2014 Black Thursday/Friday Debriefing Thread

[sms001]

Happy birthday Trixie!

Mega prep for the catering to the too-shopped-out-to-cook crowd, but will go in early (voluntarily) and therefore get out at my usual times.

Just a quick snippet here rather than start a new thread. Told to me by a coworker. He'd been in X store earlier in the week and had seen all the pallets with "Do Not Open..." on them. Had to pop in this morning about 4:30 am on his way to work and saw all the pallets gone. A lone X store employee was trudging wearily down the same aisle, so he asked him how the sale went. "Clusterfuck" employee replied w/o even lifting his head, and trudged on.
I can't even imagine how bad it must have been to have beaten someone down so much that they just tell it like it is.

[SimonF12009]

We had a riot! 3 stores in my company were closed by police, other stores staff were being punched by customers, and at my store when the day shift arrived there was blood all down the main aisle from someone who (somehow) got their nose broken!

[Victory Sabre]

Oh, my! SimonF12009. That's insane.

The worst I saw out shopping was one lady trying to take more of something that the limit of 1. I didn't hear the whole exchange, but the staff member told her "you've got to follow the rules in America." Don't know if the abuser was kicked out, or not.

[SimonF12009]

Well, if anyone is interested, go on youtube and search (5-letter UK Supermarket) Black Friday, the Dundee one is hilarious,

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Seems like the BF craziness has really taken hold in the UK. My sympathies.

Here in the land of Irv, Black Friday Thursday was...kinda slow. Fewer people lined up at the doors when we opened, nobody racing down the aisles when the doors opened, nobody whooping and hollering, everybody was pretty chill. Our doorbuster deals were good until noon today and except for the cheap TVs and other electronics that sold out very quickly, we still had most of them available for people to buy. We had maybe 5 very busy hours last night, then it died down but there were still people coming in overnight to shop. When I left at 6 this morning things were picking up again.

Co-workers thought this was a sign people didn't want us to open so early Thanksgiving night, but as long as people are willing to get into fights at Inbred Carnival stores such as the one in town (again...) this Thanksgiving opening thing is here to stay.

Most memorable customer: the girl who desperately wanted the cardboard displayer that our Monster High dolls were in. I tried to tell her we were going to be using the thing as long as necessary to display our stock of Monster High dolls, and would be too busy to call her when we were finally finished using it, but she wouldn't take no for an answer! I ended up having to take her name and phone number, and gave it to my manager with my permission to "forget" he even got them. Seriously, you think we're going to have time to worry about something we're not even going to get any money for when the store is full of customers?

The guy working furniture carryouts outside got to load up two recliners over two trips into a cab for a couple drunk guys who came in to shop overnight. At least they were taking a cab.

[SimonF12009]

When I left at 6 this morning things were picking up again.

Co-workers thought this was a sign people didn't want us to open so early Thanksgiving night, but as long as people are willing to get into fights at Inbred Carnival stores such as the one in town (again...) this Thanksgiving opening thing is here to stay.

Thanks Irv, its just because the chain I work for wanted to beat a chain owned by a US chain that only opens at 8

[notalwaysright]

Well, if anyone is interested, go on youtube and search (5-letter UK Supermarket) Black Friday, the Dundee one is hilarious,

I looked this up and omg, that's crazy. I'm willing to pay more to shop online, or just on normal days.

Pretty calm down at Ye Old Fabric Shoppe. Since I got there so early, I went on break as soon as the doors opened at 6. I did get a couple people who just had to tell me how long they waited (an hour) and go on to irritate me by saying they "should have pulled a number as soon as they walked in!" They didn't like my reply of "well, it is Black Friday..." There was one winner (who I didn't see) that all my co workers were talking about... I guess she got to the register and didn't like the prices and proceeded to announce that she was about to get angry. Then she demanded a manager and wanted her to honor tomorrows doorbuster prices! Uh, no. Manager didn't budge, and was NOT impressed when the SC said that it was impossible to get help in the store. Why? Because that manager had personally helped her three separate times. The SC even complained to my coworker who was rounding up carts in the parking lot!

But still, other than that it was okay. My last customer of the day was sooooo nice she kept telling me how I was so upbeat and in a great mood, and also told my manager. So yeah. Another Black Friday over! Now on to Saturday...

[skeptic53]

Had two patients call me because they didn't want to bother their regular doctor on Thanksgiving. One was the dad of a 10-day old who had me paged at 01:30 AM with the message that the infant was vomiting and having diarrhea, then turned his cell phone off. The baby is not our patient, so no info in the computer (such as mother's name and number). After calling him 3 times and getting voice mail, I called alll the ERs in the area to try to find the child, no luck. I hit on calling the OB ward of the local hospital, they had the mother's name and number, called her, and it turns out the kiddo had spit up at the same time it pooped and they were worried. Baby was fine. Informed her she should call the baby's ACTUAL DOCTOR in the future, since any advice given needs to be charted and without any electronic record (or paper, for that matter) available, I can't chart. The other caller wanted advice about surgical complications, we're not surgeons, had only seen the caller once for something else, they have a different primary doc. But they didn't want to bother them on Thanksgiving. I guess I should be flattered. To my surprise I only saw one drug seeker today and thanks to white stuff falling from the sky it really slowed down in the afternoon after a busy morning.

[Mike Taylor]

Other than a grabby drunk and the website side of things having to shut down due briefly due to high traffic, things went rather smoothly at my outpost of the Big Yellow Price Tag.

[Android Kaeli]

Okay I lied, I DID go out on Black Friday -- but only because I was coming home from a family members house after spending the night. I looked over at the parking lot of Random Craft Store, it was nearly PACKED, I wasn't going to chance checking out what the Warehouse parking looked like.

I spent the entire day putting decorations up for Christmas.

[XCashier]

I had an eight-hour shift today. This Black Friday wasn't quite as bad as in previous years, probably because the sale prices went into effect on Wednesday, thus splitting one hellish day into two less-hellish ones. We sold tons of flannel (at $1.74 a yard, who can blame the customers?), had a full staff with five cutters and at least two people running fabric and other go-backs at all times, which meant a nice, clean cutting counter instead of the Mount St. Fabric we had to deal with on October 30.

Many of my coworkers (and I) brought goodies, and my manager brought sandwich fixings (bread, turkey, cheese, lettuce, mayo & mustard) so we wouldn't have to leave the store to take lunch. Not quite as elaborate as last year's pot luck, but still nice.

They had me on the cutting counter all day, and my hand started to hurt badly around the sixth hour. I had to ask one of the fabric runners to trade places with me, so she cut while I ran fabric. Also did a little register work near the end when they needed an extra cashier. (I'm a bit of a weirdo in our fabric store; unlike nearly everyone else, I prefer the register to the cutting counter! Mostly because of an old hand injury that creeps back up when I use the scissors too much. I really need to find a new job, but have had no luck so far.)

Went home, took a long, hot bath, feel much better. Tomorrow is a seven-hour shift with a new sale, and customers will probably demand Wednesday/Friday's prices on stuff as well. I hope they put me on the register most of the day.

[Seanette]

Fairly normal Friday at the thrift store. No unusual traffic or customer antics, just the usual assortment. We did have to avoid the vicinity of one mall on the way home, but that was because of political protesters, and I'd better not get going on that because it would be Fratching, and I don't feel like going over there.

[dbuzman]

Only place I went today was to pay my rent and got some croisandwiches from Burger King on the way.

[HiddenMica]

I admit, I went shopping late thanksgiving night. I have a very limited income to spend this year and was in dire need of clothes so the hefty sales was the only way I was going to be able to replenish my wardrobe AND get my Christmas shopping done. I made sure I left compliments for every employee who helped me look for my phone when it fell out of my pocket as well. I was almost crying when I couldn't find it, and actually cried when I found someone had turned it into the lost and found. (400 dollar birthday present from my boy toy) I even made sure I gave compliments and well wishes to all the guards they had posted up.

To be honest I myself, never minded working black Friday as long as it was late, mostly because it meant I got out of the clean up duty. As one of the youngest in the family I am ALWAYS on dish duty, and I do despise dishes.

[Food Lady]

^ When I get mad that people are shopping on a holiday, I need to remember people in your position. My apologies to um, I guess no one in particular. I just feel bad for feeling that way.