SHOP WINDOW BROKEN

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23806, 27 November 1942, Page 6

SHOP WINDOW BROKEN

CROWD ATTRACTED TO SALE (P.A.) DUNEDIN, November 26. Evidently attracted by an announcement that certain articles which have been almost unprocurable for some months would be on sale, a crowd of several hundred shoppers to-day assembled outside McKenzie’s store, in George street, and so great was their keenness to take advantage of a rare opportunity that they pushed through a plate-glass window. A woman received a painful scratch, and minor damage was done to the stock included in the window display. For some time before the doors were to be opened a crowd had gathered about the entrances. As the numbers grew, the pressure on those nearest the doorway became so great that the glass could no longer stand the strain. Shoppers were tightly packed in the doorway, and it is difficult to understand how they escaped being injured when the plate glass against which they were being pressed by those on the footpath collapsed in splinters under their weight. The manager of the branch said afterwards that the store had wished to celebrate the twelfth anniversary of the establishment of its departmental business in Dunedin, and for this purpose special bargains had been offered, but the extraordinary rush which followed the announcement was entirely unexpected. Goods such as cups and saucers, enamelware, and fully-fashioned hose, which have been difficult to procure for some months, had attracted the crowd. Within a few minutes of the doors being opened practically all the china and enamelware had been purchased.