So it begins - near riots at Old Navy over $1 flip flops

Old Navy crowds flip over $1 flip-flops
Saturday, May 23, 2009 12:11 PM
By Charlie Boss
The Columbus Dispatch

Police throughout central Ohio are monitoring the hundreds of shoppers flooding Old Navy stores today for its $1 flip-flop sale.

Columbus police were asked to supervise shoppers in an overcrowded Old Navy store in Easton Town Center.

Store managers across the region reported crowds of 200 or more before opening its doors this morning, with the wait in check-out lines at least 30 minutes long. The Hilliard branch on Hilliard-Rome Road had about a two-hour long wait just before noon.

"Everything is OK, but we're keeping an eye on the situation," said a dispatcher in the Clark County Sheriff's Office of the Springfield store in the Upper Valley Mall.

Police responded to fights breaking out in an Old Navy store in Mishawaka, Ind. this morning, according to the South Bend Tribune.

Six police officers observed the crowds while another guarded the door, the newspaper reported on its Web site.