WRENTHAM – Call it Black Friday mall mayhem. From Wrentham Outlets to the Natick Mall, Black Friday shoppers came for deals and then got stuck in hours long traffic backups to and from the malls.
“It’s crazy! You wouldn’t see this in Ireland,” said Enya Daver from Ireland.
“I guess the economy is doing well, right haha?” said shopper Richard Gorro.
An hour and a $98 Uber ride later, one family from Ireland finally made it to Wrentham.
But how they’re getting home is the next challenge.
“The traffic is going to be a nightmare and I don’t know how we’re going to get home again now, but we will,” said Sheila Daver from Ireland.
The Wrentham Police chief took to Twitter to warn drivers trying to head to the outlet mall saying, “Stop. If you are trying to drive to the #wrenthamoutlets, do not bother. They will be closed before you can get through traffic. Waits exceed three hours. 495 and surrounding roads are jammed. Try another day.”
“I think the funniest experience that we saw is a lot of fighting because people were trying to merge in just to get out and people were trying to make multiple lanes just to try and get in, so we thought that was kind of silly,” said shopper Jason Tan.
That’s why the Gorro family ended up at the Natick Mall after trying to get to Wrentham for two hours with no luck.
“We were a little upset about it. But that’s what it is a lot of people shopping today,” said shopper Veronique Gorro.
But even at Natick Mall traffic on Route 9 created a gridlock that blocked traffic out of the garage, leaving some drivers with a long wait.
Mall officials apologized to frustrated drivers, saying mall security officers worked to let drivers out of the garage.
“By the time we got here, this was completely packed, and we couldn’t even really turn. It took us a long time,” said shopper Richard Gorro.
The Black Friday backups giving a glimpse for what’s to come with the Christmas shopping season.
“We do this every year. We already know it was going to be a pain but it’s almost like tradition you know,” said Tan.
Some shoppers we talked to say they will be waiting for Cyber Monday to get the deals since the malls were so crowded.
