Holiday Shopping Brings Out the Ugly in Some
A handful of incidents, many of them at Kmart on 27th Street, were reported to Greenfield police on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.
Members of the Greenfield Police Department didn't just hand out coffee and holiday cheer over the weekend.
Officers responded to a handful of shoppers-gone-bad calls on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, ranging from parking lot accidents to a more serious incident at Southridge Mall.
According to the police department's log:
- On Thanksgiving, the manager of Kmart, 4601 S. 27th St., called police at 5:45 a.m. and requested a police presence because a crowd of customers waiting to get into the store, which opened at 6 a.m., was getting rowdy. While squads were responding, a customer in line called sayng multiple customers were in a heated verbal altercation he thought was going to turn physical. There was no fight and no arrests.
- Later that day, three women ranging in age from 18 to 22 were cited for retail theft after Kmart security personnel watched them take tags off intimate apparel items at 3:25 p.m.
- A woman reported damage to her Honda Accord from a Kmart shopping cart just after midnight on Black Friday.
- Police were called out for an accident in the Best Buy parking lot at 1 a.m. Friday.
- Early Friday, Greendale police requested mutual aid from Greenfield in response to a large altercation in the upper mall by Macy’s and a reported gunshot near Rue 21. One man was arrested for disorderly conduct, and the “gunshot” turned out to be the sound of a garbage can falling over.
- Back at Kmart, four juveniles were cited for curfew violations and another for driving without a license after they reportedly drove through the parking lot flashing gang signs at customers from their vehicle at 4:35 a.m. on Friday.
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JustMe
6:16 pm on Tuesday, November 27, 2012
It's a Kmart; what did you expect?
Lee
9:37 am on Wednesday, November 28, 2012
I expect better. I think a lot of people behaved badly during those "bargain hours" no matter where they were, and that includes the altercation at Southridge Mall, near Macy's, so it just wasn't limited to Kmart. What about the melee at the West Coast Victoria's Secret Store? I know you have mentioned it before that you think all businesses on 27th St. are ghetto, and I disagree. Don't be such an elitist. To say that makes you a bigot. Happy Holidays to you, unless that a dumb idea too?
HairMetalFan
11:46 am on Wednesday, November 28, 2012
K Mart is a really bad store period! There's never enough cashiers open and the store always looks dirty IMO. I think people behave badly on Black Friday no matter what store it is. They just want to get that good bargain and don't care about anybody else.
Lee
12:45 pm on Wednesday, November 28, 2012
I disagree with you. Just shopped Kmart this past Sunday and Monday. Shopped the 27th St. and the Hwy.100 store, and I have to say the 27th Street store was in better shape than the Hwy. 100 one. So surprise. They both had plenty of cashiers and the merchandise was better displayed at the 27th St. store. Maybe because it is the holidays the store is better prepared, don't know, but based on my very recent experience I would not classify this as a "really bad store". Now Wal-Mart looked as if a bomb had gone off inside the store, and I still would not classify that as a bad store either.
ja free
1:26 pm on Wednesday, November 28, 2012
I have shopped regularly at the K-Mart store on S.27th st. and Layton av. I appreciate having the store there more than 40 years. It is convenient and I have
not had any problems there.