Black Friday Fights: Report Lists 10 States Most Likely To Have Fighting Shoppers
Black Friday, one of the biggest U.S. shopping days of the year, is quickly approaching.
Thousands of consumers throughout the country have spent a considerable amount of time planning their shopping trips out in advance, anxiously waiting to take advantage when those Black Friday sales officially start.
Your Daily #PSA – The Top 10 States you’re most likely to get into a fight on #BlackFriday: https://t.co/z7nDqtTcHv pic.twitter.com/gkfhK1biUs
— AmericasMorningShow (@AmericasMorning) November 24, 2015
However, a recent report released by real estate website Estately shined a spotlight on the not-so-pleasant side of Black Friday: the violent fights that erupt among the customers of many different stores.
Using a compilation of Facebook mentions referencing Black Friday along with FBI crime reports, the website created a list of the top 10 U.S. states most likely have Black Friday fights. Here is the complete list of those targeted ten states:
- Arkansas
- Tennessee
- Alabama
- Louisiana
- Missouri
- West Virginia
- Oklahoma
- Indiana
- Kansas
- South Carolina
Within the report, Estately discussed the company’s objective for this particular Black Friday study, as well as how they analyzed their findings.
“To determine just where it’s most dangerous to participate in Black Friday we at Estately sought to determine where people are most likely to be participating in Black Friday sales and where people are most prone to violently attacking each other. Our findings come from ranking each state from 1-50 for these two data sets and then averaging the results.”
Based on the company’s findings, Estately also concluded that leaving the family behind to get early access to Black Friday deals “is not a universal interest in America.” Less than two percent of Facebook users reportedly expressed interest in Black Friday sales at all within Hawaii and California.
On the contrary, more than 10 percent of Facebook users in Kentucky and West Virginia have shared their interest in this anticipated sales day online. When it comes to overall violence, Tennessee reportedly had the highest ratio of aggravated assaults — reaching over 453 incidents per 100,000 people in the state.
In an interview with Local Memphis, Chief Inspector David Edmonds with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office discussed his overall amazement with the passion and emotion that is invested in this particular shopping day.
“Tempers are going to flare sometimes. It still amazes me to see that kind of passion go into making a purchase at a store, but you know people are going to be people and those things are going happen.”
This particular Top 50 List is apparently one where you do not want your state listed within the Top 10. On the other hand, being featured within the bottom ten would essentially mean that your state is one of the safest states to shop in on Black Friday. Based on that particular line of reasoning, here is a list of the top 10 safest U.S. states for Black Friday shopping.
- Massachusetts
- Hawaii
- New Jersey
- Oregon
- Vermont
- Connecticut
- Washington
- Utah
- New Hampshire
- Colorado
Regardless of the state in which you live, there are quite a few effective steps that can be taken to remain safe while taking advantage of the available sales on Black Friday.
Check out these crowd management #safety guidelines for retailers. #OSHA #BlackFriday https://t.co/8hRaguUflo pic.twitter.com/MAxnOGwSR1
— ASSE (@ASSE_Safety) November 23, 2015
According to BlackFriday.com, it is imperative to focus on staying safe during each stage of the shopping trip: while surviving the lines outside and inside of the store as well as while shopping for your desired items.
The website further explains that there are also steps to take in order to get exactly what you want safely without having to encounter any Black Friday fights. For instance, consumers are advised to make their decisions before the doors open and visit stores in which they are already familiar with the layout.
[Image Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
