So what are you doing on Thanksgiving/Black Friday?

[BusBus]

ahhh understood. Yah our Thanksgiving is on october so we dont have an official start to the shopping season. Ours is like the comic image of rolling a snowball down a hil.....starts getting bigger and bigger and bigger etc etc etc

Here, the first day of Holiday shopping appears to be November 1st. At least that's when the malls are all decorated and the flyers start coming in....

[SuperDan]

Thanksgiving: Store closes at 3pm and it's time and a half in addition to the six hours of straight time we get for our holidays whether we work or not, so I'm going to structure my availability request in such a way that they'll have to schedule me Thanksgiving morning to avoid violating the length of service clause in our union contract. After close, I'm heading to my aunt's house in IL for dinner.

Black Friday: I don't know yet. Depends on how the ads look (and I haven't checked BFAds yet this year but I will). I do plan on asking for the day off work (like I mentioned above--if I ask off Friday and Sunday they pretty much have to schedule me mon-thurs and sat or else the nine people below me all need to be scheduled the same or less shifts and the same or less hours). Last year I arrived at Best Buy at 10:09 pm Thanksgiving evening to be the seventh person in line and managed to grab the lappy486 I'm typing on from my cozy bed right now. My next paycheck should be direct-deposited at about midnight Thanksgiving morning, so I'll be able to afford something within reason. If I do go hit a doorbuster, I usually take orders from friends and family who may need something but don't want to deal with the crowds/cold/lack of bathrooms/asshats calling the cops at 11:45 pm about somebody cutting in line.

For those of you working the BF doorbusters, I really do sympathize with you since I've seen how much of a madhouse that is and I'm not a huge fan of early mornings (but yay for the free donuts my local BB gives out lol). I pray that all your customers are more like me, having planned out their purchases ahead of time, knowing the store layout and the most efficient way to get everything on the list, being ready with payment as well as answers to the inevitable questions (service plans, CC applications, etc). Really, while I was cool with most of the front of the line last year, I wanted to slap many of the people further back.

Oh yeah, and one other thing I might do this year if I hit a BF doorbuster is bring a small charcoal grill I have. It provides both warmth and food, and both were much needed last year.

[MadMike]

My wife will be cooking her usual turkey dinner for some of her family and mine. The next day, we'll be doing our Christmas shopping.

Yeah, I know we're nuts for going on that particular day, but at least we're not going to be getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to get caught in a stampede over some sale item. I don't like crowds, and I don't like getting up early on my days off. Actually, going to some place like Wal-Fart after midnight might be more my style. I'm a night person anyway, and I imagine it would be a lot less crowded.

[Rine]

Everyone at my store is required to work Black Friday. We are opening at five o'clock in the morning this year. UGH.

[ZumZum]

Let's see. Thanksgiving at the in-laws. She is mad we can't stay all day. Why can't we??
Cause I have to get up at 3am.

Gee, in our company the store managers have to work till 5pm. Whatever time they come in is on them.
Since I only have myself and two other managers, I get to work the open till 5pm shift. I need a 12-8 and a 4-Close with the other two.

Company also decided that we are to open an hour before the mall does on the weekends. So I get to open at 5am. Yup, I get to work 4am to 5pm on Black Friday. Aren't I excited.

I know you are asking why I don't just work the 12-8 shift. Well, I have a brand new manager that I don't want to stick the opening or the closing on just in case it's crazy. My fabulous assistant manager is closing and the new one will be doing the 12-8.

[Mr. Rager!]

Thanksgiving I'll be with the family...

Black Friday, I'll be working 8:30 to 6pm. Although, I'm so going to try and get that changed to like 12-9.

[Spiffy McMoron]

Hmmm...

On Thursday, I'll probably be going to school.
On Friday, I'll probably be going to school.

Unless, of course, I want to take a "Me Day" and watch a football game. Sometimes being a Canadian kicks ass. OK, OK, most of the time...

[Myra]

Thanksgiving Day eating at the in-law's. Then Black Friday I have to be at work at 9:30 AM, but leaving early to make it out for Husband's Grandma's big dinner she holds every year the day after Thanksgiving. Our store usually isn't too busy on Black Friday though. (Knock on wood)

[Crazyredhead]

EATING!!!!

[agirlfromnowhere]

I'm not doing a thing. No work for me that day and people just get too crazy so I'm not gonna go shopping or anything. I'm just gonna sit at home and watch tv or something.

[CreepyCarrie]

My store is closed Thanksgiving day, we close at 5 the day before, and I have Black Friday and the Saturday after off I don't think I need to tell you how I wanted to weep with joy as I was reading my schedule today.

I'm not going shopping on BF, though...it scares me I'm getting a Christmas tree on Saturday. Yay me.

[purplecat41877]

I found out yesterday that I'm working Black Friday. I'm only working 4 hours in the evening, though.

[WVEvilman]

I will be in the trenches working from 6am to 3 pm. I am not sure how much customer contact I will have since I work in the warehouse part of the store. (We normally don't sell a lot of warehouse items in my store, which is office furniture) The thing that sucks for me is that I have to work Saturday as well. Since I am the receiving mgr., we will be getting a truck and I have to check it in. As far as thanksgiving goes, spending time with my newlywed wife and my family.

[hawkchick11]

Thanksgiving: I'm going to my stepmom's parents house for dinner, then probably watching football the rest of the day since my aunt is doing Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday. I'm deep frying a turkey for that one.. I'm so excited. I've deep fried a turkey the last few years for Thanksgiving.. its definately better than the one cooked in the oven.

Black Friday: Staying home, I'm so glad I don't work retail at the moment. Last year absolutely sucked. I got to work an hour early because I didn't know what the parking lot situation would be like, and ended up clocking in because we had a line wrapped around our store and heading towards the front. We did more sales in one day than we usually do in a week. I was so happy I didn't have to close.

[Mikkel]

N mentioned that her family does everything on christmas eve for some reason.

They are probably Scandinavian, we do all the gift/dancing around the tree on Christmas eve.