Black Friday begins with a blast.

Looks like pepper sprays are now here to stay and for absurd good reason. Getting your hands on what you think belongs to you these days requires extreme strategies. Right?

Shoppers clambering to get their hands on Walmart specials at a local Los Angeles store last evening were met with a nasty surprise when one belligerent shopper (apparently still on the loose) turned around and indiscriminately began pepper spraying fellow shoppers who were like her trying to take advantage of Black Friday shopping deals.

The incident happened only 20 minutes after the store opened its doors at 10 pm, with anxious shoppers positioning themselves to get their hands on limited deals. Said one witness, it was ‘absolutely crazy.’

With a moribund economy perhaps it makes sense why consumers this year are more than ever desperate to get their hands on deals that they would perhaps be unable to afford otherwise. Which belies the notion that even in depressed economic times people are still resolute on getting their hands on feel good items and luxuries that perhaps in another era would have been unfathomable.

Continued the witness: it was mayhem with video game displays torn down, computer games and DVD’son the floor and people desperate to get their hands on them.

So desperate in fact that one woman (one wonders what possessed her to come to Walmarts with a can of pepper spray in the first place, call it Occupation Wall st overkill perhaps…) desperate to hold her own took out a can of pepper spray and began to spray fellow shoppers. Which begs the question, why has Wal-mart become the center of consumer mayhem (in years passed customers have been trampled with one security guard dying after being trampled)?

‘I heard screaming and I heard yelling,’ witness Matthew Lopez, 18, told the Los Angeles Times. ‘Moments later, my throat stung. I was coughing really bad and watering up.’

Is the shopping experience people had come for? And what does it say about the way we as a society show complete disregard for others around us? More to the point how has it come to be that one can pretty much expect to be met with violent confrontations with what use to be simple exercises such as shopping at the local mall?

The police as of press have not made any arrests with one shopper hospitalized and 19 other people being greeted with the nastiest of surprises.

And if you must head off to Walmart,this is what is waiting for you ( but perhaps you might be well advised to come along with a gas mask.

Walmart is offering a range of deals including video games and big screen televisions, including Xbox 360s with Kinect and a $50 gift card for the knock-down price of $199.96.

Happy thanksgiving shopping, assuming you have the courage…