Nasty moments in discount-store stampede

Press, 9 February 1982, Page 1

Nasty moments in discount-store stampede

Frantic bargain-hunters turned opening day at the Shirley Maximart discount store into a “stampede” yesterday morning.

*■:, Tension built up as several thousand people waited anxiously outside the store in a line six-deep that stretched across the car-park. About 50 shoppers had camped overnight outside the entrance an d queue-jumpers who tried to sneak through the scaffolding barrier were booed ynrf chanted out.

’•!. When the doors opened at gjjO a.tn. bedlam broke loose, people pushing against the goors smashed one of the ' Mate glass sections.

- One man was shoved gainst the broken pane and cit his hand badly. For him day was not worth it.

When the St John Ambulance nurse had finished putting butterfly stitches in his hand the furniture he had queued for was gone. Security officers had to force the doors shut several times to control the crowd, once to rescue an elderly woman who had fallen and was being trampled underfoot.

Maximart’s senior manager, Mr lan Hunt, said that the first few minutes were “nasty.” “You wouldn’t want to see that again,” he said.

Several scuffles broke out in the aisles over the opening specials. “People were just snatching things from under your nose,” complained one woman customer at the check-out.

Power drills at $5 and dinner sets at $l2 were the

most fiercely sought-after bargains. The stock of 100 drills went in the first five minutes.

One Maximart shopper said that she had paid twice for her power drill. “A man had several in a shopping trundler and was selling them inside the shop for $5 each. I had to pay another $5 at the check-out, but it was still a bargain,” she said. The limit was one per customer. Crowd hysteria was too much for Mr Martin Keen, aged 28, who started sobbing with relief at the check-out because he had managed to grab the bargains he had been waiting for since 2.30 p.m. the previous afternoon. Leaving the store with a shopping trundler of goods was nearly as difficult as

getting in for some people struggling through bystanders watching the hectic scene from a safer vantage point.

Parked cars lined the streets for several blocks in all directions and traffic officers were stationed at intersections to control traffic.

One staff member controlling the queue estimated that about 7000 people were lined up when the doors opened and the crowd was not getting any smaller an hour later.

Mr Hunt said that at the end of trading yesterday the store was as full as it had been in the morning. More people were just coming in to have a look, although a few specials were left.