Black Friday Stampede Hits Saarburg Shopping Centre

It was mayhem at opening time in Saarburg's shopping centre this morning when a crowd of seven people tried to rush for bargains on the legendary Black Friday discount day. This phenomenon started in the US when anything from TVs to cheese is reduced in price to fill in the Friday hole after Thanksgiving, which always takes place on a Thursday. Many people don't go back to work until the following Monday.

SAARBURG, 25th November 2016

Chaos ensued at the shopping centre this morning, when seven people, some who had been waiting for at least 15 minutes, tried to rush the doors as they opened at 10 in order to grab the best offers. Customers darted for the clothes area before anyone else reached it in an attempt to make off with some 30% off clothing lines.

Local resident, Hartmut Landei, an insomniac who goes there daily for morning coffee and always waits outside for the shopping centre to open, says he was surprised to see such a thronging crowd that early in the morning.

"I come here every day," said Mr Landei. "I'm awake at 5 as I go to bed after the news at 9 in the hope of falling asleep by midnight, and I come here for breakfast. I like my peace, so to share this shopping centre with seven others was pretty claustrophobic."

Jennifer Erdbeer, 23, of the nearby village of Trassem, who was one of the seven involved in the stampede, said, "We all took the day off work for this, and the two girls said they've tricked their parents into writing a sick note. We want to keep up with the latest trends, so if we didn't do it we'd lose a lot of credibility amongst our friends." When probed why her friends hadn't showed up with her, she added, "Well, they're doing it in other places like the butcher's shop and the florist's. My friend Rochelle said there was 25% off pork cutlets today."

"I came out with a new acrylic scarf, a green blouse and twenty socks. I saved at least 12 euro." Upon asking whether she felt lucky to have got them on Black Friday, she said, "Well kind of. I mean, how else could my best Instagram friend @shop4life90210 in Los Angeles know I was serious about our friendship?"

When informed that the sale went on until second Advent, she said, "That's not the point. Today's Black Friday, tomorrow's just another day. I could have come here tomorrow and not taken a day's holiday for it, but I didn't want to miss the special atmosphere on this important day - it's Black Friday! I mean, don't forget, these socks might not be here next Thursday."

The shopping centre returned to normal by 10.15. Amazingly, the same number of people visited the shopping centre in the following two hours as invaded it in the first ten minutes. The centre's manager put another cashier on the checkout to cope with the demand.