Black Friday Debriefing Thread 2009

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Well, here you go. When are you working, where are you working, what SCs did you encounter, how orderly was everybody coming in, yada yada yada.

Me, I got less than six hours to put up the doorbuster ad (bigger than most of our normal ads), and we still got prepping and staging to do. Oh, and we have to pick up carts from the grocery store across the street.

Also, let's hope we aren't ruminating about any fatalities this year.

[EricKei]

Indeed.

Office all by my lonesome because everybody else is out of town, 8-1; GameStore, 3-AreWeClosed Yet?

[Summerfly413]

I'll be working 10-7, which is a long time for me. I'm part time so the longest I work a day is generally 6 hours.

The longest day I worked was from 11am-9pm, because someone called out and I offered to work.

I'm excited I'll get more breaks than normal though. Two 15 minute breaks and an hour lunch.

This is the first black friday I'll be working on the floor. My past two black friday's were at a register. It was insane.

And this is literally my first week being on the floor. I'm offically in seasonal, so for some reason I'm tricking myself into thinking people are going to be in other parts of the stores getting "stuff" and will forget about christmas items, and I won't be stressed out from being busy.

But I know it will be busy and I'll end up having to help like five people at a time with 20 different questions. At least on black friday we're actually fully staffed for once.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

I'm not going to any sales. Spare the stalwart clerks the added stress of my presence.

May the Force be with you all.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Gonna be a heck of a weekend for me...

Black Friday:
230pm to Close -> Wholesale club. At least I avoid the early-morning psychotic craziness.

Saturday:
645am to 1pm -> Wholesale club.
1pm to 4pm~6pm-ish -> On the road from Northern Va. to Philly.
630pm to 1130pm-ish -> The Arena in Philly for Dragon Gate USA show.
1130pm-ish to 2am-ish -> On the road from Philly back to Northern Va.

Sunday:
5am/645am to 1pm -> Wholesale club

After all that, I'm probably gonna go home and pass out until Monday.

[Rine]

They changed me to closing shift! I'm so upset. I hate cleaning up after the fact.

So I work like 2 to 10:30 PM tomorrow. Originally, I worked 3 to 3...with even that having been changed from 3 to 5.

[jackfaire]

I am gonna be one of the skeleton crew getting the "privelage" of working tomorrow because very few if any people call in on a black friday and my bosses feel that rather than rewarding you for being reliable and having seniority they will punish you for those facts and make you work the day after thanksgiving.

Sitting 8 hours at a desk waiting for the damn phone to ring isn't fun.

[Android Kaeli]

I work 7-2 tomorrow and hope nothing happens. The second Black Friday I worked for Random Craft Store, but the first for the store I'm currently at, the lights went out for two hours -- hey, at least I didn't have to fight to get off the register on time.

This year I'm doing the same thing as I did last year: I'm a floater for the cashiers. Basically I have the schedule for the day and relieave the cashiers for their breaks and lunches. Hope the worst thing I have to deal with is telling customers to go to another line because the cashier who was supposed to be back from break/lunch/whatever isn't back yet, and I have to relieve the next person for their own break.

[shadow1186]

I'm working 4:30am-2:30ish, I'll be managing the front end which includes the registers, guest service, and directing guests around the lanes/store. Should be exciting

[jjllbb]

I'm excited I'll get more breaks than normal though. Two 15 minute breaks and an hour lunch.

I want to work where you work! On our black fridays they DECREASE the number of breaks we get and INCREASE the length of our shift.

I'm working a 12AM- 12PM shift. WOOT.

[NightWatch]

I'll be sitting in the dispatch office... I look forward to the insanse level of calls that include shoplifting and domestic violence./sarcasm

Yes, we get lots of family fights on Black Friday, apparently getting up at 4AM to go to a madhouse shopping center, then coming home to ungrateful kids causes a lot of problems. (Not my wording, that is what I was told by a caller last year.)

Today, we'll get the same kind of calls, but bonus, everyone will be inebriated.

[KaeZoo]

I drove past my store on the way to Grandma's house today. At 12:30pm, there were six tents lined up next to the door.

I also drove past on my way back. At 7pm, the line runs around the corner.

I'll be coming in at noon and working in the install bay all day tomorrow. Historically, it's not a really busy day for me, provided I can keep myself locked in the bay working on cars, and not get dragged out to the sales floor.

[NateTheChops]

Mart of K 2:30 to 11:00 in the Electronics Department.

If you don't hear from me by 11:05 please alert the authorities and my family.

[Gaki]

I think I'm actually going to go out wearing a ref shirt and a whistle. I'm going to the mall with my sister and her fiance Brian. My family has never actually gone shopping on Black Friday but HIS did and now I've decided to try to see what the madness is.

I won't spend anything but if you see anywhere that a girl got beaten within an inch of her life for mouthing off to someone on Black Friday...I'm that girl. I don't care about buying anything. Even if it's on sale I don't need it, I'm kinda stingy anyway...I just look foward to saving poor clerks from rude customers. Maybe if they yell at me they'll leave those poor cashiers alone! Yeah, right...

My heart goes out to all of you. I shall be braving the storm from the other side (which pretty much just means I can say whatever I want to any of those evil SCs and EWs...muhahahaha...)

[simplyanother]

I get to work early morning at Glitter Hell. I have no idea what I'm going to be doing. I'll probably end up being on a register all day. I wish I knew, so I could psych my self up appropriately. Being on the register is a LOT more stressful than being on the floor. I suppose I should have found out before hand. Oh well.


(Android Kaeli, the first year I worked at Glitter Hell, the only time I was short by more than a few pennies was on BF, when the floater rang on my register. Pissed me off. Now, I just don't care. Since they don't take us off the registers anymore, and the till gets shared, I just say screw it. It means I get to leave on time, and that's all I really care about. )

If I'm on the register all day, I expect tons of people to be confused by our coupons, and tons of them to get pissed because I don't have extras, tons to get pissed because they aren't on sale items, tons to be pissed because you can't use them on the tall trees, cricut stuff, yudu crap, slice stuff, books & magazines and other randomly excluded items.... it'll be great. I also expect people to get annoyed because I ask them for their zip code, or to sign something, or to enter their pin, or to press enter, or because I don't say Merry Christmas, or because I'm not smiling enough, or because I'm smiling too much. I can't wait!

And if I'm on the floor, I expect tons of people to just bombard me with really stupid and obscure questions. Or to be really pissed because we're out of something in the ad, at 11 am. Or to be angry because the thing in the ad that says "not available at all stores" is applicable to OUR store. Or because I'm helping another customer before them, or because I can't get something off the highwall without finding a ladder. I love it. I love the ones who see something on the high wall and want THAT one, even though the same damned thing is on the floor. Whatever. lol I'd still rather be out there than up at the register.

But I'll do whatever I'm told to do tomorrow. That's what we do at GH. We're all trained for everything. Just sometimes we all get a little rusty.

Hopefully this year won't be any worse than years previous. I'm not holding my breath. But I'm going to do the whole "expect the best, prepare for the worst thing", mentally, otherwise, I'll crack at about 9 am.