My Top Ten retail stories- an ongoing series. Story 1: The Holiday Barbie Riot

From the years 1994 to 2002ish I worked in retail, and I have a ton of stories ranging from the hilarious to the disturbing, some of which might even strain credibility. But they are all at least 97.4% true, and I personally experienced them.

I've narrowed the tales down to my top ten personal favorites, which I originally intended on sharing here as a single post. Now I realize, however, that the post would be MUCH too long, so I'm going to submit them individually as time allows me to recollect and write them out. Enjoy!

Story 1: The Holiday Barbie Riot

Back during the Christmas season of '95, the big toy of the year was the "Holiday Barbie." It was some kind of special edition collectors Barbie, one of those inexplicably in demand items that were selling in the classifieds for hundreds of dollars each and couldn't be found anywhere. Every year there's a toy like that: think Turbo-Man from the movie Jingle All the Way. This year it was the Holiday Barbie.

Well, I was working at a Kmart as a stock boy at the time, and we were scheduled to get in a shipment of the Holiday Barbies one Saturday; their arrival had been heavily promoted. By the time the store was set to open, there were at least 300 or 400 eager and excited shoppers lineup up outside our doors in droves. It looked like a Black Friday nightmare- never before or since have I ever seen that many people ready to charge into a store.

Unfortunately, our store had only received a few dozen Holiday Barbies, which we had piled up behind the Customer Service desk like a ticking time bomb. Even more unfortunately, the lady who was the head Store Manager at the time wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, and was arrogant to boot- a person in no way prepared or trained or personable enough to deal with such a potentially problematic situation.

Finally we open the doors, and the tide of scrambling customers flood in. Within 5 minutes all of the Barbies are sold, the few lucky buyers running back towards their cars like NFL punt returners, Holiday Barbies clutched protectively. This left hundreds of frustrated soccer moms, desperate single dads, and angry would-be price gougers just standing there, outraged, with our smug, complacent Store Manager nonchalantly telling them, in so many words, "Too bad, so sad, not my problem."

I'm not sure exactly what finally set off the powder keg, but afterwards there was a rumor that in the confusion and commotion, an employee may have let slip (falsely) that we actually had tons of Holiday Barbies in the store, either on the shelves or stashed in the back, but were refusing to sell them, and this spread quickly throughout the crowd. In minutes, this bunched up horde of exacerbated shoppers spontaneously broke up and fanned out throughout the store, with hate in their hearts and destruction on their minds.

They proceded to collectively and thoroughly trash the entire Kmart. The stockroom was invaded. Employees were threatened and even assaulted. We had to sneak the Manager out of the back emergency exit next to the breakroom, while myself and four others held and barricaded the double doors against a throng of besiegers literally calling for her blood. Our Operations Manager wasn't so lucky- she got caught up in the crowd and her collarbone was broken, among other injuries.

This might seem unbelievable to someone who has never witnessed firsthand how sane, ordinary people can become marauding lunatics in a sensitive, contagious crowd setting...but it happens. The image that always first comes to my mind when remembering this event is seeing a grown man grab bottles of detergent off the shelf and just start randomly and blindly hurling them through the air, as far as he could in all directions, one right after the other.

Finally, of course, the police showed up, and everyone scattered, but the damage was immense, as you can imagine. Entire aisles were completely flipped over (I'm talking the entire physical aisles- the shelves, the pegboard, the endcaps, everything). The display glass counters in both electronics and sport goods were smashed. Just about every rack in the clothing dept. was upended- that half of the store looked like a sea of clothes, you couldn't see the floor. Someone sprayed charcoal lighter fluid all over the book section and tried to set it on fire. We found a hammer from the hardware dept firmly embedded in the door of one of the dressing rooms on the other side of the store. et cetera.

Only a handful of arrests were actually made, the few people dumb enough to get caught still rummaging around in the stockroom or looting layaway in the aftermath. Me and my buddy were on the news later that evening for a few seconds getting interviewed in wake of what can justly be called a full scale riot...over Barbie Dolls.

A few years ago I got to thinking about this event again and actually found a few old news articles, but now I can't, or I would link them. Maybe someone else more skilled in google-fu could find something. This was a Kmart in Stockbridge, GA that has since been closed.

Stay tuned to r/TalesFromRetail for story #2, coming soon! (it's just as crazy...)