A ‘death counter’ is recording the number of shoppers killed or injured on Black Friday as the biggest shopping day of the year approaches.
The American website blackfridaydeathcount.com has kept the morbid tally since 2006, with seven people reportedly dying on the bargain shopping day in the nine-year period.
According to the counter, the last death occurred in 2007, when a teenager returning home from a day of Black Friday shopping fell asleep at the wheel.
Black Friday falls on November 27 in the US this year, the day after Thanksgiving.
It is a public holiday in some states, while many people take the day off to hunt for special offers and lower prices.
Although a recently new phenomenon in the UK, Black Friday is also known as the biggest shopping day of the calendar here – now far surpassing the traditional Boxing Day sales.
In the last five years retailers including Amazon, Marks and Spencer, Argos and John Lewis have all participated.
But Asda, which took part last year, announced this week that it would not be doing so this time around – as it wants to spread its £26million worth of Christmas savings across the holiday season.
Andy Clarke, CEO of Asda, said: “This year customers have told us loud and clear that they don’t want to be held hostage to a day or two of sales.”
The company suffered a social media backlash last year when photos emerged of customers brawling in the aisles to grab bargains.
