ASDA shoppers stampede for cut price bargains on ‘Black Friday’

A WOMAN sustained a suspected broken wrist at an Asda store sale as customers stampeded for ‘Black Friday’ bargains.

But many customers left without snapping up a bargain as shelves emptied of cut price goods in the stores across Northern Ireland.

Shoppers described the scenes as “chaotic, bedlam, mental and disgraceful” as shoppers jostled for bargains.

‘Black Friday’ refers to the fourth Friday before Christmas .

The company said it “had full security teams in stores and extra colleagues to assist customers in the aisles”.

The company said reaction to the promotion, on what is said to be the busiest shopping day of the year, had been “phenomenal”.

At the Asda store in west Belfast, a woman was taken to hospital with a suspected broken wrist after scenes that a customer described as “bedlam”.

Hundreds of people queued outside the shop from 5 am for cut-price goods.

Among the items on sale included televisions sets which were slashed from £179 to £99.

However, when it got under way three hours later, a “stampede” erupted with people wrestling over the goods.

An Asda spokesperson said: “This is the first time Black Friday has been done on this scale in stores across the UK and our customers were eager to take advantage of the great offers available to them.

“We planned for high demand and the half-million Black Friday products on offer to our customers have been selling quickly since 8am.

“Throughout the event the safety of our customers is of vital importance, and to ensure our stores can cope with the extra footfall, we have full security teams in our stores and extra colleagues to help assist customers in the aisles.”