Protests close Washington Apple Store during peak Black Friday rush

Apple's Black Friday sales were reportedly disrupted by protestors concerned with both Democratic Republic of Congo and Palestinian causes. According to Seattle, Washington local news station KomoNews, Apple ultimately closed its store and police warned remaining protestors that they were now trespassing.

"This is the biggest shopping days of the year," protestor Flowers Smith told the station. "It's the biggest day for consumers and the day they make the most money off the hands of people as young as 5-years-old in the mines."

"So it's a day we can strike back and say we're not gonna stand for this," continued Smith.

The protest follows one in April 2024 that also saw an Apple Store being forced to close. In that case it was the Lincoln Park Apple Store in Chicago, and the protest was in part over Apple's alleged disciplining of at least one employee wearing pro-Palestinian clothing items.

At the same time, the Democratic Republic of Congo claimed that Apple has been sourcing 3T materials — tin, tungsten, and tantalum — from regions that meant it was funding violent groups. Apple has previously denied this.

The report does not say how many protestors there were at University Village Apple Store. One brief video from the station appears to show no more than six people outside the store, while another shows perhaps eight.

One of those videos claims that the protestors were packing up to leave at 3pm local time. It's not clear whether this was because the store was closed, nor whether it was later reopened.

Apple University Village was due to be open until 8pm local time.

The current store was opened in 2018, following construction that lasted over a year. At the time, it was 200 feet away from a Microsoft Store, although Microsoft subsequently abandoned retail stores entirely in 2020.