Nike store wrecked after Black Friday chaos

Employees report mayhem after '20,000 customers' kick their way through shop

One customer described people "swimming through" orange boxes in search of deals (Instagram: @le_lamer)

A Nike store in the USA has been wrecked after an estimated 20,000 shoppers tore through the shop in search of Black Friday bargains.

The store, in the town on Tulalip in Washington state, was pictured with shoes, boxes and packaging strewn over the shop floor as customers picked through the carnage.

Store employees had previously posted a picture on Instagram of products neatly arranged in preparation for the Black Friday rush.

But customers later posted their own images showing the aftermath of the fight for discounts.

One shopper, Larry Downer, said he had visited the store to buy a pair of basketball trainers for his young son, but was greeted with a scene of complete chaos.

He told Buzzfeed News: “I thought there was an earthquake that happened. It was unreal.

“We start walking through from aisle to aisle, and you’re walking over orange boxes everywhere.

“People were just kicking stuff out of the way. Seeing little kids kicking things to the side with disregard — that kind of bothered me. As parents were swimming through it, the kids had the same reaction.”

One shop worker estimated 20,000 people had visited the store between 8pm last Thursday and 10.00pm on Friday.

The employee, who did not want to be named, said: “People [were] not putting anything back in the right place at all the whole time we were open."

The scene was “Jurassic Park crazy”, he added.

Black Friday traditionally takes place the day after the US festival of Thanksgiving and sees many stores open early and offer promotional sales to mark the start of the Christmas shopping season.

The day has frequently been marred by violence between shoppers competing for bargains and by injuries caused by stampedes when stores open.

There have been reports of several shootings occuring outside US shops on Black Friday this year. In New Jersey, a 21-year-old was shot dead outside a Macy’s store, while another man was shot and injured at a shopping mall in Memphis.

In the UK, an off-duty police offcer was stabbed by a Black Friday shopper in Leeds, and in South Africa a riot broke out over cheap toilet rolls.