5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk

[jfruh]

These loathsome people have no respect for Britain's glorious history or traditions. Real British patriots use cricket bats on their looting spree.

[dpapathanasiou]

I admit I laughed, but this comment belongs more on reddit than here.

[felipemnoa]

Well, they are supposed to be immigrants or descendants of 1st generation immigrants so your comment may not apply.

[arethuza]

I would expect a degree of local variation in the choice of ad-hoc melee weapons. Here in Scotland I would expect golf clubs to be more popular, perhaps shinty sticks in the Highlands.

As for myself I have a rather nasty looking ice-axe somewhere...

[itg]

Are the rioters buying these or the people and shop owners who want to protect their property?

[tristanperry]

(UK poster here - living away from the riots though, thankfully)

There was apparently a decently large group of Turkish business owners in London last night who got together with baseball bats to protect their businesses (which apparently worked).

I'd say it's a bit of both.

[ArbitraryLimits]

After seeing Korean shopowners in action during the LA riots in 1991, I'd always been curious how this scenario would play out in a country with gun control laws.

[inovica]

I suspect many of these will be for home owners in these affected areas. Remember that whilst the shops are being targeted, that there are often many people cowering behind locked doors hoping that this will come to an end. This is a just a means of protection for them, should they need it. In the UK people are not allowed to own fire arms, but baseball bats are a different thing altogether.

[mortenjorck]

I would guess that many, if not a majority of the rioters lack a credit card, and quite possibly a registered permanent address for deliveries. These are people on the farthest margins of society, often with very little to lose.

[hugh3]

Rioters don't buy things, they steal them.

[Robin_Message]

Surely rioters? I find it hard to believe a shop owner is seriously going to try and hold the line by themselves against a mob. Also, a baseball bat is a classic disguised weapon but a shopkeeper will have no justification in having one so it is probably an offensive weapon in UK law.

I've heard it said that D-cell Maglite torches are used by security guards not because they necessarily need a torch (a headtorch is generally more useful anyway), but because it can be carried and justified legally.

[jlmendezbonini]

Shatter patellas (what are patellas anyways?), skulls...this can't be a real review:

"Cuts looters off at the knees, 9 Aug 2011 This bat is perfectly weighted and will suit any UK shop-owner looking to protect their property.

Thanks to the ergonomic handle, one easy swing should be enough to shatter patellas, skulls or any other bone on your targeted looter. Personally, I would recommend also investing in some fingerless gloves for extra grip."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/ATYCJGIRKTZTS/...

[portman]

patella = kneecap

[RobPfeifer]

Reminded me of trainspotting:

"Ah wonder if anybody this side of the Atlantic has ever bought a baseball bat with playing baseball in mind. Sick Boy, "Blowing It: Deid Dugs" (Chapter 4, Story 3)"

[yid]

Actually, the entire situation reads eerily like the Trainspotting novel. Looks like all the Francis Begbies are out in force.

[Eliezer]

Baseballs are up 2500%. I am not sure these stats mean quite what you think they do.

[chriserin]

UKers, just make sure you get ash bats, not maple. A shattered bat on the ball field is embarrassing. A shattered bat on the streets is dangerous. Likely there will be no bat boy to hand you a replacement.

[randomdrake]

As of now, there's 7000% increase in the sales of military police telescopic tonfas.

Apparently they're out of stock of them and the link is no longer working on their site.

The original link to the item is here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Military-Police-Telescopic-Tonfa-21/...

You can search for the link in Google to check out a cached copy.

[srgseg]

Just to balance out the nightmarish images of London, here is a video of the community rallying together to clean up the mess the day after http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz7WGzsaHQE

[int3rnaut]

Props to the original poster--I've never thought about looking at a situation from this perspective before, and while it's not scientific, it's an interesting and unique way to look at a situation and certainly adds a new layer of dialogue.

[hullo]

At least one of the items (the only explicitly martial one) appears to have been pulled, #2 as of my viewing, "Military Police Telescopic Tonfa - 21" was up 4,291% to #136, now 404s and doesn't return from search either. Doesn't seem to be the case of just being out of stock, as another one of the bats in the top 10 just shows as unavailable/out of stock.

[rberdeen]

4000% increate in the sale of Coleman PefectFlow 1-Burner Stoves on Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/movers-and-shakers/sporting-goods

It must be significant.

[guelo]

That doesn't make sense, by the time you get the bat the riots should be over. Are the local sporting good stores all sold out?

[knowtheory]

Doesn't Amazon run a shipping hub out of London? If so they may do same day delivery.

Either way, you're hedging the cost of a bat vs the chance that riots are going to go on for multiple days, or spring up outside of your shop?

[gwern]

And what about future riots?

[DrCatbox]

Need is mother of all invention.

Pick apart a leg from your kitchen table and defend your properties.

[panacea]

If this is shopkeepers buying baseball bats it could be because faith in the UK Police to protect businesses was severely damaged over the last few days.

Summer's not over, and it could get worse. Get a bat on standing order for the future?

[TillE]

In Germany, 1-2 day shipping is the norm. There are cheaper, slower options, but standard package service is very often next-day. I imagine it's the same in an even smaller country like England.

[mnutt]

People are more likely to buy umbrellas online on days when it's raining.

Though it will certainly rain again, whereas hopefully we won't see that many riots over our lifetimes.

[TeMPOraL]

I have no way to check it, but I think that they just delayed delivery of this product on purpose because of the riots.

[ojilles]

The 2nd in the list has: "Usually dispatched within 4 to 6 weeks"

That's no good, at least not for the implied use case!

[superchink]

Apparently CNN has picked up on this and has a story pointing this out as well:

http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/09/technology/amazon_riot/

[po]

This reminds me of the recent video floating around the web (which I now can't find) of korean americans defending their stores in the LA Riots with guns and ad-hoc militias.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots#Riots_an...

The sometimes we take the idea of "law and order" as provided by government for granted.

[CoryMathews]

On of the comments on the aluminum bat: "This bat is perfectly weighted and will suit any UK shop-owner looking to protect their property."

[ashishgandhi]

Aren't we considering Amazon goofed up their arithmetic? There are a lot of things which are selling way more as per their numbers.