Prior to the winter holidays, many Texans visit local retailers to buy gifts for their family members and friends. Even if people aren’t looking for presents, they often go to the stores hunting for good deals. Traditionally, the holiday shopping season starts with the day known as Black Friday.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday is not only known for its deals, but also for the dangers of injuries, and even deaths, which occur each year on that day because of raucous crowds of shoppers and unprepared retail stores. The entire holiday shopping season, in fact, creatfes risk for shoppers if stores fail to properly protect them.
In the rush created in many stores throughout the holiday season, shoppers can be injured. Some of these risks include trampling and crowd management issues. These issues arise when stores fail to take precautions to avoid stampedes as people rush for deals. Stampedes can lead to serious injuries, and have led to deaths.
Shoppers can also be put at risk when retailers failed to maintain their stores during the holiday season. As employees are busy working with customers, they need to ensure that the store is kept free of hazards. Water on the floor, boxes and other hazards can cause slip-and-fall accidents. Poorly placed boxes can also fall and injure unsuspecting customers.
It is the store’s responsibility to keep customers safe throughout the holiday season. Under premises liability laws, property owners are responsible for keeping their guests safe. In other words, retail stores can be held responsible under the premises liability laws if accidents occur and injure customers.
People who are injured this holiday season as a result of a store’s negligence should understand their legal rights. While this blog post can only give general information, an attorney can provide specific legal advice.
