Black Friday 2011 Gets Nasty

The day after Thanksgiving 2011, a.k.a. Black Friday, a few things have become crystal clear:

• Retail jobs are thankless. Despite cries of protests from employees, big retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Toys R Us all opened earlier than they did last year, some even throwing open their doors on Thanksgiving night.
• Bargain shoppers are ruthless. It's true that we didn't see the kind of stampede that killed a Wal-Mart security guard in 2008, but there was still plenty of unpleasantness this year. Among the cases: an angry woman used pepper spray on fellow shoppers outside a Wal-Mart in Los Angeles while at a North Carolina Wal-Mart, an off-duty police officer who was helping with security used the same stuff to make an arrest and as many as 20 people were affected. MSNBC has a running account of all the unsettling incidents here.
• Apple showed it can put things on sale. As has become a custom, Apple is holding a one-day sale today. The price drops aren't huge, but since the company rarely gives discounts, getting as much as $61 off an iPad is notable.
• Obama gets in the Black Friday spirit. The president's re-election campaign got into the spirit with an online sale of Obama 2012 stuff. "If you've ever wanted an Obama-themed grill spatula, golf divot tool, cufflinks or Joe Biden beverage coozie, now's your chance," said a report on CNN.

Here's hoping Small Business Saturday goes off with a bit less insanity and a lot less pepper spray.