Best Buy Website Goes Bust on Black Friday

Consumers hoping to snatch up the best Black Friday deals had their plans somewhat interrupted this morning if they were trying to do so via Best Buy's website. BestBuy.com was down for more than an hour this morning, starting at about 9:50am EST, Re/Code reports; CNBC notes that the site was also briefly down around 9am Thanksgiving morning and that other media reported issues Wednesday night as well. Customers also reported trouble using Best Buy's mobile app, saying it would open but not load products, Re/Code notes. Best Buy released a statement saying the outage was caused by a sudden severe spike in mobile traffic. Online sales are key for Best Buy, which says it experienced nearly 20% growth in the US in that sector for the fiscal year that ended Feb. 1, Fortune reports.

Consumers who visited the company's site this morning during the affected periods were greeted with a "We’re Sorry. BestBuy.com is currently unavailable. Check back soon" message when they tried to load the page, and they weren't happy about it. "If you intend to be one of the leaders among sales in technology and electronics … maybe, just maybe you should know how to run tech," one unhappy consumer said on Best Buy's Facebook page, as per CNBC. Nike also reported site issues, sending out a morning tweet saying, "Nike.com is experiencing problems processing orders. Hang tight while we investigate." Black Friday hysteria has even made its way across the pond: The BBC reports that there were major-retailer website outages in Britain, too, as well as a number of police-attended "disturbances" at local stores as people fought over items. (Ferguson protestors tried to derail Black Friday.)