Today is "Black Wednesday"

[erik316wttn]

To those of us who work in grocery establishments (I work at a Super Wal-Mart, so I get the worst of both sides) today is the busiest day of the year. Black Wednesday. I have always dreaded this day. This is my 8th or 9th one, and every single one I've had at least one person yell at me like it's my personal fault that we're out of a certain item they absolutely need that they couldn't have been bothered to get at any time during the last month, and now their Thanksgiving is ruined.

I have exactly 100 minutes of sanity left today before I deal with my first customer.

[BlakeMP]

Good luck.

:hopes he has enough Splenda to make his Pumpkin Cream Cheese cupcakes and doesn't have to brave the store:

[protege]

Hehe it's a good thing I went to the grocery store last night. It's also a good thing that the local Gyunt Iggle is open 24/7. Usually around 10pm, there's nobody in there, and I can shop in peace

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Today's going to be "Black Wednesday" at my store in the sense that all the kids from the junior high down the street are going to be hanging out in the store this afternoon.

The shenanigans they pull have been well-documented.

[Ljt09863]

i remember how that used to be. im so glad i don't work at a grocery store anymore.

although yesterday, fiancee and i went to a store to get a turkey, and only a turkey, cause we had a gift card for one. it was busy then. as i was walking along, i started saying to fiancee that i get paid tomorrow so we should grab a few things after i cash my check. then i said, never mind. thats NOT going to happen. he asked why. i said it would take us forever to get through this store, and the lines will be horrendous, and its just not worth it.

[Hempress]

I forgot how crowded grocery stores can be the day before a feast holiday. I have to get sweet potatoes later for dinner at my mom's house; I'll be sure to be even nicer to the salespeople than I usually am.

[Becks]

While I'm scheduled off from work today, I WILL have to go in. I forgot to buy my contribution for tomorrow--a pie.

WHY did I forget? They unexpectedly made me act like a bagger for the last hour and a half of my shift, and I wanted to get out of there before they forced me to stay longer.

[Ringtail Z28]

I work at a Super Wal-Mart, so I get the worst of both sides.

Ouch! Well you certainly have both my respect and sympathy.

[Myra]

Oh I feel your pain on this one. I worked a grocery store for almost 5 years. 3 of those years were spent in the meat department. I HATED the day before Thanksgiving.

"What do you MEAN these are all the fresh turkeys you have left? They're all HUGE!" Yeah, you're lucky we have THOSE.

And the amount of phone calls we got from people asking us "Uh, I gotta 10 pound turkey here, how do I cook it?"

Or my personal favorite, people who would come up and say something like "I have to feed five people. What size turkey do I need?" Well we had a rule of thumb, and it was something like a half pound a person, I think. I don't remember. But anyways, we'd do the math in our heads and tell them. "Oh are you SURE? My dad eats a lot..." Well then get a bigger one! Gah!

Ugh. NO fun. Everyone was cranky, nobody was patient, oh man it sucked so bad. I just wanted to grab these people and scream "DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW TO PRE-PLAN ANYTHING?"

[BlakeMP]

No.

No, they don't.

[Seanette]

Just got back from a safari to Safeway (decided it would be simpler to bus down there than to get DH to pick up anything on his way home). Ugh. Super-impatient guy on the bus berating anyone who took longer than 5 seconds to get on or off, then in-store traffic that made Brownian motion look orderly, complete with some guy getting VERY sarcastic about "let me get out of your way" when I needed an item he was parked in front of, even AFTER I told him I'd be happy to wait until he was done with what he was getting (he kept bitching halfway down the aisle, too). Hazardous walking conditions in the parking lot, too (loads of cars too busy hunting for the best possible parking space to notice mere pedestrians).

At least Blockbuster was pretty calm (I think I got there before a lot of customers would get off work and get there).

I do NOT plan to set foot outside the door on Friday if at all possible.

[erik316wttn]

It's a miracle.

I didn't have a bad day today. In fact, we weren't all that busy.

There was one lady who I think wasn't all there (I'm pretty sure she had alzheimers so that can be forgiven), but other than that, it was ok.

[Brighid45]

Yesterday I stopped off at the smallish grocery store in the little town where I work. I shop this store frequently; the prices are pretty decent, the produce and meats are excellent, it's a smaller store and therefore a lot easier to navigate for someone with bad knees and aching legs, and the employees are nice.

It was crowded but everyone seemed to be in a halfway decent mood and the aisles were well-stocked, with workers keeping up with just about everything. I did meet one poor guy in the baking aisle who was looking for the Bell's stuffing herbs (long gone) and sort of wandering up and down the spice section, looking lost. I helped him find the sage and poultry seasoning and we joked about pre-Thanksgiving craziness. Gemutlichkeit all around

Traffic was a very different story however. A nor'easter came in yesterday morning and (predictably) started dumping cold rain right at the start of rush hour. It took me four times as long to get home as usual, and people were driving like the Four Horsemen were riding them down. (Kronos would have had great fun treating them all like turkeys, that's for sure!) I was never so glad to get home and stay there. No venturing out for me until Saturday! Thank the Goddess for online shopping . . .

[Seanette]

Gemutlichkeit

Traduzca, por favor? (Sorry I couldn't punctuate this correctly, couldn't figure out getting the inverted question mark to display correctly)

[Brighid45]

*brief thread hijack*

That's okay Seanette, I couldn't spell the word properly. There's an umlaut (the two little dots above a vowel) over the u, but I haven't figured out how to put one in on this compy. Anyhoo, gemutlich doesn't have an equivalent in English. I guess the closest you could come is goodwill, or comraderie.

*thread unhijacked*