Thanksgiving/Black Friday SC thread

[Bramble]

I feel for anyone who works today in my area. Watching the news just now and it showed the doors to a store opening and people SPRINTED in yelling and screaming and charging off in different directions. Today's Retail comic looks just like what I saw on the news.

[MystyGlyttyr]

A couple of the more interesting phone calls I've had so far today...

Me: "Newsroom."
Woman 1: *five minute rant on how hard she worked on Thanksgiving, cooking, cleaning, arranging, etc., while the men drank beer and watched football, but she couldn't watch her soap operas yesterday because of the @^%^&^# parade and why couldn't they run the parade on another channel so that women like her who work SO HARD could still watch their soaps blah blah blah*
Me: "Um...ma'am, what...would you like me to do?"
Woman 1: "WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT?!"
Me: ....click*

-----
Me: "Newsroom."
Woman 2: "FOOTBALL!!"
Me: "...?"
Woman 2: *click*
Me:

[South Texan]

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.

My wife and daughter got up at 3:00 this morning to go to the Kohl's near us. They said there was a line to get in, but everyone was calm and seemingly happy with no stampedes or grabbing or tantrums or hysteria. They said the sales staff all seemed to be in a good mood and the customers were patient and pleasant while waiting in a very long line (just under an hour) to check out.

They next headed over to J. C. Penny's and said it too was crowded but very calm.

I hope other stores had similar experiences.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

My store=crowded but overall very orderly.. We never seem to have anything worth fighting or trampling people over.

We did do something new this year--line queuing for the checkouts. We put up a bunch of posts zigzagging down a couple of the aisles and had somebody stand with red balloons to indicate where the end of the line was. Some people complained because to get to the end of the line they had to walk almost all the way down the mall aisle and then swing around to get in line.

[Javarod]

Boy, its been a while since I worked in retail, the stories remind me of why I love my job even ifn it don't pay all that well (wait, no check yet this month...). Back when I did retail, for amusement I volunteered to work on demand at Wal*Mart. What does that mean? Come in like normal in the morning, work until they don't need you... in my case, about 11.10...PM. Yeah, something like a 14 hour work day, shoulda seen them trying to get the time clock program to accept that.

[Despina83]

Everything went smoothly at our store. I had to be there ready to cashier at 5:45 AM, for eight hours. Surprisingly, everyone acted civilized. There was only one woman that seemed a bit bitchy and commanding, but no real problems. Most everyone was friendly, many even cheery. For part of the shiftt I had nothing to do but stand around, if that shows you how great the economy is...

[ArenaBoy]

Just a little something for those who are suffering working the torture day that is Black Friday.



http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...a23/Retail.gif
http://web.mac.com/normfeuti/iWeb/co...D10D-4D07-AAA9-

[Changed the hotlinks to links. No slapping around of the copyright of others, please ~ R]

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'm so glad I live in England. Altho, Christmas week over here is always hellish. O.o

[Kara]

My Black Friday is nowhere near the nightmare it used to be when I worked retail. Of course, so many stores are running Black Friday "FREE PHONE WITH ACTIVATION" things right now that we are ridiculously slammed with calls all day, but at least I didn't have to be here early.

The last time I worked the retail end of Black Friday was 2003 at Circuit Sh*tty. We opened at 5, we had to be there at 4 to get ready. People were already wrapped around the building when I got there. I had to work until close, which was 1030pm thanks to extended holiday hours. Yeah, I had to be there over 16 hours that day. And open the next day ><

I actually had a little pre-holiday suckiness the day before Thanksgiving this year. We went to Wal Mart (yeah, we knew it was going to be crazy the day before, but we had to go). So they're crammed with people and everyone is doing their best not to be run over by carts or kids on Heelies. We want to roast a chicken for Sunday dinner, so I go over there and a guy is standing in front of the chickens. No biggie, I'll wait. His cart is close behind him, and without bumping the cart I step up to the meat cooler and just wait. I'm about 2 feet away from him, I'm not putting off any signals that he's inconveniencing me in any way. He finally decides which chicken to get and he... well, if "forcibly" leaning makes any sense, that's what he did. He basically shoved me and said "Scuse you." He could have dropped the chicken in the cart from right there, or gone around to the OTHER side of it (which is what he did anyway), but he thought it would be fun to be a dick.

If I were as adventurous in real life as I am when dealing with customers at work, I'd have let him have it. Instead, I just stood there wondering why, with all the craziness of a big store the day before a holiday, why you would go out of your way to be an asshole to someone.

[Kusanagi]

A friend of mine works at Fry's electronics (Imagine an electronic store about 4 times the size of your average Best Buy with deals twice as good)

Line was backed up half a mile around the block, and within 30 minutes of their doors opening, he called me to let me know their computer system crashed - so they have a line half a mile long, over 50 registers - and they're all down, making everyone both write out the sale by hand, and sending runners to the back with CBs to see if the items are even in stock.

I think I'm going to be buying him quite a few drinks tonight.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

I sent this text to a friend of mine earlier today:

"Lord, have mercy upon this poor retail slave, and remind her that wreaking her vengeance on the sucky customer, while funny, would only get her in trouble, Amen."

She still works at the same record store I used to.

[Sandman]

My dad is gonna be a SC due to my manager giving him the wrong GPS unit, and for saying the one he really wanted was OOS but he was holding a couple of them for random customers later on.

[ZeoViolet]

Hmmm....

Yesterday I was alone cooking breakfast (I work as a breakfast grill cook at a kitchen/deli attached to a famous midwest Supermarket chain, and my store is a large one). The other grill cook was still out of state for a funeral. A few people could not comprehend that

A. A basic Kitchen Deli is not fast food; you will not get it in three minutes or less

B. I was on my own

C. Those who order first get their food first

D. If I have eighteen orders, with four meals or more each strung across my grill, your average wait may be half an hour. I've only got two hands, damnit! I have to make all food from scratch--do you think I just heat it up like fast food? Wrongo!

E. You are not a speshul snowflake. I might bend things some to suit you and I make special orders all the time, but there IS a fine line to piss-me-off-mode.

Now, I had only a few minor insances of people who were impatient (and to those who cannot wait and try to bitch to the boss, or saying that they'd been there "half an hour" when I only saw them walk in ten minutes ago) she is FULLY behind me. She REALLY SUPER DISLIKES people who cannot wait. They come in thinking this is fast food and it is NOT. She'll step in and help me, but she always tells me to pay them no mind no matter their bitching. She knows I am moving as fast as I can and whipping orders out as quickly as my equipment will allow.

Selection "E" is the one though that got my goat yesterday and made me see red. Someone ordered french toast and sausage links to go. Fine, okay. No problem although it was in the middle of a rush. He gets his food and apparently changes his mind. He wants bacon instead. Gee. Well, okay. He gets bacon. The asshat changes his mind a THIRD time and by now I'm seeing red and smoking out the ears. The fool wants to change it to sausage patties instead! I've got my grill crowded with food already and twelve orders strung across my queue. I had a hard time not telling him to make up his mind or say, "Is that your final answer?"

I hope he burned his turkey.

[Kitten in the box]

we had this one guy throw a fit cuz we were sold out on turkies. he reached into MY cart to grab my bIrd then got neck vein i had one too many hot peppers pissed at me

[MrSunshineState]

we had this one guy throw a fit cuz we were sold out on turkies. he reached into MY cart to grab my bIrd then got neck vein i had one too many hot peppers pissed at me

He actually stole your turkey???