British Consumers Embrace American Tradition of Black Friday

In a beautiful gesture of reverse colonization (I mean, kinda) this year marks the very first time British retailers are participating in the American tradition of Black Friday. And it looks like the Brits are naturals at it—they’ve even taken to the standard trampling over each other and “mini-riots” Black Friday is known for.

While our friends across the pond do not celebrate family, gratitude, and unwittingly the decimation of the indigenous populations of North America (or “newfound Golgotha” as some English colonist lovingly referred to the land back in the day), on the fourth Thursday of November, back in 2010, Amazon extended its Black Friday sales to the Brits. Last year a handful of major retailers “celebrated” Black Friday, but this year, the majority of British retailers including supermarket Tesco, clothing retailer Marks & Spencer, have observed the tradition.

Across the UK, police were called in to seven Tesco stores to deal with the pandemonium caused by all the deals.

People, shit has gotten real over in the UK. Here’s a list compiled by the BBC of just some of the ridiculous Black Friday incidents:

About 200 shoppers refused to leave a store in Middleton “despite being told stock had all gone”

Fights broke out between shoppers in Stretford, and a woman suffered “minor injuries” after being hit by a falling television. The store was closed at 00:36 GMT

A man was arrested in Salford after he threatened to “smash a staff member’s face in”

A woman broke her wrist in a crush, with Greater Manchester Police’s deputy chief constable Ian Hopkins describing shoppers’ behaviour as “appalling”

It’s really beautiful when cultural appropriation is done right.

Meanwhile, in the US, Black Friday sales have thinned out a little bit, but only because the main rush already took place on Thanksgiving night. 140 million people are expected to participate in Black Friday, which as Hiroko Tabuchi at the New York Times points out IS MORE THAN THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO VOTED IN THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS GODDAMMIT WHAT IS WRONG WITH US.