As Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday begin there inexorable melding into one big 48-hour long shopping day, Target and Walmart on Friday paid homage to Apple's iconic iPad (via 9to5Mac) , crediting its various models with jump-starting the holiday shopping season.
Walmart gave one-day sales numbers for various items, and said it sold 1.4 million tablets. While the world's largest retailer did not break down the sales figures into different tablets, it also said that among its top sellers was the iPad mini, along with big screen televisions, laptops, the Xbox One, the PS4 and Call of Duty Ghosts.
Meanwhile, Target said that Apple's flagship tablet, the iPad Air, was sold out by mid-morning.
While these figures are great, both companies gloss over the fact that Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day sales are being seen as sources of more than just sales -- in other words, violence.
Most of the coverage involves Walmart , but honestly, we would have been surprised if Target didn't at least experience some of the same sorts of issues. However, to be absolutely clear, we only managed to find a singular news item regarding Target violence.
Twitter became a great place to find out about which Walmart's to avoid. Among the tweets seen were:
courtneylexis @CourtneyCrigler
NEVER will I go to Walmart black Friday again I got stuck in the middle of a fight over a stupid tablet 🙈🙈😠if you wanna see crazy go there
E-Na$ty @EssenceLaray
Walmart was live. Seen people fight over towels lmao
Myranda. @myrandanikole
Thank god we got out asap from walmart because too many people were starting to fight -.-
Amanda Sanchez @Amanda__Sanchez
Witnessed a fight at walmart over a $29 tablet....
Zach Colley @zachcolley1
I have never felt more shame for humanity than I do right now watching people in Walmart fight over a tv, Alabama bookbag & a $14 blender
Kamal @Kamal561
Watching these ppl fight over laptops in Walmart was sad #Mericuh
AÅ‚ex Reyes @Alex_Reyes32
Walmart is like a war zone.. Fight to the death to get the sh*t you want
A video involving Walmart fisticuffs is embedded. and a number of others are available here (due to site limitations).
There are probably certain Internet retailers just gobbling up this bad news -- we're thinking Amazon.com , Overstock.com, Newegg.com, among others. We have recommended, for some time, that the best Black Friday experience is found online.
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/fistfights-abound-but-so-do-thanksgiving-tablet-sales-at-walmart-target?cid=roadrunner