Black Friday really became black for some shoppers across the US yesterday as a series of violent rages spoiled the traditional Thanksgiving sales as shoppers were out looking for bargain goods. In Los Angeles part of the Los Cerritos Center was closed after fighting broke out in the food court where shoppers had arrived after midnight for a special sale event known as “Midnight Madness”.

In Madison, Wisconsin a woman was arrested after threatening fellow shoppers in the Toys “R” Us store a gun. In Wal-Mart store in Indianapolis an off duty policeman had to intervene and arrest a woman after she was accused of queue jumping by fellow shoppers.

Despite the isolated violent incidents 138 million shoppers are predicted to spend $450 billion while out looking for bargains over the Black Friday weekend, giving America’s economy a much-needed boost. Many stores opened their doors at midnight to take advantage of the first signs of recovery in consumer spending.

Gerald Storch, CEO of Toys “R” Us said that his stores across the country had cues of between 500 to 1000 people waiting for the doors to open. Police were called to control the crowds waiting to get their hands on bargains at the Old Navy store in Downey, California.

Experts and retailers are expecting the best holiday shopping season for three years, before falling home prices, soaring unemployment and tight credit restricted consumer spending. However lower income consumers are still struggling and it was higher income consumers who were passing over the money at the checkouts.

To help low-income or families struggling with unemployment Wal-Mart, for example were offering a 32 inch LCD HDTV for under $200 and was also offering to match competitors prices on Friday.

Black Friday was coined by retailers to refer to that time of the year when business turns a profit and moves into the black and is recognized as the start of the festive season shopping.

There are many critics out there about the way that the general public are duped into spending big in the Black Friday frenzy, spending way more than they can afford and increasing the debt on their credit cards.

Looloo from Texas said on a bulletin board, “Despite the recession, Americans continue to fall for this ploy. We feed into this frenzy, Americans are duped into spending WAY more than they ever should on this holiday. Americans are patting themselves on the back, proud that they were some of the first ones to the store at 4 am, going to get the “best” deals, when they’re the butt of the joke. Or, this is Americans at their best – orgies of consumerism!”