The most absurd Black Friday fails throughout the years

Retail employees see it all: the good, the bad, and the downright strange. To spare you from going out into the madness yourself, INSIDER turned to Reddit to find the biggest Black Friday fails throughout the years — and they didn't disappoint.

From the store that lost power to the couple who loves towels, keep reading for 11 of the most absurd Black Friday stories of all time.

The store that advertised a huge sale on a product that was low in stock.

Reddit user maybepants is a self-proclaimed Black Friday "veteran," but the biggest fail they ever encountered was when a store they worked at advertised a huge sale on digital cameras that were low in stock.

Moments before the doors opened, the district manager announced over the loudspeaker that the $200 cameras were on sale for $50, but he didn't mention that there were only four left before the store even opened.

As you can imagine, the situation devolved into chaos.

A confused shopper thought a security guard was cutting the line — so they punched him.

One year, a sleep-deprived shopper was agitated after waiting in line all night for a doorbuster item. When the store's security guard arrived just before the store opened, the shopper mistakenly thought he was another shopper cutting the line — so he punched the guard. A Reddit user who has since deleted their account saw the incident and said the rogue shopper is now banned from that store.

The couple who waited 14 hours for $2 towels.

People wait in line for all kinds of absurd things on Black Friday, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Reddit user Lineman72T hit his threshold when he saw a couple spend 14 hours in line just buy a bunch of $2 bath towels.

The person who slept through the sale.

Redditor HowItDoBabyBoo decided to take a quick post-Thanksgiving nap before meeting a friend at 2 a.m. to get an early start on Black Friday, but accidentally slept straight through the next morning. Eleven missed calls, five voice mail messages, and one severely snoozed alarm later, they woke up to find that they'd missed the sale entirely.

The electronic store that lost power.

One year, a popular electronics store lost power for an hour and a half during Reddit user zahngol's Black Friday shift. Shoppers couldn't purchase or return anything without power, so they had no choice but to sit in the dark and wait.

The man who waited at the wrong door.

The difference between getting a doorbuster item or not sometimes comes down to a matter of seconds. One man learned that the hard way when he camped out at the wrong door for three days before Black Friday and missed out on the doorbuster item he wanted by just a few seconds, according to Reddit user smuggling info.

The woman who didn't know it was Black Friday.

Under the impression that it was a totally normal day, a woman went to RadioShack on Black Friday to buy batteries for her cordless phone. Before she left, she asked her cashier, Reddit user The Dingman, if the mall was always so busy.

When a store's credit card system failed.

Black Friday is stressful for retail employees to begin with, but the struggle was real for Itorres89 when their store's credit card system shut down right after it opened. The employees had to manually call in every single credit transaction.

The small business that went seven hours without a single shopper.

Anticipating a large crowd, the small electric store that Reddit user faythofdragons used to work at opened up at 5 a.m. on Black Friday — but the first customer didn't arrive until noon.

The manager who almost got trampled.

Acutely aware that his staff didn't want to be working at a mall on Black Friday, electronics store manager Erad13 decided to treat his staff to some coffee before the shift started. As he made his way back to the store with 12 cups of coffee, he watched the doors to the mall slowly open and an endless crowd of shoppers creep in.

Luckily, he was able to outrun the stampede and make it safely into the store without spilling a drop of coffee.

The person who can't listen to the best Christmas song of all time anymore.

Perhaps the most tragic fail of all is that after working a long Black Friday shift with a short playlist, Reddit user g0mmmme can't listen to Mariah Carey's classic "All I Want For Christmas Is You" without being reminded of the horrible things they saw on Black Friday.

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The most absurd Black Friday fails throughout the years

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