2013 Black Thursday/Friday Debriefing Thread

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Found out what the hoo-hah with the cops was.

Some people tried to steal 10 tablets and possibly other stuff. They were probably professional shoplifters. They entered the store at different times and fanned out so it was hard to watch all of them. LP and management called the cops to bust them when they left.

[XCashier]

I go in tomorrow at 7:00 AM, with the fleece on sale. I hope that shift works out okay, too.

Big fleece sale. Surprisingly, even more people than Black Friday! Put on the cutting counter again. My poor wrist said "no more!" halfway through my 8 hour shift, so I did some fabric restocks and went to the cash register. Much better.

Most people were okay, except for one customer my coworker got, who complained, "I can't believe I had to wait so long!" Um, it's Black Friday Weekend, idiot, were you expecting the store to be deserted?!

[Jester]

I could not have asked for better Thanksgiving and Black Friday shifts!

Thursday started out slow but started to crank big time after a couple hours, and I made stupid money. It died down right about when the second bartender came in. Bonus for me was that, due to weather, they closed the roof deck, and the bartender that was scheduled to work up there was put on the main bar, enabling me to be done by 5:30, several hours earlie than I expected to be done. Which enabled me to watch most of the Raiders-Cowboys game, which was cool. Well, until the Raiders decided once again to not show up for the second half. But at least I got to watch them melt down with a beer in hand, rather than serving it!

Also, the kitchen put out a holiday buffet just for the staff (it was upstairs, which was closed to the public, so no cheapass poachers!), and it was delicious. I brought in my homemade tropical cranberry sauce, which everyone agreed was better than the stuff the kitchen out out. Not all that tough, since it was canned.

Also, lots of cool customers who tipped well, unlike Tuesday, so I made good money. Total win.

Friday was much of the same, just cranking it all day, finally finishing up when the third bartender came in at 7. High sales, good tips, great customers, good money. Yay me.

And unlike Thursday, when I retired to World of Beer, met my friend Popcorn at the place he was house sitting, where we drank beer, tried different rums, and watched football at the outdoor tiki bar. Crashed there and had breakfast at a great place in town, right around the corner.

Today I have done exactly nothing, lounging in bed without a stitch of clothing on,we watching football, and drinking beer. Occasionally eating as well. And in just a few minutes, it's the Arizona-Arizona State football game. The annual grudge match. The Duel in the Desert. The Territorial Cup.

GO SUN DEVILS!!!!!!

And I don't have to be at work tomorrow until Monday.

Life is goooooood.

[ShinyGreenApple]

Deities bless the pharmacy for not being a part of this nonsense and therefore allowing me to be at home in my pajamas, recovering from my food coma. However, for my unfortunate peers, it was not a good night. Someone decided that instead of staggering the sales throughout the whole night, they'd take all of the pallets of hot electronic products and put them right up front in the produce department. I have to wonder how much stuff walked out the door in all that frenzy. The police department even told management that our particular setup was not a good one and begged them to do it differently. You can all guess what happened.

My friend Biscuit was handing out vouchers in the garden center and had to stand his ground with an irate soccer Mom who got increasingly more pissed at him for not giving her a voucher early because she was afraid he'd run out before she got to him. He said she made it a point to loudly count down the minutes to when the sale started, then got mad at him again for not giving her a voucher two minutes before six. When it was finally her turn, she ran over his foot with a shopping cart. When he escaped for lunch, he went to the parking lot to sit in his vehicle and witnessed two men get into a fistfight over a shopping cart. Guy 1 was done shopping and talking on the phone about all the great deals he got. Guy 2 asked if he could have the buggy when he was done with it, and G1 says sure. However, he was not getting his shopping out fast enough for G2, who then took it upon himself to start loading stuff into G1's car. Cue screaming, yelling, threats, and police officers. All over a shopping buggy.

Then some dipshit of higher power thought it would be a good idea to have a very short, older associate guard a pallet. I mean seriously, this lady is tiny and doesn't move all that fast. Cue the clock hitting 8PM and hundreds of people start to bum rush the pallet. We're certain the only thing that kept this poor woman from being crushed was another associate, who both towers over and outgirths most others, quickly rushing over and putting his arms around her from behind. They stood like this until the pallet was empty.

And then there were random reports of fistfights and several customers tell me that they were pushed and shoved into pallets and displays and they had the cuts and bruises to prove it, too.

I just don't wanna live on this planet anymore.

[DaisyQueen]

The closest I've come to Black Friday working was my very first job at a grocery store. Started the day before a huge blizzard was supposed to hit so people had two and three carts piled high with groceries. Talk about being thrown in to sink or swim! But it was good training and I picked it up quickly. People were surprisingly patient. I guess a scared looking 16-year-old girl melts hearts everywhere.
I've refused to shop BF out of sympathy for the workers and my mother emails the companies who are closed Thanksgiving to thank them for giving their employees time with their families.

[Jester]

I guess a scared looking 16-year-old girl melts hearts everywhere.

By most accounts, not in retail stores on Black Friday.

[Antares]

I've been out twice. Once last year and again this year again looking at a tv. Both times I went late in the day. I ended up buying this year. It took a bit of time though. Although I knew what television I wanted, I wasn't sure about the other stuff.

After making the decisions, the fun began. The tv I wanted was out of stock. They couldn't order one for me. They showed one coming in, but they couldn't tag it as my order. In the end, they called another store and had them ship one to my local store which allowed them to put the order in for me. The tv will be in sometime this week or early next week.

From the time we started trying to process the sale to the time I walked out was about 45 minutes. It was surprising because it didn't really seem that long, but my watch is pretty accurate. I was there about 2 hours all told. But through it all I was nice to everyone who helped me and they were in a pretty good mood too. (Even when I went against the recommendation of one of the salesmen, he simply asked which one I wanted, didn't give me any grief either through words, gestures or facial expression.) I could tell they were frustrated, but I knew it wasn't their fault and let them know I wasn't upset. In the end, they took my money and everything was good.

[manybellsdown]

Big fleece sale. Surprisingly, even more people than Black Friday! Put on the cutting counter again. My poor wrist said "no more!" halfway through my 8 hour shift, so I did some fabric restocks and went to the cash register. Much better.

Most people were okay, except for one customer my coworker got, who complained, "I can't believe I had to wait so long!" Um, it's Black Friday Weekend, idiot, were you expecting the store to be deserted?!

My teenage daughter got her first job a month ago. Her first Black Friday at a fabric store. I went in about an hour after her shift started to give her a wrist brace (she's already given herself a RSI somehow), and the whole store appeared to be filled with line.

As for me, I did all mine online. Free shipping, I think I came out ahead since I didn't have to drive, park, or stand in line.

[Lovecats]

Our Black Friday (Thursday, whatever...) went pretty smooth. The people coming in were for the most part well-behaved. I had no major problems. I heard from one of our customer service people about a little boy who had lost his mother. They paged her 4 times; no response. So this cs person took the little boy (about 8 or 9 and pretty scared about this time) around looking for his mother. She asked him what his mom was looking for and he said an iPad. So they walked over to the the line for the iPads (in our store they had all Apple products in one section). Found the mother in the line for the iPads. The cs lady asked the woman if she had heard them page her 4 times. She said she had but was not about to get out of line for the iPad. We all were hoping that maybe they sold the last one to the customer right before her.

[scruff]

Sadly (Weirdly?) some UK shops this year decided to advertise Black Friday sales.
Unfortunatly this Friday was the last working day of the month for many people (i.e. pay day), so a bunch of the sales offers got snapped up.
So some companies will look at the statistics and reckon there is interest over here for more Black Friday sales. *sob*.

[raudf]

She said she had but was not about to get out of line for the iPad. We all were hoping that maybe they sold the last one to the customer right before her.

Wait? WHAT? She.. her child... not more important than an iPad? If I'd been a customer in the line and heard that, CPS would have been notified, and she'd be getting an ear full because no child is less important than a piece of plastic and metal.. unless that plastic and metal piece is keeping the kid alive. Then it's only equally as important.

I might have forgiven her if she'd used her phone and called the front desk to tell them where she was.. so that the kid could have been brought to her. But.. just GRRRRR!!!