2014 Black Thursday/Friday Debriefing Thread

[morgana]

let's get him.

I've got glitter glue.

[Victory Sabre]

Standard day for me Friday. Since my restaurant isn't located near retail, it might, sadly, be slow. I will not be open Thursday. I don't want to work it, and won't ask those who work for me to do it, since I don't want to.

Besides, it would be dead if I were stupid enough to open Thursday. I will also be shopping Thursday for reasons I won't go into here, but I wouldn't otherwise.

[Catwoman2965]

I'm working BF! at my PT job. It will be busy, but not super crazy busy like some of the big box stores, since its women's clothing. I requested to open. we open at 7; I start at 6am on Friday, and so far, am only scheduled to work until 11:30 am. YAY. Although I did notice most other folks are scheduled for longer shifts and the GM did say she had moved up a bunch of folks to start earlier, per corporate directive. But hopefully enough will be in earlier, but before I leave, so I can leave at my scheduled time.

I'm also working tonight and tomorrow night, after my FT job, and we have a pre-BF promo for store charge holders, so I expect it to be crazy busy. Get out of FT job early tomrorow, so I'm workign from home. the only fly in the ointment there is the impending snowmageddon on the East Coast. UGH>

and then working Sat 4-close. so i am scheduled for 20 hours this week at PT job.

[SimonF12009]

I'm doing my normal 12-9 shift, so hopefully most of the rush will have gone (even though my employers Black Friday deals last for the weekend.) But I am getting sick of customers asking me what items are on sale on BF, because I can't tell them

[ralerin]

First and perhaps only time I'm working at the mall. Big Red US Wireless Company has declared Thursday sacred so I don't have to work on that day. Friday I'm working 7am-3:30 pm. I am dreading it due to the possibility of panic attacks.

However my poor best friend will be stuck working Thursday and Friday so if I have a chance I'll pop by with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies for her.

[NotAlBundy]

My company started our "Black Friday" sale on Wednesday (with the exception of a few items that will only be on sale Thursday and Friday). Store was super busy yesterday, one of my part timers stayed with me till 11:30 (we close at 9) and we still didn't get everything done.

Store is open 6pm to midnight today (Thursday). Going in at 5pm to finish setting up the two day deals (and finish putting out our truck).

And then Friday I work 12pm to 9:30 at a busier store location.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Off to the stampede. Wish me luck.

[bhskittykatt]

So, even though I don't work in banquets, I dealt with plenty of their SCs today.

Our Thanksgiving Buffet had over 450 covers booked as of noon yesterday....I'm guessing they topped out near 500. That doesn't include the two restaurants that were doing their own thing....food & beverage was totally having a field day. The buffet was BOOKED. We were informed of this at the front desk.

Cue people calling up this morning wanting to get reservations and throwing a fit when told there were no tables left. "But we come up every year and we can't miss it and what are we going to DOOO?!?!"

Lots of people claimed they didn't know they needed reservations and had never needed them the year before. Considering we did this same song and dance last year, I find that doubtful.

If you're planning on feeding family for the holidays, whether you're the one cooking or not, you gotta plan ahead!

[DeltaSierra]

Hubby and I did security for our local Wallyworld and it was surprisingly low stress. I think its because a good 200,000 people in our state are without power, quite a few of them in our area, due to a winter storm that blew in yesterday. Since many people were unable to cook Thanksgiving dinners, I guess they decided to go shop instead. It was quite orderly for the most part, with only a handful of incidents and they were due to entitled shoppers thinking that "waiting in line" was beneath them and that they should have been able to go directly to the nearest cashier instead of to the back of the store and through the long winding lines. Everybody else was in a good mood, and lots of food was available for all workers both Wallyworld associates and my hubby's security company's workers. In all it as a good evening. It was a bonus for me, as I had planned to stay home while hubby worked, but his boss told him "Get her to put on a white shirt and pants and we'll pay her to direct the customers through the lines," so between us two, we made enough to pay for Christmas, and got to work together the entire night, so it was win-win

[Antisocial_Worker]

Hotels do not close short of reasons of economic collapse or by order of the CDC, and so I'll be working. I'm working now, in fact. Luckily, my hotel is located in a retail dead zone where there is nothing to buy and therefore no reason to come to this road in search of super duper uber Black Friday savings !!1!1! They're building a new mall across the street though, so next year is going to be a different story entirely.

On the way home I have to pass one of the more prominent shopping destinations in my area, so the traffic ought to be fun. On the bright side though, I get to miss the really big draw on this side of town, so I can expect the traffic to actually be moving. Win some, lose some.

[Food Lady]

It wasn't bad. They always let a few people at a time in the door. This year we had managers standing on a stool in order to be able to see all the lanes so they could direct people where to go. That way we cashiers didn't get overwhelmed. They did not push us about credit apps tonight, for once. The customers were mostly very nice and some thanked me for working. I tried hard not to be irked--as I didn't have a choice but to work--because I knew they were trying to be nice. At one point I cut my finger on a lady's box and she was concerned for me. I was just concerned not to bleed on her stuff. I let her know I was ok and it would stop in a minute and made sure I took care of her. After I was done with her she went to the service desk to get me a band-aid. That was so sweet of her that it makes me tear up a little. Other times people have not cared. I think some people think, "Well, the stores are open; may as well go." I'm not sure I can be mad at that; I even thought it tonight after my shift. But I was too tired.

I heard Malwart had the cops all over it. Again.

[EricKei]

A friend commented that the local Voldemart had their parking lot full, which then spilled over into the fast food franchises up at street level, and also most of the grocery store parking lot next door -- at 9PM last night. Not bad for a town of 25 thousand people >_> He speculated that about a third of the populace was over there

[mjr]

EricKei

I live in a similarly sized town to your friend. I saw something on Wally World's website about some sort of "one hour" guarantee, as long as you were there between 6 and 7 PM, or something like that. Not sure what it was all about.

I don't worry too much about Black Friday, though, at least going to retailers. I do my "Black Friday" shopping online, and a lot of online retailers are offering actual "Black Friday" deals.

So I can shop without having to worry about getting trampled, punched, etc.

I do feel for the retail workers who have to put up with a lot of the crazy customers, though. Especially the ones that start their "Black Friday" stuff on Thursday. Before you know it, these Black Friday sales are going to run the entire week of Thanksgiving.

[dalesys]

IPF started a debriefing thread? There go his lucky rocketship underoos...

[Trixie]

I was off yesterday and today (it's my birthday) with the blessing my manager. But last night I was out around 8 pm to housesit so some family could enjoy Thanksgiving and drove past my workplace and the local mall. Both were packed. There's also a Best Buy and Kohl's right next to the mall. Bed Bath and Beyond wasn't open though. So good for them.