Black Friday Debriefing Thread 2010

[Amethyst Hunter]

Black Hell Day actually (and thankfully) wasn't too bad for me.

The holiday and the day before the holiday SUCKED ass, though, in no small part because our debit system took a dump so no one's cards would run through (and those that did, had to be rung up as credit, and it took forever to process), resulting in Many Unhappy People on top of the horde of stupid that waited until the very last minute to buy all their dinner crap. It was very not fun.

But now I have sweet potato pies at reduced cost (since they're trying to get rid of the excess leftovers), so the world has returned to relative rightness once more.

[LadyAndreca]

Believe it or cram it, the Christmas music at the swamp got even worse this year.

It's all moldy old Christmas music by mostly dead people. Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Barbara Streisand and so forth. Not a mix of older and more contemporary Christmas music by current artists.

I swear it was putting me to sleep last night. Too bad there aren't any display radios in electronics I could've ganked for the night.

Yeah, those would be the 'old classics' that I grew up with and loved and now can't stand anymore.

I threatened last year to hook up my ipod to the speaker system and play some REAL Christmas music. I even promised to take out all the satirical ones, like the Weird Al and Tom Lehrer. A little Trans-Siberian Orchestra never hurt anyone...

[Jester]

Thanksgiving and Black Friday are a little different in the food service industry.

At The Bar, I was very busy on Thanksgiving due to the NFL games being on, the fact that there are tourists in town who want to go out to eat, and the fact that this is a transient town with lots of people who live here who either don't have family here, don't know that many people here, or all of their friends are working because they all work in the service industry.

Since I knew I would be busy, I came in a bit early to get all my beer and liquor stocked, and I was glad I did....I would not have had a chance to during my shift as I do on a normal shift.

I only had one minor suckitude from a customer. Early in the shift, a couple came in, and the woman asked what our hours were. I told them that they were our standard hours, 11 am till midnightish. To which she said, "Oh, so you don't celebrate being thankful." Rather than give her neck a firm loving hug with my bare hands, I explained to her that, no, we were thankful, and we were open so that all the tourists and locals who wanted a place to eat and drink (like, say, this couple) would have a good place to go. She seemed satisfied with that, and the rest of the shift sailed smoothly.

Black Friday, I expected to be slow, especially since a lot of locals and natives road trip up to Miami and Fort Lauderdale to shop at the malls on Black Friday. My expectations had nothing to do with reality.

While we started out slow, it got busier and busier, partly due to the college football games (ASU won, UofA lost, great day!), partly due to the weather being a bit wet. By the time the second bartender came in at 5, I was buried so deeply I couldn't even see the end of my nose. A lot of times when the second bartender comes in, I immediately start finishing up, closing tabs with customers or transferring their tabs to my relief. Not on busy days, though, as it was a two bartender situation. I finally clocked out about 6:15, still earlier than I did on Thanksgiving.

Overall, a busy couple of days, but while I left tired, I left with a fatter wallet. Basically, those two shifts paid for my plane ticket that I bought last night for my week back home in Phoenix in January.

I really can't imagine caring enough about cheap clothes to go shopping at that hour

I agree on the caring part, but I can totally see shopping at midnight. Hell, the other day my roommate and I went to the grocery store at 12:30 am, got what we needed, and were home by 1:30 am...and neither of us went to bed.

And last night, I actually hit the grocery store around 3:30 am, ignoring my newest rule of "Jester should not be allowed in the grocery store after he's been drinking." At least this time I did not buy anything odd or un-needed, since I went STRICTLY by my list.

I would like to apologize now for the folks I had to visit today.

You should not apologize, nor feel the need to apologize, for getting what you need. You are not the person deciding that the business will be open and the employee will be working. That is their bosses/business owners/managers. Taking advantage of them being open and getting what you need is perfectly acceptable. Being nice and polite is really the only thing you need, and it sounds like you did just that.

So seriously, stop apologizing. You have nothing to apologize for. If you want to SYMPATHIZE with them, that's a whole different story, though.

I have never had the pleasure of working front line retail over this period and extend my sympathies to those that do.

I consider myself fortunate that I have almost never worked in retail. I say "almost" because one of my very first jobs was a t-shirt shop in a mall, for a few months when I was 15. Those who are good at math will realize that that was in 1985. Yeah, 25 years of my working life since I worked retail. I'm cool with that!

I guess some folks have a new Thanksgiving tradition: camping on cold concrete for two nights and a day, to be among the first in line on Black Friday.

That is beyond stupid. The only time I ever came even vaguely close to anything like it was camping out once for about 5 hours for concert tickets for my favorite band. I was one of the first 5 people in line, and I only got there 5 hours before the place opened and the tickets went on sale. Keep in mind, this was in the late Eighties/early Nineties, before you could just go online and get what you needed.

And even for them, my favorite band, never in my life would I have ever considered camping out for 2 days. This is idiocy.

E nominae Gravekeeper, et Khiras et Spiritu Jester . . . .

As someone who took Latin for 2 years in high school, it embarrasses me to admit that I have no freakin' clue what that says. But since it does have my name in it, I have to ask....what the hell does it mean?

As I'll be the one opening the doors, I may need to have a blunt instrument or something to beat any potential mobs back with.

I recommend an air horn. No injuries, so no law suits, but I guarantee if you blow that damn thing, people will stop in their tracks and back the fuck up from you.

Last year, instead of running to the back to get merchandise herself, she just wrote down skus and quantities and had the guy working with her run to the back. So I probably get to be her bitch this year.

"Get to be her bitch"? Seriously? Why not just tell her to fuck off and do her fucking job and go get the merchandise her own damn self, and stop being such a lazy bitch whore cunt?

That's what I would say, but then again, I am a charming and diplomatic fellow. Others might not want to be so nice to this waste of skin.

I'm not sure why exactly but there's a certain appeal to the madness of Black Friday for me. The closest thing I can liken it to is the feeling I get watch youtube videos of multi car pileups.

Pretty much the same reason I have spent more than one Christmas Eve at a mall, not shopping, but simply strolling or sitting down drinking an Orange Julius (or whatever) and calmly watching everyone else lose their fucking mind.

It is one of the purest forms of entertainment I have ever treated myself too.

The bright idea of these two co-workers was to keep me on one register for two and a half hours, thus backing up not only breaks but the lines as well.

Wait, what? What did they do, take extra long breaks and screw their coworkers? If so, were they reprimanded/written up/taken out back and beaten with billy clubs?

There was a collapse along with a bloodied head when someone fell and hit his head on the jewelry counter. I attribute that to the wet floor and the rushing shoppers (it was snowing outside).

I put the blame for this squarely on management. Since they had to know it was snowing, either before opening or after all the wetness started getting trudged in, they should have taken steps to ensure the safety of staff and patrons. At every restaurant I've ever worked at, whenever there's a spill or much wetness tracked in, when possible we mop it up and put out "wet floor" signs, but when not possible or there's too much of it, we break out the boxes of kosher salt and salt the damn floor so that no one will hurt themselves.

Any business in a snowy area should have something like this ready to go for these situations.

The head cashiers kept moving up people's breaks "to get them out of the way", ignoring the fact that that would leave many of us ending the day with 3-4 hour stretches with no breaks left, after 12-hour shifts.

While I love and support my retail brethren, I feel the need whenever I see a complaint like this to remind y'all that those of us in the service industry do not get such breaks. I have worked 12 hour, 14 hour, even 16 hour shifts without breaks.

"But legally they HAVE to give you a break!"

Yes, they do. Legally. Realistically, if you are cooking, who's going to cover your station? If you are waiting tables, who's going to take care of your customers? If you are bartending, who's going to take care of your bar guests? When it's busy, our managers are busy too, and not available to slip into someone's job so they can take a break.

Does this suck? Sure it does. But it's part of the job, and we deal with it. The times that suck are when we need to go to the bathroom, and we can't because we're too busy.

That's right....there are often times where we have to hold on to our bladder for an hour, two, sometimes even three.

So, while I love y'all and respect what you do...on this point you get zero sympathy from me, my feet, my stomach, and my bladder.

Seriously, how stupid can one get?!

How long have you been a member of this site?
How long have you worked with customers?

And you STILL ask such questions?

9:15AM - 9:45AM - Lunch. Although it's a bit weird to eat pizza and pasta in the morning.

Seems perfectly normal to me!

Of course, this is the guy that a few weeks ago made a breakfast out of cold leftover meat lover's pizza with jalapenos and a couple of Sam Adams......and yes, it was a VERY good breakfast, thank you very much!

[Kristev]

I'm actually quite concerned at my job. You see, I noticed that while we were dreadfully busy during the majority of Thanksgiving day, we were nowhere near as busy as I expected us to be during Black Friday.

The second-in-command manager told me that most of the sales made were at the midnight madness sale. I helped prepare it, indirectly, on Thanksgiving. But I didn't get to actually participate in buying any of it.

You see, to prepare, the employees stuck all the Black Friday merchandise in our sequestered garden center. Which has no roof. So when the snow and ice fell, it got all over the tarps, and I spend quite some time undoing the mess their ice-kicking produced on Thanksgiving.

My big problem, though, wasn't directly any proper suckiness on the consumers' part, except for one thing: All day long, they kept walking through my mop water. That's my pet peeve, if you will. I hate it when anyone disrupts me when I'm cleaning something, and people just intrude by walking through. They slip and fall, and it's my job. Nothing at Wal-Mart is worth it, people.

I simply hate the consumers and wish they'd go shop elsewhere so I can get my store clean. All I want to do is work somewhere for eight hours that actually closes so I can do my job. That's not so horrible to ask for, is it?

My real contempt is for the mismanagers. They seem to have the worst sense of misplaced priorities, and don't actually appear to have a clue what they're doing. But they're more worried about me not being 'consumer friendly'. Oh, and with cleaning clean bathrooms while ignoring the far from clean floor. Yeah right; not happening.

My big problem is that they love to misappropriate the janitors to do someone else's job, and without enough janitors on hand, there was no way to get everything done. Simply no way. I couldn't keep up, when I'm normally excellent. Instead, I find myself first cleaning up the bathrooms, and then after that's done, circling the store to clean up a trail.

It was awful. Some nitwit picked up milk with a leak in it, and went more places than Waldo did in the "Where's Waldo" books. Paper on the floor, mess and stains. And I had to track a pair of coffeeholics all the way through toys. Not easy when every child in the store had flocked to the place.

I was so glad when my shift was over. But as I was shopping for my own groceries, people actually seemed to fail to understand that I was on my own time now and didn't have to put up with, or help them, anymore. Much as I would have liked to enjoy the sales, the best I could do was a couple of DVD's. The way my work shifts worked out, I was unable to participate in any kind of shopping until long after everything was cleaned out.

[Mikkel]

E nominae Gravekeeper, et Khiras et Spiritu Jester . . . .

As someone who took Latin for 2 years in high school, it embarrasses me to admit that I have no freakin' clue what that says. But since it does have my name in it, I have to ask....what the hell does it mean?

In the name of Gravekeeper, and Khiras and the spirit of Jester (E nominae Dei, et Filii et Spiritu Sanctii).
My teachers would be happy to know that I retain a bit of what they tried to teach.

[XCashier]

COG: "You need to control the line better."

And how the hell are we supposed to do that? If we call out line jumpers, they get aggrivated and demand a manager. If we call out people who we think are line jumpers and it turns out they're not, they get aggrivated and demand a manager. If we just take whomever is next in line, the people who got cut in front of get aggrivated and demand a manager.

Seriously, you cannot win. You can't play traffic cop and force people to get in a proper line and stay in their places. You don't have the ESP or the eagle eyes to know who was in line, where and when. You have to trust that your customers will have the honor and decency (yeah, yeah, I know ) to keep to their place in line.

[XCashier]

How long have you been a member of this site?
How long have you worked with customers?

And you STILL ask such questions?

The customers, yeah, but that was a head cashier. They've been in the trenches long enough to know what it's like and presumably (note the qualifier) have two functioning brain cells to rub together.

Or maybe stupidity is contagious and the customers are starting to spread it to the employees...

[teh_blumchenkinder]

In the name of Gravekeeper, and Khiras and the spirit of Jester (E nominae Dei, et Filii et Spiritu Sanctii).
My teachers would be happy to know that I retain a bit of what they tried to teach.

It's a (... blasphemous) take off on a blessing that a traditional Christian would get from her priest. Or an ending to prayers. Not quite sure, possibly both. (Catholic, but might be in other Orthodoxies... ) I thought it was cute, but I'm not Catholic.
Perhaps here will scare help you.
http://members.shaw.ca/kofc5423/Docu...viatheMass.pdf

[Mikkel]

It's a (... blasphemous) take off on a blessing that a traditional Christian would get from her priest. Or an ending to prayers. Not quite sure, possibly both. (Catholic, but might be in other Orthodoxies... )

It means "In the name of God and the Son and the Holy Ghost". I think the trinity is fundamental in most branches of Christianity, the language may vary.

And, yes, very funny , but then I'm not Christian .

[Jester]

In the name of Gravekeeper, and Khiras and the spirit of Jester (E nominae Dei, et Filii et Spiritu Sanctii).
My teachers would be happy to know that I retain a bit of what they tried to teach.

I am honored, touched, flattered, and humbled that I would be considered part of any "holy trinity" in here, by anyone, anytime. Just....wow.

Of course, since I am not now nor have I ever been a Christian, this was a bit lost on me, and may in fact be rather blasphemous.

(But then, I've never had a problem being a heretic....)

The customers, yeah, but that was a head cashier. They've been in the trenches long enough to know what it's like and presumably (note the qualifier) have two functioning brain cells to rub together.

Or maybe stupidity is contagious and the customers are starting to spread it to the employees...

What, you think suddenly that stupidity is unique to customers, and can't possibly be be exhibited by coworkers? Seriously?

I know, I know, she should know better...which is precisely why she is stupid.

So when you ask, "how stupid can one get?", my immediate response is "look around."

Or to put it more poetically, "been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding, the cretins cloning and feeding..."

[Sapphire Silk]

It's a (... blasphemous) take off on a blessing that a traditional Christian would get from her priest. Or an ending to prayers. Not quite sure, possibly both. (Catholic, but might be in other Orthodoxies... ) I thought it was cute, but I'm not Catholic.
Perhaps here will scare help you.
http://members.shaw.ca/kofc5423/Docu...viatheMass.pdf

My apologies if I offended anyone. I was feeling a bit silly when I wrote that.

[ExRetailDrone]

I think that this year's Black Friday has been the best one I've worked in years. Of course, I'm no longer working in a major department store, and instead this year I only worked at the video store (although if I had worked at the motel as well, it would've been about the same). The video store was steady-busy during my entire shift, but it made the time go by quickly, and I had no sucky customers to deal with.

I feel for everyone who was in the trenches this year, as I know your pain well. I had worked the past 8 years of Black Fridays at The Bullseye, all opening shifts. Although last year I was scheduled 3 (I think) hours after opening. That was actually a bit worse, though. I was working in electronics and as I was walking back there to begin my shift I kept getting bombarded with all these people asking me questions that I simply could not answer. No, I didn't know if such-and-such item was still in stock. No, I have no clue where the item you're looking for is located. I just got here, let me go talk to my coworkers and get caught up!

I'm glad it sounds like people got through the insanity mostly unscathed. Here's to a smooth rest of the holiday season!

[ThanosIsKing]

I go in to work in about two hours. I'm in housewares this year, along with the housewares specialist, who you may remember being generally useless and always getting other people to do her work.

I know this is super late, and I'm kicking myself for not noticing this thread earlier, but I just had to reply to this since I'm so surprised nobody chimed in:

I'm REALLY hoping you kept your boomstick handy, Irv!

On topic, Black Friday wasn't too bad. Was on vacation in central Illinois on that day, and crowds were pretty manageable. Don't know if that was true back here in Denver...

[Argabarga]

No stories this year, guess I'll have to fall back on last year's Black Friday, that got started with a 4-car pile up in front of the mall at 6:58 AM, 2 minutes before I was ready to go home.

I have no idea if crazed shoppers were to blame, or just bad driving, but the end result was the same, a pile of twisted steel in the Sears parking lot that myself and 3 other companies had to clean up.

It was pretty impressive actually, I'd never seen a Ford Ranger lose an axle prior to that morning.

[Dreamstalker]

That is when i had a guy who bought a amex giftcard but did nt read it. wanted all his money back plus the fee.

Why didn't he just keep the card and use it himself?...wait, that would make sense. Shame on me for expecting that from a customer.

Pretty much the same reason I have spent more than one Christmas Eve at a mall, not shopping, but simply strolling or sitting down drinking an Orange Julius (or whatever) and calmly watching everyone else lose their fucking mind.

It is one of the purest forms of entertainment I have ever treated myself too.

I confess doing this too. The one year I went out on Black Friday (to get my DS), we grabbed it, got some games and accessories and then sat back at a cafe with a good view of the mall and watched the madness.