Ripping clothes, waking up at un-godly hours, and tackling the stranger next to you- these are all things that come with the stereotypical Black Friday. The purpose of Black Friday is to promote sales and deals throughout stores at the start of the holiday shopping season; this day only happens once a year. Unfortunately, Black Friday can become violent. I had previously never experienced the catastrophes that occur, but after this year, I can say that I was a witness. While Black Friday is supposed to be an enjoyable experience, it often devolves into chaos.

This year, I continued my tradition of going Black Friday shopping. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to go to Woodfield mall in Schaumberg and shop my life away. The first task of my day was finding parking. Thankfully, Woodfield is big enough to hold loads of cars; the traffic and bustle was manageable compared to other years.

Inside the mall, it was almost peaceful. Although this year had many, many more people than previous years, everyone was moving at their own speed and minding their own business. The most common deals during Black Friday are between 20%-50% off at almost every store; less expensive stores like Forever 21, Express, American Eagle, and H & M are the best for finding great deals.

The actual movement within the mall was not bad at all. At first, everyone was walking in an orderly manner, continuing their shopping. Suddenly, I heard some screaming, and I turned around to see two women bickering over a toy for their daughters. One was holding the box, and the other was trying to negotiate a deal for it. I thought they were just going to verbally argue until one got too tired and let it go; I was wrong. The lady that didn’t have the box grabbed the hair of the other and took her to the floor. No punching, kicking, or biting occurred- it was just two grown women wrestling each other, casually, for a toy. It took security about 30 seconds to come over and break the fight. Shortly afterwards, everyone continued on their merry way.

I was so surprised to see this fight break out because I’ve never even seen a minor problem between customers. Little did I know that if you are in the right place at the right time, you can be in for quite the show.

Overall, my Black Friday experience was almost boring, but seeing two grown women fight really put into perspective what Black Friday is depicted to be while bringing some humor into my day. If you have never gone Black Friday shopping, I’d suggest you do. It’s a day of fun deals filled with new attire and some possible fight club entertainment.