The Holiday Formerly Known As Thanksgiving Debriefing Thread 2015

[Rosco the Iroc]

Well here it is 0630 US east coast time, I'm so giddy with the impending doom I even woke up early. I forgot to say I'm at the range today 0930-1800 and for Fri, Sat, and Sun. It's an outdoor range and at the temps will be ok. Highs of 50 today then dropping out.

Bad part is I have to drive past the Pocono's big outlet mall. That place is bad most weekends, Friday (insert Sideshow Bob's "eeeewww" here) I think I'll find a detour.

[Aria]

I'm no longer in retail or even a public facing business so I don't have to deal with the hordes. Even though I'm in Canada I have found that a majority of stores in my area are doing Black Friday sales, even the ones that aren't US based. Several of them have actually started their sales earlier. When I asked why stores in Canada would bother with sales for the day after a US holiday it was explained that it's how they compete with the US retailers, especially when doing online shopping. Our really big sale day tends to be Boxing Day...well, where I live stores are usually closed on Boxing Day and are open the next day at some ungodly hour for the start of their Boxing Week sales. I avoid shopping during those periods unless I absolutely need something and can't wait for things to quiet down.

But I'll be sitting at my desk at work thinking of all you folks that have to deal with the throngs that descend upon your workplace during this crazy time of year. You have my deepest condolences.

It's not that much of a competition anymore, really, with the exchange rate sucking so bad. How much can you save, especially online? Shipping and duty... Well, unless it's Amazon.

[RealUnimportant]

Near me (UK) most places are either not bothered, or working a reverse angle - beat the Black Friday madness with our 3/5/12 day sale. It's kind of pitiful really, they desperately want us to care but we just don't.

[KuariKaydrith]

I'm no longer in retail or even a public facing business so I don't have to deal with the hordes. Even though I'm in Canada I have found that a majority of stores in my area are doing Black Friday sales, even the ones that aren't US based. Several of them have actually started their sales earlier. When I asked why stores in Canada would bother with sales for the day after a US holiday it was explained that it's how they compete with the US retailers, especially when doing online shopping. Our really big sale day tends to be Boxing Day...well, where I live stores are usually closed on Boxing Day and are open the next day at some ungodly hour for the start of their Boxing Week sales. I avoid shopping during those periods unless I absolutely need something and can't wait for things to quiet down.

But I'll be sitting at my desk at work thinking of all you folks that have to deal with the throngs that descend upon your workplace during this crazy time of year. You have my deepest condolences.

[Evannah]

I'm not working Black Friday because it's not really a big thing at the garden centre. Yet. The hype's been slowly spreading across the UK over the past few years, so it might be busy this time, I don't know. But I'm not in anyway, so if they do get busy it's nothing for me to worry about... unless I get called in *gulp*

[Dreamstalker]

We're open normal hours tomorrow, although if Shithead is running the show we probably won't get out of there until midnight (when we legally MUST close per state laws). Anything I need to buy tomorrow I'm doing before my shift as I may not get any other time to do so.

Closed on Thanksgiving proper and I plan to "shelter in place"; maybe get coffee in the morning and if I do go anywhere I plan to tip well if it's allowed.

I'll be doing tags all day Friday during business hours. Hopefully it'll be slow. Was debating going in at midnight, but mom doesn't want me on the streets that late and the pay's the same regardless of when I work. It'll be nice to have a "normal" Thursday for a change.

[Food Lady]

I'm working a short day shift tomorrow and getting off at 3:30. Because people are out of town we are not having mid-week church, so I'll have time for last-minute groceries and cleaning and cooking. Off Thanksgiving and working 8:00 am Friday. I only work 8 hours, as opposed to the 11-hour debacle 2 years ago. I was overnight, too, and not used to that. I had so much adrenaline pumping into my stomach that I wanted to hurl. While I was serving food. Anyway, this year will be the best so far because I have all day Thursday to rest up.

[flyonthewall]

On Black Friday I'm working 6am to 12pm. I consider myself lucky. >.<


Our store always has lousy Black Friday sales so I wonder why anyone comes out in the first place.

[SimonF12009]

I'm in the UK, so Thursday is just a normal day that I don't work, but my store is opening at 5am on Black Friday, and I start at 4 , presumably to help set up

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Found out today I'm working in the backroom Thursday and Friday.

I'm fine with this. But I'll likely need to spend at least a little time in the craziness because people need to buy stuff before I can restock it.

[Smapti]

You'd be surprised how many people think you can safely defrost a 20-lb turkey in two days.

That's the main take-home point I got from last night's shift.

[notalwaysright]

I have to wonder just how big Corporate thinks our store is; there's a lot of unusable space because the building is almost tall enough to be two-story, but they only made it one-story.

I've heard some stores get two-story stock rooms. Also, some actually have receiving docks that go straight into their stock room. Ours is a shared dock, for us and other stores in our shopping center. So we have to bring the freight around a short hallway, and use those roller belt things to bring it inside. Doing this blocks the customer bathroom, and we have to let them use the employee one, just inside the stockroom. It is unpleasant. I've heard repeatedly that we are the "gimp" store. And this is after a major remodel less than a year ago.

I work a mid shift on Black Friday. I would have rather worked opening, since people get progressively crankier as the day goes on. Honestly, the first group in the door at 6 AM are generally cheerful. It's the asshats that come in at 3 PM and are cranky because much of the "all day" doorbusters are gone. Just because it says all day doesn't mean we have enough product to last all day. I'm predicting Saturday will be much, much worse. We open at our regular time (9 AM), and quilting fabric is on a really good sale. There are no by-the-bolt quilting fabrics. We have to hand measure each one. Also, quilters often buy whole cartloads on a *regular* day, and can take a huge amount of time. It's common for it to take 30 minutes for one person's quilting fabric.

[Rosco the Iroc]

[threadjack]

I've heard of people referring to the AR-15 series as the "Barbie doll" of guns, due to all of the accessories available (e.g. "dress it up" with different colours of "furniture").

Yes that's true. Of course someone had to take it too far.

[/threadjack]

[XCashier]

I'll be working the stocking shift, 4:00 AM to 9:00 AM. Store opens at 6:00 AM.

We got extra stocking hours this week because the stock room is scary full. Seriously, I'm afraid there's going to be a box avalanche and someone's going to get hurt. So we've got more hours to whittle it down to a manageable level, if we can't completely empty it before the next truck (it'd be great if we can do that, but I'm not holding my breath). I have to wonder just how big Corporate thinks our store is; there's a lot of unusable space because the building is almost tall enough to be two-story, but they only made it one-story.

[wolfie]

I'll be pimping out guns 0930-1800.

I've heard of people referring to the AR-15 series as the "Barbie doll" of guns, due to all of the accessories available (e.g. "dress it up" with different colours of "furniture").