Well just finished my shift working black friday

[TwixVoy]

And it was hellish.

People were to absolute worst I have seen in a long time. Everything from complaining and shouting "I want a manager!" for having to wait in lines. (duh, who would expect you'd have to wait in lines today? What a surprise) To people yelling at us, insulting us personally, and in some cases near physically threatening violence against us for running out of whatever item it is they wanted.

We had two morons get in a fist fight over a DVD player, and one of them put the others head on the other side of the video game glass case so we had some fun with calling the police and ambulence.

Then we had people loading up baskets of product that isn't even on sale and NEVER sells any other day out of the year. Funny how 364 days out of the year JUNK product never moves, but on one day out of the year when it's not even on sale people can't wait to toss it in a basket and run with it not even knowing what it is.

This is why this country is in the financial shape it is. A bunch on consuming morons. And the sad truth is this year MOST of these sales weren't even that good. Half of these black friday sales were the same prices we mark things down for weekly regular sales.

[fortyfeetunder]

1. Maybe we should rename this day to:

Fool's Friday!

[liberal N proud]

2. No kidding

[Zhade]

36. Or Black-and-Blue Friday.

NT!

[flygal]

46. Black-eyed Friday

[Dukkha]

50. Black Death Friday is now appropriate

A plaque of ill-mannered hostility and undiluted greed. The absolute worst of humanity.

[Cleita]

3. I hope you got triple pay. You should. n/t

[TwixVoy]

4. Because I'm in management I actually did

however regular workers don't get anything.

Well not triple, but double plus time and a half.

[Cleita]

9. I used to get triple pay for bartending on St. Patrick's Day.

Everyone who worked did down to the dishwasher. Between that and extra security, the owners said that they only broke even, but it was worth it to them because they gained new customers from people who never had been in their restaurant and came back because they had a good time and a safe time I might add. The owners took all precautions for security and safety before the onslaught because they knew it was going to happen every year. I really think that Wal-Mart and now the Toys Are Us where two people got shot really need to be taken to court for some really stiff lawsuits for negligence in this matter.

[EFerrari]

5. That's as close to an amusement park as some people get.

I'm so sorry. :(

[Robbien]

6. The extreme violence, isn't this new?

Someone putting someones head through a display window at your store. Someone shooting customers in a discount store's parking lot. Trampling store workers to death.

The extreme violence is new, isn't it?

[TwixVoy]

8. Not really

we had a fight break out last year too.

[blondeatlast]

33. I worked retail in the '80s and '90s; it was NOT like that then.

Our early opening was 7 AM. I don't recall ever having a violent incident; not even a heated discussion among patrons, most of whom enjoyed a good-natured communal bitch and moan about having to wait outside. It was actually rather genial and spirited.

What used to be a rather fun, communal experience has become a blood sport; even friends I know that still work at upper/middle class dept stores say it's gotten much worse.

[Starry Messenger]

7. Ugh. I'm sorry.

Being in a store really brings out the worst in people. Some days I think working a few months in retail should be compulsory for all Americans. It is not an easy job!

[TwixVoy]

17. The worst part as seeing all the idiots

reaching their hands in to the broken video game case grabbing at games with broken glass and blood all over the place. What if he had HIV? Was making sure you got the $20 video game worth it? Apparently to many people it is.

[Starry Messenger]

20. The lizard part of the brain taking over.

People suck. I worked at a Border's bookstore over the holidays 10 years ago. My opinion of humanity was forever altered.

[CrispyQ]

54. I worked in retail for 10 year.

It turned me into an introverted misanthrope. My favorite weekends are ones where I don't have to go anywhere - I can just stay home.

[yardwork]

38. You're kidding. That's....unimagineable.

[flygal]

47. My husband is upper management

but he worked one summer at a Kmart - it was the best thing for him. He still holds an appreciation for what it's like to work in that environment. I worked retail for a short time - I much prefered waitressing - you make more money in a shorter time.

[last1standing]

10. I noticed the lack of real sales, myself.

I'm looking for a good deal on a new laptop for work but the sales are really kind of crappy. I expect more than a 10% discount on the biggest shopping day of the year. I'll just wait till when the retailers are trying to offload their excess stock after X-mas, I guess. :shrug:

Sorry you had to work in that kind of environment. I don't know what would solve the problem short of having a police presence in every major retailer, but the idea of that is just insane to me. Maybe we just need to stop these Black Friday events altogether.

[blondeatlast]

34. Stores are buying conservatively and distributors/mfgs

are not producing in the kind of ultra-large quantities that make for good Black Friday deals. No one from the parts mfg to the retailer wants to pay inventory tax on unsold merchandise.

[sandyj999]

11. I spent ten years working at Target on Black Friday.

We would actually stand back and watch some of the people make total fools of themselves. There would be a stampede to the carts. Some were running down one aisle and some running down another usually to toys and electronics. It was a part of society that I didn't like to see and the fact that a poor employee was trampled comes as no surprise to me.

[patrice]

12. Sounds like JC Penney's during a Barbie Frenzy. nt

[sandyj999]

13. Or the original Cabbage Patch frenzy in the 80's. n/t

[Karenina]

14. Or the Play Station pandemonium. n/t

[Sheltiemama]

57. That's the first time I remember such a thing.

I was too old for Cabbage Patch dolls then, thank goodness, either in high school or college. I still remember watching footage on the news of people climbing over each other and reaching for those ugly dolls. I don't recall anything like that before.

[malaise]

15. I'm just glad you're still alive

It could have been much worse. :D

[sarcasmo]

16. I envy you, I could never work retail again.

[bushmeister0]

18. I remember the guy who was screaming at me because we ran out of Nintendo's Power Glove

at 11:30 on Christmas Eve! (This was quite a while ago, obvioulsy)

"What kind of store it this!!!!!"

That same night two women got into a fist fight over the floor sample at the glass case.

On Dec. 26, almost all of those jackasses brought the damn Power Gloves back cuz their little darlings couldn't figure out how to use them.

I worked 10 seasons at toy stores, from Play World, to TRU to Kay Bee, and you never saw such rediculous crap.

One incident of especial note sticks out in my mind:

The night at TRU the managers fired the back room guy who smashed his girlfriend (who also worked there) up against the employee lockers, not once, but a dozen times before they finally got around to firing him. After being fired, he immediatly went into the store room and started setting boxes of toys on fire.

This is around 10 PM on Dec. 22. The store is packed, smoke is billowing out of the AC vents, a half dozen fire trucks are parked outside and our GM is telling people 'it's alright keep shopping, it's just a problem with the heating system.'

This is just after he, at about 4' 9", had wrestled the dude down in the back, hurting his back so much that the next day he had to be put into one of those Little Raskles, a wheel chair on wheels which he rode around the store like Davros for the next four months.

That didn't prevent him from continuing to throw reshop into people's carts at the check out, though, while they weren't looking, not only to increase his sales but to reduce somewhat all the crap we had to put back after the store closed. We regualrly had about 300 carts of reshop every night, no joke.

Oh, good times!

[Odin2005]

24. Yikes! Wasn't the Power Glove one of Nintendo's biggest flops?

Right up there with the Virtual Boy, or so I've been told, the Power Glove was before my time (I was a pre-schooler then).

[bushmeister0]

48. Yes, it was all the rage and a huge flop.

But people were ready to kill for it.

That was in 1980 something, so nothing has changed. It's always been this way. Nothing new under the sun.

BTW, I apologize for the typos. I moved on to book stores for another decade after the toy thing and I know how much typos drive book people crazy!

Sorry, Borders people, I was there for six and a half long years and you drove me crazy with your book seller orthodoxy.

God, I hate book nazis!

[Avalon Sparks]

29. LOL LOL

Your post was so funny, I had to look up who Davros was, lol lol

[Hannah Bell]

56. hysterical. gad, you should write a screenplay.

the short gm cruising the store in the power scooter, the violent bf setting the toys on fire...priceless!

[dickthegrouch]

19. I hope the charge is attempted murder

If the asshole throwing people through glass is charged with something REALLY SERIOUS maybe he'll get it. If he doesn't go to jail for 5 years, I, for one, will be disappointed.

[Bucky]

21. You should be a teacher

You'd get treated the same way, but at least the cumulative violence is spread out over a 10 month period.

[MichiganVote]

45. Amen to that.

[Odin2005]

22. I remember seeing tents at Best Buy a couple years ago. People wanting Wiis and X-Boxes.

I was so disgusted by the sight I felt nauseous.

Starting in the 1920s Big Business have used psychological manipulation to turn us into mindless consumering zombies. The reason, to protect Corporate Capitalism by creating artificial scarcity by fucking with people's brains t increase demand. lack of scarcity is the corporatists' biggest fear because it would mean the end of Corporate Capitalism.

[conscious evolution]

51. 'Big Business have used psychological manipulation '

Thank Dr Edward Bernays,Sigmund Frueds nephew,for that.
He was the one who took Freuds work and applied it to advertising.
Here is a link to a BBC documentary on what he has done- http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/century_of_the_self_episode_1.shtml

[Sheltiemama]

58. People started camping out at our Best Buy on Wednesday.

More joined the line on Thursday. There is nothing in the world I want that much.

[gaspee]

23. I will miss the shopping experience this year

I am pretty broke this year, so no shopping for me. I hate shopping anyway.

I'll hit the stores after the first of the year, once I have all my Christmas tips in.

I can completely avoid the crazy crowds in the popular stores -
I need some new dog toys and a couple of new travel crates for the dogs for the car. Cash for my sisters' kids, maybe some books for myself and a cord of wood for my parents.

I feel for you, having to work this day - I don't think I could do it! At least it's over, right?

[earth mom]

25. I checked out the black friday ads in the local newspaper & there was nothing

that was that great of a deal to bother with. I was surprised because given the bad economy, I was expecting things to be dirt cheap. Silly me. :silly:

But even if I had seen something that's on my shopping list this year, I wouldn't have bothered because I hate the crassness and ugliness of black friday. :puke:

[glowing]

26. I think because retail has been so bad this year, the discounts aren't really that good..

and they never really are.. Most of the time, they pump up the price full volume and then give a % off that makes the item a higher price than a non-holiday time. Clothing is def. not on discount. The only thing of "good" value is the electronics and they put out too few and cause a riot. I'd love the day people finally wake up and spend Friday doing something with their families; not standing in line all night in freezing weather to rush a store. Its sad and pathetic.

[knitter4democracy]

49. I thought the same thing.

I'm going out today (have a credit on one store card, and the kids need more winter clothes), but I'm not planning on spending much at all.

[ThatsMyBarack]

27. Exactly 25 years ago....

Shoppers were butting heads over Cabbage Patch Dolls! ;)

[AZBlue]

28. People are desperate and panicked and it brings out the worst in them.

Sorry you had to work today!

[wildflowergardener]

30. don't shop

This is why I never go shopping that day. I thought maybe things would be lighter this year but apparently not.

Meg

[jazzjunkysue]

31. Here's the Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping link:

Saw him live in NYC: I was saved!
http://www.revbilly.com/chatter/blog/2008/28/5-am-macys-opens-on-black-friday

[wildflowergardener]

32. interesting link

I've never heard of that. They mention going to Mom and Pop shops. I know right now I am trying to go to more locally owned businesses and restaurants whenever possible, because I'm sure they are the ones hurting the most right now.

Meg

[ColbertWatcher]

35. Wow, I hope you got extra pay for working today! n/t

[Breeze54]

37. "This is why this country is in the financial shape it is.."

Yeah... right. :eyes:

It's the rude shoppers that caused Wall St to collapse. :sarcasm:


Sorry you had a, sort of, bad day. Be happy you have a job.

[TwixVoy]

39. No it's the stupid shoppers

who took out a home equity line of credit because consuming is just oh so important that caused wall st to collapse.

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. I used to work in a Hallmark store and they put their XMas ornaments out in July

People would line up at the door at 5 am (we didn't open till 10) so they could run in as soon as we opened and pay $30 for an ornament for their tree they wouldn't be putting up for 5 months. It was insane.

Then there were the Beanie Baby sales. I could write a book about them. :crazy:

[Starry Messenger]

41. Oh you should!

I'd totally read that.

[proud2BlibKansan]

42. LOL I got fired from that job over Beanie Babies

Those people are fucking insane.

[Starry Messenger]

44. Well now I'm dying for details.

:rofl: I hope you will post about it some day. That just cries out to me as a story! I'm sorry you got fired, but I can totally imagine it.

[conscious evolution]

52. Spill the beans, dude.

Or is that why you got fired?

[roamer65]

43. I treat the day after Thanksgiving like the holiday itself.

I act if all the stores are closed and avoid them like the plague. Sorry you had to experience humankind at some of its worst.:(

[grace0418]

53. It's been over a decade since I worked in retail and your story is a BIG reason why

I got out.

I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. I cannot wrap my brain around why people feel it's in any way appropriate to behave this way EVER. I was never treated as rudely or belittled as much as when I was in retail.

:hug:

[2Design]

55. sales prices did seem like weekly sales and some were higher - n/t