Sometimes, it seems, things can get really out of hand. At Franklin Mill Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Black Friday in 2013, for instance, this group of shoppers started brawling, seemingly oblivious to the kids caught in the middle.

This chaotic scene was captured outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan’s Walmart during Black Friday 2005. The woman on the right, sheltering from the tumbling bodies, was pregnant at the time. She and another woman were taken to hospital shortly afterward.

The two women getting into an altercation here had to be separated by a law enforcement officer outside of a store. Clearly, malls are to be avoided at all costs on Black Friday.

The shoe aisle of this particular store became a particularly hazardous place to be on this Black Friday. Indeed, as the combatants fought each other, shoe boxes fell on top of them.

Black Friday behavior is, though, not a U.S.-only phenomenon; like so many proud American customs, this one has gone global. This poor woman – who’s about to have her head pushed down by the man on top of her – was filmed at an Asda supermarket in London in 2014. Will this year look much the same? Yes, it probably will.