Thanksgiving/Black Friday SC thread

[alphaboi]

Who want's to share tales of Thanksgiving and Black Friday releated SCs? I just worked Thanksgiving and had surprisingly few SCs. There was the guy who came in at 9:30am asking where our beer was (I'm in PA so no beer at a gas station). He was already drunk and was upset that I didn't know where he could get some (I know the state stores and beer distributers were closed). I got a bunch (more that usual) of people wanting to make small purchases with $100 bills. One girl tried to pay for a paper and pint of milk ($1.40) with a hundred. I asked if she had anything smaller, she said no and walked out. I had a half-dozen people in line so I just put her stuff behind the counter. A few minutes later she came back in and went to the front of the line. I completely ignored her for a few minutes untill she went to the end of the line. She ended up paying with 2 dollar bills and not saying anything (she did give me a dirty look).

[UncleImpy]

How about the day BEFORE Thanksgiving

My wife is a GSM for the red-bulls-eye-store in our area. I show up 5-10 minutes early to pick her up, and decide to wait in the little food court, grab a muffin and a snapple, and wait. In just 15 minutes I see:

1. Lady buys bag of popcorn in food court, walks out of food court, drops bag IN THE ENTRYWAY, and just walks off. Popcorn everywhere and rapidly getting crunched underfoot by the hordes that were coming in.

2. Teenager in the Starbucks line gabbing on her cellphone, oblivious to the 5-6 people waiting behind her, and the barista trying to get her order. When the barista finally gives up and takes the order behind her, she THEN tells whoever she was talking to 'uh, I gotta go, bye', and goes into full-SC mode on the barista for skipping her. I think the guy behind her said something along the lines of 'would you shut up, you were busy, and Im tired of waiting', because she looked at him offended and stalked off. Was hard to hear from my seat...and I narrowly avoided clapping.

Finally, wifey is off and looks like she's been yanking on her hair. Still wont take me up on the offer of prepping her for an interview where I work though.

[MamaMootz]

I was wondering how those poor people who work at Kohl's are going to be coping. Their doors open, according to the commercials, at 4AM. 4AM!

That's beyond inhumane... truly.

I personally won't go near a store on Black Friday and avoid all malls between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm so glad I shop online.

[vonkarolinas]

I personally won't go near a store on Black Friday and avoid all malls between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm so glad I shop online.

I just discovered the joys of online shopping this year, I feel ya. Just got to get the orders in in time to get them shipped before the bid Day

[PhotoChick]

Ok so I just had two really cute little girls but that kinda takes any big cooking out of the equation. I went to Whole Food yesterday to pick up the food and for a small grocery store, man was it crazy. Thank goodness I had pre-ordered everything and just had to pick it up and hand the express cashier the bill. I don't know what I would have done if I had to shop for everything.

And the crazyness of black friday with start in about 2 hours. I heading over to best buy to pick up some monitors/printers I'm gonna need for my new business and they I get to head over to my old store (the big orange apron, from before I moved to colorado) Since I'm still technically employed with them (just a different store and I'm on maternity leave) the DM asked I'm I could watch the doors in a LP capacity as I've done some of that sort of thing before. I'm not really sure why because unlike last year when we had 42" tvs and portable dvd players and surround sound we dont have any thing like that this year. Oh well, what ever gets me money in my pocket. Wish me luck.

[MrSunshineState]

I am a happy online shopper. I grocery shop in person, that's about it. I can't stand going into retail stores. I can't be around other customers. Walking slow, blocking aisles with their carts, blabbing kids, etc. *shudder*

[Sandman]

I'm gonna be at the store in a little over an hour due to one of our switches failing. I have to keep and eye on the mobile IS guy while my manager is doing things for BF.

Lucky me... 10 hour day.....

[king4aday]

I was wondering how those poor people who work at Kohl's are going to be coping. Their doors open, according to the commercials, at 4AM. 4AM!

That's beyond inhumane... truly.

I personally won't go near a store on Black Friday and avoid all malls between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm so glad I shop online.

I am currently in the process of waking up (2:20am) so I can be to work at 4am (we open at 5am). I have to stop at wally world to get some coffee and apple cider for employees on the way...

right now my anxiety lvl is starting to go waaaay up because Im in charge of the store (the GM got shipped to another store for the weekend ) SO...the fun begins of me trying to assign zones in the store (we normally dont) and making sure cashiers are ringing things up right (or the computers are right whatever they case may be) Le sigh

[blas]

I'm not even daring to go tanning or get a quick bite until at least 11 or 12, simply because that's when the worst will be over. Most of the door buster sales only last until 10 or 11 around here. If I stay away from the road where the mall and target and Wal-Mart and Kohls are, I should be alright.

[RammsteinGirl]

I'm dreading it.. I gotta be at work at 5:45 AM and it's 3:56 AM now. I worked last night 5-9 PM and people were already being assholes, so hopefully it's not a sign of things to come.

I have a mini-story already. Last night, lady comes through one of the newer cashier's lines and she has a question, so the cashier asks me for help. The lady had bought a toy for her son the day before and it had rang up on sale, but last night it wasn't ringing up at any sale price. I told her I was PRETTY DARN positive that it was because it was a part of the WEEKLY sale ad, which ended on Wednesday (it normally ends on Saturday night but this is a special sale week). Well, she didn't freaking believe me for some damn reason. So I went to service and even had them look through last weeks ad, we couldn't find it. I went back and asked the lady if there was still an sign up back there (then we could legitimately give it to her at the old ad price) but she was like, "I don't know! I just grabbed the item and came up here!" I told her I'm sorry then, it was a part of last week's ad and I couldn't help her anymore. Maybe sucky on my part (remember, I didn't HAVE to help her in the first place!) but she was being snotty about it and it pissed me off. Of course she was standing there grumbling about how "no one around here knows what's going on" and other smartalecky comments. Yeah lady, way to be completely rude to someone who is only trying to help you to the best of their ability!

[queenbb]

our store opens at 5 tomorrow, im sorry for the poor guys over at the penny's cause they are open at 4. lucky for me i dont have to be there till 11, and since i was pretty much sick all day with a migraine (no not from drinking lol) i will probably have a mush brain tomorrow.

i guess tomorrow we will see how bad it will be, my boss wants to have a 30,000$ weekend, for an auto shop thats pretty tall

[chops]

I, too, have a great disdain for Combat Shopping™.

What's worse? Our favorite supermarket in the immediate area is right next to a Wal-Mart.

At least the Wally World closes at 10 PM (maybe 11 now that it's That Time of Year), while the supermarket, and all others in that chain, are open 24/7 but typically close for all or part of the major holidays.

[Catwoman2965]

I have to admit, I was one of those; I got to the outlets at 10pm for a midnight opening...pressured by my cousin! Otherwise I would have been home sleeping! But surprisingly, there were no SCs, a lot of people and a lot of standing in line as each store only let in so many people at a time, but....we got there about 10ish, stood outside the Coach store until they opened at 11:30 - went in, bought a few things, and then headed over to another store, waited in line again, got in, bought, and left, headed to store #3, bought some more, and left. I think it helped we had gone Wed night, and seen some things, so we knew exactly what we wanted when we went back for "midnight madness".

I think the center learned from their mistakes; last year was a clusterfuck...people parking in the median of the main road, etc. etc. - this year they had free shuttle buses from the local HS (which we took), and lots of police and security. Everyone was friendly, no pushing, shoving or anything else. Working in retail I still feel really bad for anyone who has to work from midnight on, but it was a surprisingly pleasant experience. I got lots of bargains; a pair of shoes and boots; normally 145 for $70, and one gourmet food store, EVERYTHING 25% off....

Got home about 2am, and now am stiff and sore!

[Tito]

I try to avoid Walmart & the malls starting on Black Friday, & lasting through the end of Christmas. I have no patience for the 'holiday cheer'.

Good luck to everyone who has to work today!

PS.... I know this is off topic, but let's also get ready for some PFB doozies! Because you know how it goes, god forbid the stores have the nerve to *gasp* close early or stay closed all day on Thanksgiving!

[wagegoth]

I am a happy online shopper. I grocery shop in person, that's about it.

I miss Webvan. I used to order the regular, big stuff from them. They carried it up the stairs for me. Lovely, lovely. So bummed. Always nice and on time.


I did go to Kohl's, but the line was way too long, and they were out of the games I wanted by the time I got there, so I left. I got to Walgreen's early, but they had apparently sold out of the camera I wanted, so they called another store. I raced over there and got the last one. It's for my younger son's birthday.

I then went home and ordered the video I wanted online from Best Buy. Only $1.99 shipping. Definitely worth it.