Police dogs called in to control Black Friday shoppers

Chronicle Reporters

Bulawayo was a hive of activity on Friday morning as people thronged various retail shops with the hope to cash in on the Black Friday shopping craze.

Long queues were witnessed at the city’s major retail outlets and in some instances, police dogs had to be used to maintain order. Police and security companies had a torrid time keeping people in check as some shoppers were jumping the queues that were at these outlets.

Since the country is still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic, police were trying to enforce social distancing in the queues and encouraging those who were not wearing masks to do so.

In Gweru, it was the same as stores such as Edgars and Jet were teeming with customers who thronged the stores as early as 5AM. By 8am, there was commotion and most were not observing social distance which is one of the Covid-19 mitigatory measures.

Security guards at the stores failed to properly test clients for their temperature as has become the norm as some just walked in rushing for the limited stock of clothes they wanted.

Police with dogs also had to be called in to control the queues.

Some hardware shops slashed prices by up to 40, but only on selected products.

In Victoria Falls, shops opened as early as 6am, but queues were not the usual long-winding ones that characterised the same shops in previous years. People were oblivious of Covid-19 pandemic as they did not observe social distancing.

At Edgars, police had to bring in dogs to force buyers to space out. Some shops reduced prices by about 50 percent and people were buying mostly clothes and kitchen utensils.