
Black Friday death count - csmuk
http://blackfridaydeathcount.com/
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tcdent
This my site. I would have submitted it here, since I frequent HN way more
than Reddit, but I thought /r/WTF was more appropriate.

The real-time pane of Google Analytics has been pretty entertaining:
[http://33c4d819db899251066f-11ab2606b95aca1e296d8d1ea376f411...](http://33c4d819db899251066f-11ab2606b95aca1e296d8d1ea376f411.r17.cf1.rackcdn.com/7955.png)

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toomuchtodo
There an RSS feed or any other way to poll the site for updates?

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tcdent
I don't think it's really necessary, since there's only one day a year that I
can update it.

Quite a few people have been calling it a 'real time' service, which is a bit
silly once you actually think about it.

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toomuchtodo
Touché :) I'll just check it out on Saturday. Fingers crossed no one dies this
year.

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mwsherman
In the years covered in this list (2012-2006), there have been 238 fatalities
due to lightning strikes.

[http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/statistics.htm](http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/statistics.htm)

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iLoch
Ok, how many times does lighting strike the US every day? How many Black
Fridays are there every year?

Let's just assume that this level of violence is constant, and there's a Black
Friday every day of the year (which doesn't make much sense at all): Multiply
those 4 deaths by 365 and it's not hard to see that this is more fatal than
lightning. However I think the nearly equally disgusting part is the fact that
people are getting hurt at all. You're lining up to spend your money, calm
down.

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batbomb
Apparently you don't know much about lightning if you are multiplying by 365.

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jere
_My new metal band_

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pavanred
Here is an excerpt from the citation provided for an incident in which 2 of
the deaths were reported.

> The violence erupted on Black Friday, the traditional post-Thanksgiving
> start of the holiday shopping surge, but authorities indicated the shooting
> wasn't related to a shopping frenzy.

Anyway, 4+63 over a period of 7 years for the entire population, statistically
the probability of getting killed/injured is almost 0. Do we even need such
analysis?

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k3n
I think the commentary lies more in the fact that it's even happening, and
will likely only get worse if the trends continue. Black Friday is not a real
holiday, but we [as in the U.S., mainly] have let marketers create it out of
thin air, giving them our attention until they whip us into a feeding frenzy
of consumption.

Obey. Consume.

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pavanred
The visible trend in the data provided, 2011 was the worst with over 40
injuries and 1 death. While, the preceding and succeeding years have be rather
quiet.

Besides, marketers creating trends is neither a new phenomenon nor is it
localized to the US, for example, marketers in India have popularized a
holiday tradition in the past few years, Akshaya Tritiya, where purchasing
gold is supposed to be auspicious and brings about good luck. Though it is
loosely based on a religious occasion, it isn't a real holiday. Besides, the
surprising bit is the prices aren't shot down to boost sales as in Black
Friday, instead the prices shoot up as a result of the demand caused by the
shopping frenzy.

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DanBC
Is there any comparison to other days?

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meowface
Good question. I imagine the incidence of shopping/consumerism-related deaths
and injuries is a lot lower for the rest of the year, but it would be
interesting to get some numbers.

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mildtrepidation
I would say this is something that should be brought to people's attention...
but somehow I don't think the kind of people that do these things would care.

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nightski
What? The 4 deaths and 63 injuries? Over 6 years? Doesn't seem like it _is_
something worth caring about, especially when participation is entirely
optional.

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hkmurakami
I think optional participation _once you 've been properly informed of the
risks, however small_ is fine, but uninformed participation should be
discouraged.

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adestefan
I'm willing to bet that more people die in auto accidents getting to the store
than have died at the store.

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vezzy-fnord
Remember, November 29th is Buy Nothing Day.

[https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd](https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd)

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mjn
Wikipedia has a somewhat more detailed summary for those interested:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)#Violenc...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_\(shopping\)#Violence)

Although, the site linked here does do a more rhetorically effective job.

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njharman
How sad is that I'm stunned death / injury counts are so low? I assumed 1+
people trampled to death every year.

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hkmurakami
I actually told international students here (who are really uninformed about
black friday and the kind of mess it can be -- they have only heard about the
great deals you can get) that they'd be best advised to just order stuff
online because of things like this.

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ghaff
Well, they're best off ordering online not because of "stuff like this" but
that hopefully they have much better things to do with their time than
standing in line and dealing with chaos when they don't have to. For whatever
small savings I might find on Black Friday I can't imagine going through the
hassle.

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nitrogen
If one's time is effectively worthless (which may be the case if one is
unemployed or a student), one might be able to get below-cost deals by camping
out by a Best Buy for a day or two in advance. But one should only do this if
there is really nothing better to do, or if the recreational enjoyment of the
event (perhaps by camping out with one's friends) makes it worth it.

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chrismcb
So how does this compare to the rest of the year? How does it compare on a per
shopper basis over the rest of the year? Less than one death per day, and
about 10 injuries per day. What are the statistics for other events that draw
large crowds?

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gojomo
Macabre. Effective.

Perhaps should reset the headline counter each year, with prior-year counters
(and all-time since launch) somewhere below for reference.

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hsod
That seems dramatic. I was struck by how _low_ the numbers were.

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6d0debc071
That's actually a lot less than I was expecting.

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Houshalter
Well that's a lot lower than I thought.

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pkaye
Seems like best to stay away from Walmart.

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ams6110
Good advice in general.

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radicalbyte
South Park fan, I assume? :)

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kimonos
Black Friday or not, there are deaths and injuries everyday...

