Feature: British shoppers brace themselves for Black Friday sales

Shop check-out points rang out to the tune of a staggering 1.3 billion U.S. dollars when Black Friday hit Britain last year.

As this year's shopping-frenzy date approaches one of Britain's biggest supermarket giants, Asda, announced Tuesday it will give the event a miss on Nov. 27.

Ironically, it was Asda's parent U.S.-based company Walmart that became the first high street chain to export Black Friday across the Atlantic, after Amazon started offering U.S.-style bargains to its British customers via the internet.

In the old tradition that what the United States does today, Britain does tomorrow, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Televised news reports in Britain last November showed fights and skirmishes with punches thrown on shop floors as shoppers fought over bargains. Police had to be called to dozens of stores across the country, from London to small market towns, to restore calm and order.

Even though Asda is giving the sales bonanza a miss, Black Friday will still go ahead with most of the high street favorites taking part.

The tradition started in the United States as a way of enticing customers to part with their dollars the day after the traditional Thanksgiving festival. Many of the big stores opened in the early hours of the morning, often around 4 a.m. local time, to ensnare bleary-eyed bargain-hungry shoppers.

Asda chief executive Andy Clarke said: "Our customers have told us loud and clear that they don't want to be held hostage to a day or two of sales."

Instead of a 24-hour stampede, Asda says it will invest 40 million U.S. dollars in price reductions across the Christmas and New Year period.

Some stores, including the John Lewis Partnership, are already predicting that this year's Black Friday will be even bigger than last year, smashing through the billion-pound mark, with more than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars of sales in a single day.

The British Retail Consortium which represents high street stores believes disappointing sales last month were attributable to customers saving their money to spend during Black Friday sales.

Earlier this year, a number of British MPs called for Black Friday to be banned, saying it wasted valuable police time.

Conservative Sir Peter Bottomley and Liberal Democrat Greg Mulholland told the British Parliament that scenes of disorder during Black Friday sales placed unnecessarily high demands on police resources. They called for shops to be prevented from taking part in the U.S. sales event because of the chaos, fights and injuries that marred the annual discount day.

Some reports described how British shoppers "behaved like animals" as disputes and fights broke out, with some shops forced to close their doors.

Last year in Manchester, three shoppers were arrested by police after aggressive behavior in one supermarket, with police around the country racing to dozens of stores after reports of trouble in the shopping aisles.

Despite fears of police chiefs and concerns expressed by politicians, it seems Black Friday has become a staple feature in a shopper's diary. As Nov. 27 approaches, the message seems to be: let the battle commence. Endit