Black Friday Debriefing Thread 2008

[Gothmog]

I'm sure if they wait awhile, someone will try to buy him...

Thanks for the laugh !

[MystyGlyttyr]

Goddamnit.

While the police were out trying to keep humanity from murdering itself, we had a prison break...a dangerous bastard who's escaped more than once. Because so many cops had to be away from the jail to keep shoppers from killing one another, no one noticed he was gone until he was already LONG gone.

I hate humanity. Really fucking badly.

[poofy_puff]

Last night there was a helicopter searching the neighborhood of the people I was visiting for Thanksgiving. It was around for a couple of hours at least. I think there was a missing person, or an escaped mental patient.

[Firecracker]

Here is my Black Friday from hell. I worked 5:40 am till 3:10 pm.

I got there and wanted to die..isn't our economy supposed to be in a recession? It sure as hell didn't look like it. Today we were WAY more busy than last yr. It was insane. The line wrapped from across the front of our building down the side of our building to the back of Target. All I could think was that these people are nuts.

Who thought it would be a good idea to put all the GPS systems that were on sale at the jewelry boat? I would like to know. For the first 2 hours all of my guests were there for the GPS..nobody was there for jewelry probably b/c no one could SEE the jewelry through all the guests in line. My line went all around my jewelry boat and then into the clothes. When we first opened I was by myself w/ this line. I'm supposed to have a cashier who rings up the people and I help the people. I was panicked. I had all these guests shouting at me for the GPS systems. I was pushing my assistance needed button that sends a call for help out over our walkie. Hell, I was even calling over the walkie myself for help.

Finally I got a cashier and 2 sales floor people came up too. So it went a lot smoother. This one lady came up and asked if we had the GPS systems and I said yes. She asked if we had more so I said yes and pointed to the 20 on the counter. She got into the line. Well she was half way through the line when we only had a few left. It was obvious she wasn't going to get one. She started yelling at me that I said we had more. I said that I did say that but that I pointed to the ones on the counter..those WERE the more. Hello. I said I'd see if there were more in the backroom. She said that there better be more or she was going to raise holy hell. Guess what? We'd only been open 15 minutes and already we've got a douche bag. Lovely. Thankfully there were boxes of more. It was 2 hours later before we ran out for good.

Also my Target store is a special store b/c it's a 2 story Target..the only 2 story Target. So we have this thing called the velmeport (I'm not sure on it's spelling). There's 2 of them in between the up and down escalator. One takes the baskets up and the other takes them down. So b/c of the velmeport our baskets can't have anything on the bottom to hold the big products b/c the velmeports have these spike thingies to hold them while they go up and down..obviously or the basket is just going to slide down again if nothing is holding it.

Now we all know there are ignorant people in this world who are going to STILL stick things on the bottom of their carts besides the lack of anything to hold the item..they lack common sense. Or there will be people who will try and stick of store's carts into our velmeport..obviously if the cart belongs to another store then it's not designed to fit into the velmeport. Or there are the people who like to hang their clothes off the basket rather than IN the basket. All of these people are obviously going to jam the velmeport and cause it to stop.

Can you guess who has the keys to restart the velmeport? If you guessed the jewelry team member..then you win a prize!!! Lucky you. So..seeing how insanely busy it was today in a store and how many ignorant people there are in this world can you just GUESS how many times that thing was jammed?! Every flipping minute. I'm over exaggerating but it was a lot of times. So I'm busy w/ a lot of guests nonstop and having to run over and restart this thing? It's ridiculous.

You know..despite how insanely busy my day was it DRAGGED. It did not go by fast at ALL. In the 4 yrs I've worked black Friday has ALWAYS gone by fast. But not this time. I'm so glad it was over. I'm still alive. I didn't get mobbed. Yay.

Good luck to everyone else.

[Android Kaeli]

I had few SC, and I mean a few. I was in at 6:30 am and the second customer I had for the day was a total bitch. She wanted to know why she couldn't use a coupon that could be used from noon until closing when she came in. SC got her stuff anyway but didn't like it.

I had more fun with customers then I had with co-workers. Most of my CW were totally asshats. Yea, much fun there. -.-;;

[DeltaSierra]

I didn't have to work today (thank Goodness!) but a friend of mine shared a tale of woe from WalMart today where a woman who was buying Leapfrog systems was going around TAKING THEM OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE'S CARTS because she "had to have one for each of her 8 grandchildren."

[MiddleofNowhere]

Black Friday - the 12:01 a.m. open version

You asked for it...

Our mall decided for the second year in a row to open at 12:01 a.m. today. "BE THE FIRST TO SHOP BLACK FRIDAY!!!!" We did the same thing last year, with some really good success, but this year, the 'shoppers' changed.

LY - lots and lots of large groups of women and larger 'family' units. Everyone was orderly, there was some good natured cheering as customers entered the store and the worst transgression I saw was after the group of about 6-7 women at the back of the 'pack' all pushing strollers with poor, shell-shocked infants/toddlers/children who looked like they'd been yanked out of bed to 'enjoy' this stupid crap.

THIS YEAR - eleventy billion tweeners to early 20 year olds. I thought, perhaps we had gotten mistaken for a 'Twilight' showing. Anyone over the age of 20 was so blisteringly drunk, I began to belatedly have the shakes at the thought of having driven on the roads with this inebrieated idiots. Seriously, there was a group of three 20-something young men that were ALL having trouble standing, let alone navigate the hoardes of people. They ran screaming into the store like banshees and tore through so quickly they knocked over I don't know how many of our 'doorbuster' special racks.

LY - We had 'doorbuster' specials that we put out on the floor at designated times, midnight and five a.m. Our advertisements listed that we had specials, but didn't detail them, so customers waited around and when we rolled them out, snapped them up, but in a pretty orderly fashion.

THIS YEAR - Our 'doorbuster' items were detailed in our ad, there were certain items for midnight, certain items for five a.m. and certain items for Saturday (tomorrow) to get them back in. Every freaking customer this year felt that if they were there at midnight, they should 'get' the five a.m. ad items. Five a.m. folks wanted the Saturday items. And did they ever bitch when we explained and pointed out to them on the ad WHEN the items were available I heard the following...:

'That's stupid, why should I have to wait for the five a.m. items, bring them out now!'

'What do you meeeeaaaaannnn this is for Satuday only? I'm here today!' **It's called reading, you stupid, slack-jawed, beer bellied turd. Reading is fundamental! Our ad was completely clear on WHEN items would be available.**

'Just go get me the Satuday **item**. I'll pay full price.' Upon being told that I couldn't do that: 'You're rude and not very helpful' **good, my mission is complete!**

'Why isn't BIGNAMEBRAND on sale? Everything else is!' **no, everything else isn't. Just because some retailers are panicking and slashing prices (and margin) on their stuff doesn't mean we do. And BIGNAMEBRAND is price protected. So just because it's BLACK FRIDAY doesn't mean that all manufacturers lower their price. BLACK FRIDAY means it's the day that most retailers 'go into the black' after running on loans all year. If it were EVERYTHINGISONESALEDAY, they'd call it that. Ass.**

'Why aren't you giving out free stuff, the mall is?' **Because we know that free crap is exactly that, CRAP, and all that entails is cleaning up a mess of free 'crap' that stupid little miscreants, such as yourself, run in, grab in a free-for-all frenzy, then abandon like an unwanted, used snot rag on one of my racks or the floor.**

'Why won't your Farbucks (we have a coffee bar inside our store) give me free coffee refills, the mall i?.' **no, the mall is giving away free, no name coffee. We are not required to give you our overpriced, overly-acidic coffee that costs us money. see 'black friday' definition above**

But the best part is that my day was done by 10 a.m. and I've spent a nice, relaxing afternoon eating leftovers and watching vintage horror movies and I don't have to clean up at the end of the day.

[Reyneth]

Also my Target store is a special store b/c it's a 2 story Target..the only 2 story Target.

I must live right by you! There's a craft store on the same level as your 2nd floor, right? I'm in that center about once a month or so.

Glad everyone ...so far... has survived. The news stories are . People are disgusting.

[smileyeagle1021]

Here is my Black Friday from hell. I worked 5:40 am till 3:10 pm.

I got there and wanted to die..isn't our economy supposed to be in a recession? It sure as hell didn't look like it. Today we were WAY more busy than last yr. It was insane. .

actually, that is a sign of the recession... people are even more desperate for sales prices... they don't want to cut back to make up for the recession so the crowds and riots is now worth it for more people to save a few dollars.

[PepperElf]

well, I am working black Friday, however. I do tech support so my morning will be quiet, until everyone gets home and says: Hey why my tv no show me the movies no mo!" and then start calling

and if not on Saturday, then on St. Stephen's Day / Boxer Day.

[VenomX]

My day went fine. No problems.

Did you all see this? Wal-Mart worker dies in rush; two killed at Toys "R" Us

[snackbandit]

For the first time EVER, I got up early to go with some friends to shop on black friday. Lines were long, but everybody was pretty nice. I didn't see any pushing or shoving or fights break out.
*I got a bunch of brand new dvds for $5, and I got my dad a really nice camcorder that was like, 60% off. SWEET!


It's so terrible about that man who was trampled by the insane customers. I'm not sure how they'll be able to charge anybody, even if there is video camera footage of the attack. There's just too many people to tell, probably... What is this world coming to?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Did you all see this? Wal-Mart worker dies in rush; two killed at Toys "R" Us

Yeah, that's been posted numerous times here.

I wonder what the big special was that caused people to completely lose their shit like that.

[Broomjockey]

numerous times here.

4 threads started, linked 3 or 4 times in this thread, and been mentioned in a couple others.

[VenomX]

Sorry! Just got in from work and seen that before I got to read the threads.