Black Thursday/Friday Debriefing Thread 2012

[Flying Grype]

I bought my TV from Big Yellow Price Tag last week; I'd rather pay the extra $40 or whatever to avoid the crowds and stress and to not contribute to any trampling deaths.

But I'm back in Canada this weekend (Grey Cup, dontcha know eh?) and went to the Antique Fleet today. Got the jeans I've been wanting, for $10. The lines weren't crazy. Canadians are still not getting the Black Friday thing, and if they ever do I won't shop that day in either country.

[Mel]

I think they're starting to get desperate up here in the Great White North... Or more likely the stores have decided to piggy back on all the "Black Friday" advertising. But a lot of places in my city here in New Brunswick are having "Black Friday" sales.

For me, I have no plans ot go anywhere. Gotta work on Friday regardless; so I'll just be working then building my magic deck for FNM afterwards.

I'm in New Brunswick as well, and some stores in the mall I work at had some sales that they called Black Friday sales. I wonder how many people over here even know what that means! I do know that the mall was a bit busier than it had been in recent days, or even weeks. My company didn't have BF sales, only whatever promotion we are already running. (I work in a boutique)

This is one American tradition that is seeping over to us that I am not happy about.

[42_42_42]

Finished my shopping over a week ago. Bought almost everything from Amazon and then a few things from Target and Big Lots.

Hubby and I spent today working on prepping the walls of our new shower for tiling (which we'll be doing tomorrow). This consisted of painting layers of a cake-batter consistency bright bright BRIGHT neon pink rubbery stuff on the walls. Dries to a dark red and acts as a waterproof membrane. Shower looks crazy right now, but once the tiles go on, gonna be so pretty!

[Lady_Foxfire]

My C-store wasn't too bad last night; I had a constant stream of customers all night, and they were emptying the coffee pots as fast as I could fill them, but they were all very polite and cheerful. I did have a bit of trouble getting my nightly chores done, because I didn't have my usual dead period between 2:30 and 4:30, during which I usually do them, but the store wasn't a total wreck when the morning shift came in, so I consider the night a rousing success.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Didn't have to work it but did experience some of it from the customer side. Big Yellow price tag was offering an awesome deal on the Galaxy SIII I've been wanting ($50 with contract) so I went down to get one. This particular Price tag store is in a shopping plaza which also contains a Target, a Sporting Goods store and two large clothing stores.

I got there at around 1 pm (yes you read that right, had to work this morning). They'd put up barricades in the nearby roadways so it was only possible to enter and exit the plaza at intersections with full stoplights.

The parking lot was insanely packed. I had park down at the other end from the Price tag store (I'd say a good 300 yards away) and dash from there. The store was still crammed with people and I hate to wait about 40 mins to get through the line and get my phone. I don't generally like shopping there but the employees were actually pretty good this time and everything went pretty smoothly.

Though I do quite like this phone I can't help but wonder if I would have been better ordering it online and saving myself the mob scene.

Oh and I even got a "sightings" moment out of it. The guy beside me doing a phone activation was extremely pissed off at the poor sales clerk because (wait for it)...the systems were running slow.

Gee, I wonder if that might have something to do with the eleven bazillion cell phones that are being activated today. Hmm...

This guy seriously seemed to get more upset with each word that came out of his mouth. I felt bad for that clerk.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

One co-worker went out with family to the local K-Mart yesterday because I guess shopping Thanksgiving and black Friday are what passes for family time with her clan. One of their door busters was an inexpensive tablet with limited quantities in store. Both her and her sister wanted one for their kids. I guess none were for sale because (allegedly) the electronics person there set them aside for her daughter and daughter's boyfriend. She was understandably outraged at this and I guess there was some violence at that store. I can understand her being upset, but at the same time, that's a failure of store management to let employees know they can't hold limited quantity items. I can certainly see why the K-Mart employee did that - she had to work Thanksgiving, deal with irrational customers, and probably doesn't get much appreciation for doing her job. She needed to find some perk of the job, if you could call it that. At the same time, the same outraged co-worker was holding 3 doorbuster razors and 2 comforters for herself in the storage room.

I personally think it's more likely they did tell employees not to stash stuff but she decided to anyway.

The swamp is hardcore about this kind of thing. If you want to shop during the doorbuster event, you do it on your assigned lunch break. If what you want is sold out, you can get a raincheck whereas customers cannot.

[Android Kaeli]

I got finished working my first Black Friday at The Warehouse about an hour ago and it was rather dull, IMO. The first couple of hours were like any day there, then after my first break it was insanely busy until I went to lunch an hour and a half later. Then it slowed down a bit before my last break, then died to next to nothing the last hour I was there -- was surprised I got out at my scheduled time, considering how The Warehouse can get.

There were some good deals, too, but nothing that I could really use or give as presents.

[Sulhythal]

I personally think it's more likely they did tell employees not to stash stuff but she decided to anyway.

The swamp is hardcore about this kind of thing. If you want to shop during the doorbuster event, you do it on your assigned lunch break. If what you want is sold out, you can get a raincheck whereas customers cannot.

You get rainchecks? Cool, where I work has more or less the same rules, except that not only must you do your shopping on your scheduled break, you aren't allowed to wear anything that would identify you as an employee(not that it stops anyone from asking) And if what you want is sold out? too bad, better luck next time...

My own Black Thursday was...actually not as bad as I was fearing. I was on the registers for the first several hours, and about the only noteworthy event that I witnessed happened less then three minutes after the doors opened.

One lady was pushing her cart down the aisle in front of the registers then stopped, and pointed at another man and said quite loudly "I just wanted to let everyone here know, that you can't trust this man. He cuts in line, so watch him or he'll cut in front of you!"

All of us cashiers traded glances and as they both walked away one of my co-workers commented "What did she want us to do, send him to his room?"

[Opalin]

Can I be your paper carrier? Woke up late as it is. Drinking coffee, and heading out the door to do the ginormous Turkey Day papers starting....now!

if you turned out to be my carrier I'd be overjoyed, but sadly unless you've swapped genders on me, I don't think you are. If you somehow make it to my door though you're welcome to stop in.

[sms001]

One lady was pushing her cart down the aisle in front of the registers then stopped, and pointed at another man and said quite loudly "I just wanted to let everyone here know, that you can't trust this man. He cuts in line, so watch him or he'll cut in front of you!"

Too funny! And actually, I agree with her on both counts ---line cutters CAN'T be trusted, and public shaming should be a useful tool. Sadly, it rarely is.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And now, after a....an interesting night, yeah, that'll do....I.P. Freleigh Sleep Deprivation Theatre presents:

How Not To Do Black Friday:


First, don't bring anybody in to start the prep work until 3 pm Thursday. We really should've come in at 1, when the store closed for 8 hours. It would've taken away Thanksgiving dinner completely, but it would've been a big help to us since.....

my manager only put on one person to set the doorbuster ad. One. To set the equivalent of a large weekly ad, which normally requires 3 or 4 people working 3 to 4 hours each on it. Result: several people, including on I.P. Freleigh must be pulled from their planned work to help get the ad signs up.

Next, be a two-face. One of our doorbuster items was a small, portable gas grill that uses small propane gas cylinders. Somebody gets the sage idea to place some of the gas cylinders on the floor next to the grills as an add-on item, since Black Friday is all about add-on sales. However, this person merely dumped the cylinders loose on the floor to get punted around by customers and be underfoot. So one I.P. Freleigh gets the idea to get an empty plastic repack tote out of the backroom and places the cylinders inside.

When my manager came in, he sought out my supervisor:

Manager: What's this tote of propane cylinders doing out here?
Supervisor: They're in the tote because before they were just loose on the floor.
Manager: Yeah, but why are they even here anyway?
Supervisor: So people buying the grills can buy the fuel too.

Later on manager pulled me aside to tell me what a great idea I had. At least he didn't claim credit for it.

Next (and most importantly)--rely on your most inexperienced, most incompetent people to carry the day.

* For the Black Friday doorbuster we set up a line queue for the checkouts. One line for the front registers and another for the electronics registers. The lines weave through sparsely-trafficked areas like HBA and home decor. Arrows are taped on the floor to tell people where to go, and the end of the line is marked by somebody holding a bunch of balloons in the air. Pages are periodically made over the PA telling customers to watch for the balloons.

Management thought we could use a couple of our "friends and family" hires (people hired to work one or two shifts a week basically doing bitch jobs like carryouts and carts and holding the balloons for the line queue) to handle the lines. They couldn't. End result: the lines weave haphazardly, every-which-way through the store. There are people cutting the lines. This nearly results in fisticuffs a couple times. Customers seek out anybody in a company polo shirt to complain about how poorly the lines are being managed. I am told the walkie-talkie chatter about this was quite animated.

* TV and furniture carryouts were run out the back overhead door in receiving. Three very-inexperienced people, including one guy on his second shift and another person on their first, are assigned to do the carryouts early and mid-morning after the night crew left. Result: many people get the wrong items. We had a 5-piece card table and chairs set on the doorbuster. At least six people buy this set, but get the other one we carry that is not on the doorbuster and costs significantly more. This results in at least $400 in shrinkage that we know of.

Then when these people are told to put away the furniture after we close down the door and run carryouts through the store as usual, they don't make sure we have at least a few of each different item in the store should anybody buy those items later. Result: at least 7 SKUs of furniture are not inside the store and are locked away in the storage container. Had anybody purchased one of these items, they would've had to wait as a manager is called to come down with keys and open up the overhead door and the storage container--after first turning off the alarms if this happened later in the evening.

* Much screwing around and hiding in the backroom commences as floor people are either unwilling or unable to deal with the crowds or do their jobs. The shelves were wiped clean when we came in for work last night, with most of the items still in the backroom, neatly staged as we had left them. This had to have cost us sales.

Finally, devise a system in which people wishing to buy small electronics doorbuster items like tablets, Kindle Fires, digital camera bundles and car navigation systems have to drive around the store and wait in the line for furniture and TV carryouts to pick up their items. This apparently is to keep people from crowding the electronics counter too much. Result: people get frustrated at having to wait in a long line to pick up a small item, decide they don't need it after all, head back into the store to get a refund and bitch at the service desk people.

Apparently the chatter around time was Walmart was more organized and had better sales than we did. Some people vowed never to return for a Black Friday sale--or ever. Walmart is the store where somebody actually got killed in a Black Friday sale, FFS. When people are saying they did a better job at crowd control than we did, you know we fucked up bad.

It's a wonder we even made our sales goal yesterday.

Oh, and I almost forgot: As a parting gift, schedule nobody to set today's ad, which is another large-ish one day ad.

[ralerin]

Dropped off chocolate goodness for Best Friend yesterday. Her first customer of the day (who I was watching) was so clueless, pepperong her with inane questions not related to the router he was buying. Best Friend was doing the "shut up and nod" thing, then came over me. I laughed a little as I handed over the cookies.

Otherwise, the mall was busy at 1pm. And noisy. So much so that I ducked into one of the card shops just to get a few minutes of peace.

[anyanka2]

I personally think it's more likely they did tell employees not to stash stuff but she decided to anyway.

The swamp is hardcore about this kind of thing. If you want to shop during the doorbuster event, you do it on your assigned lunch break. If what you want is sold out, you can get a raincheck whereas customers cannot.

My store is very strict too about this as well. We have to get a supervisor's approval to hold things on Black Friday. We also can't do any shopping on the clock and have to do it during breaks, not that we had any energy to do it then. I'm actually heading out in an hour to take advantage of the doorbusters being ran this morning after getting some sleep last night.

My store was not fully staffed this year. We barely had enough people to cover registers nearly 24 hours. Part of that is we can't hire people for what we pay and the other is management. Management gave more people than usual permission for time off for various reasons. Two people I understand because ones works as a nurse and it was her holiday to work and another is out on work-related medical leave, but most of them could have had their leave or time off request denied. One person came back two weeks early from her maternity leave because they were so short staffed.

In most departments, at least two people has split shifts. Last year, that didn't happen because we had more people then. It also wasn't fair to those, like myself, who got stuck doing that because most of us had been up for 24 hours by that point and were exhausted. Even after the caffeine and the long nap, it was tiring. We had to swap out the signs last night, clean up the areas, try to restock, and wait on customers. I didn't get any clean up or restocking done at all. I know the person who opened isn't going to be thrilled because she doesn't really like doing that because it means actually working instead of gabbing with our boss or customers.

[Flood]

Exactly as predicted, we ended up doing less than $10 in sales between the time we opened on Black Friday and the time we normally would have opened.

And then the rush started about an hour before bossman and other shift left. And they left promptly. Well, other shift spent the last 10 minutes of her shift making drinks for herself and her husband instead of the horde of customers, but that's how she ends every shift, so nothing out of the usual there.

[Pixilated]

We seemed to be a little busier than normal, but nothing really stunning. It must've been crazy earlier in the day, though, given the sales figures for that time. My sales figures were about normal, LOL -- respectable, but nothing to write home about. We did have a couple of people coming in to ask if we had any "specials" on for the weekend ... alas, we had very few. They were disappointed but no suckage ensued. One did say (not in a sucky way) that she would definitely come back for our Boxing Day sales ...