It was the Black Friday midnight sale which sparked a near-riot in 2014 as Dundee shoppers fought to get their hands on cut-price TVs.
A shopper at Tesco Extra in Kingsway West Retail Park in Dundee suffered two broken fingers as a shelf crashed down on her in the midst of the panicked frenzy.
The supermarket was forced to close for four hours following the chaotic midnight scenes eight years ago which wouldn’t have looked out of place in a UFC ring.
With the sales kicking off again today we have looked back at the scenes which unfolded in the usually serene aisles and brought the city some unwanted headlines.
From the US to the UK
Black Friday deals were imported from the US in 2010 by Amazon.
Being a large US company, the online store was already used to Black Friday sales every Thanksgiving and first introduced the idea to the British public in November 2010.
The phenomenon created a frenzy among bargain hunters.
Black Friday was soon taken up by other prominent UK retail brands including ASDA, who are owned by American company Walmart.
Black Friday started to get a reputation for chaos with customers being caught on camera shoving each other to get their hands on cheap digital gadgets.
So what happened on Black Friday in 2014?
Asda was selling a 40 inch Polaroid TVs, which had been reduced by £80, and 50 inch Blaupunkt HD TVs were from £399 to £249 in Tesco.
People queued outside Tesco Extra in Kingsway West Retail Park.
Shoppers started pulling over displays and pushing each out of the way as they fought to get their hands on the heavily-discounted goods going on sale.
One suffered two broken fingers as a shelf crashed down on her and Tesco staff were forced to call in police just after midnight due to the crush of customers.
One Twitter user posted: “Just been to Tesco Kingsway for Black Friday, absolutely disgusting!! Shop shut for people fighting #growup”
Jen Strachan from St Andrews said: “When I arrived at the store at 11.35pm the queue of customers was all the way along to the cash machine in the car park, but it was clear to see that many customers were already waiting in the store, right next to the items on offer.
“I think this is what caused the mayhem even before it turned midnight.
“I did not make it anywhere near the items on offer when an announcement was made to ask customers to move away from the shelves.
“Very soon after another announcement was made to ask customers to leave the shop as no sales would be made.”
The supermarket, normally open 24 hours a day, was forced to remain closed until 5am.
Midnight mayhem at Tesco
Debbie Mitchell was in the store as midnight approached.
At the time, she told The Courier: “I was at Tesco Kingsway at 11pm and as it got closer to midnight you could feel the tension rising.
“People were starting to open wrappers a bit to find out what was in the pallets.
“At about 11.50pm, it just went crazy.
“People were pushing, pulling and climbing over people to get to the things they wanted and things they didn’t.”
Tesco at Kingsway West was one of a number of businesses in the city offering the Black Friday sale but were simply “inundated” according to police afterwards.
A spokesman said there was no “criminality” but tempers had “become frayed”.
A post on Tayside Division’s Facebook page stated: “For information the Tesco Extra Kingsway West Dundee has been closed at this time due to excessive numbers attending to purchase sale items.
“This decision was made by Tesco staff to ensure the safety of all their customers.”
Tesco spoke to police in order to avoid a repeat of similar scenes on reopening at 5am.
At the time, they told The Courier: “More than 600 Tesco stores have Black Friday offers available in store.
“In the interest of customer safety, a small number of these stores contacted police last night to help control crowds safely.
“Stores are now trading normally.
“We always take guidance from police authorities on security measures in stores and we’ll work closely with them to make any improvements for next year.”
Asda’s Milton of Craigie store opened at 8am on November 29 2014.
Dozens left Tesco and headed along the Kingsway where they joined the queue of Asda shoppers who had been lined up from as early as 1am for the doors to open.
Asda staff – having clearly been worried about what might unfold – made sure things were much calmer and kept the queues moving in an orderly fashion.
The queue snaked the whole length of the shop.
That meant it was bad news if you were near the back.
Jim Crear, a laundrette worker from Douglas, was among those that left empty-handed.
At the time, he said: “There was nothing in there I wanted.
“The TVs are all away and I was only about 25th in the queue.
“I’ve been queuing since about 7 o’clock this morning.”
Big TVs and microwaves were the most popular items and just a few remained on the shelves after the 80-strong queue swept through the shop in 30 minutes.
One of the lucky shoppers was school janitor Jimmy Young.
He said: “I got the second-last 40-inch TV for £140 which is a bargain.
“It shouldn’t be called Black Friday – it should be called Braw Friday.”
Online shopping demand
Some people decided to stay at home and instead buy online but many retailers were simply unable to cope with the high-demand.
Shoppers struggled to log on to sites belonging to companies ranging from Littlewoods to Pets at Home because of high volumes of traffic.
It didn’t end with the Friday, either, as the sales rush carried over into what was dubbed “Silly Saturday” as thousands more headed for the shops.
Barriers and crowd control was in operation across the city.
The following year Police Scotland warned overzealous shoppers ahead of the shopping spree that they would end up in the dock if they misbehaved.
Superintendent Graeme Murdoch warned that the force would not stand for a repeat of the shameful Black Friday scenes from the previous year.
He said: “Last year’s event saw chaotic scenes across the country.
“Officers will attend shops if necessary in order to keep the peace and deal with disorder.
“Anyone caught committing an offence will be charged and reported to the procurator fiscal.”
The warning was effective as there was relative calm across the city that weekend.
Similar events haven’t been as busy in subsequent years.
But that’s as much to do with big stores disappearing from the high streets and shopping habits changing with a bigger move to online since lockdown.
Combined with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, people have become much more sensible when it comes to deciding how to part with their cash and when.
That means it’s unlikely we’ll see a repeat of the 2014 madness this time around.
Conversation