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Black Friday Debriefing Thread 2011

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  • #76
    I wrote this last year, but it bears a

    (Roughly to the tune of "Signs" by the Five Man Electrical Band)

    And the line stretched through the store when I clocked in today
    It was wall to wall with people, going shopping on Black Friday
    It was Chaos Central at the Fabric Store, with tempers wearing thin
    So I grabbed my apron and nametag and got ready to dive in

    Line, line, everywhere a line
    Blocking up the aisles and breaking my mind
    Buy this, don’t buy that, gotta wait in line.

    From the line stepped a customer with about thirty-eight bolts of fleece
    “I’m making blankets for Christmas, and I need three yards of each
    And I’ve got twelve bolts of rayon for making shirts and sarongs
    So I need five yards of each, now tell me, what is taking so long?!”

    Line, line, everywhere a line
    Blocking up the aisles and breaking my mind
    Buy this, don’t buy that, gotta wait in line.

    Now hey there, Mister, can’t you read?
    The sign says “Half Off, Limit Three”
    You can’t buy those fifty-five
    You must leave some for others

    And the line stretched on and on and on throughout the store…

    When the line slowed, my boss came up and told me “Take your break”
    So I went back and put my feet up, oh boy did my dogs ache
    Those fifteen minutes were heaven-sent, but they went by much too fast
    Now I’m back on the floor and facing the lines and wondering if I’ll last

    Line, line, everywhere a line
    Blocking up the aisles and breaking my mind
    Buy this, don’t buy that, gotta wait in line.
    I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
    My LiveJournal
    A page we can all agree with!

    Comment


    • #77
      I worked midnight to 10 am at the store on Friday and 10 to 6 today. It went fast on Friday. Most people were pretty decent and patient. I had one really irritating customer. Corporate has a $10 off one item $10 or more coupon. One lady tried to get a $9.99 item. Myself and a coworker told her no that we couldn't override it (big fat lie but how is she gong to know that?). She got all pissy and trots over to the display, where I explain to her it's on the bakeware, not the brownie/cake pans that are 9.99. She looks at me like I'm retarded because I work in retail and she thinks she's the reincarnation of Einstein, when she probably barely managed to graduate high school back when home ec was a serious legit class. She decides she's going to try her stunt at another register.

      Our issue was more with scheduling. Most of the people were scheduled before 10 am. Between 4 am and 8 am, we had 5 people plus a bagger in my area. Granted that was to cover breaks and attempt to do some restocking and cleanup. One person who came in at 4 would have been happier if they had been scheduled 8 to 5/6 so they could have had gotten some sleep and we would have had another person around in the afternoon. Apparently, the person who does our scheduling thought that the peak hours would be from midnight to 4 am. She forgot to think about the people who come in Friday afternoon to shop. It turned out to be steady all day. The closing manager was complaining that there weren't enough people scheduled to close and reset all the doorbuster signs for Saturday.

      We sold out of a lot of doorbusters and bonus buys. One issue with our supply chain has been the lag time between the time a products sells and when it get replenished. It's normally about two weeks, but lately it's been more like three weeks to a month. That's not what you want to be happening during the holiday season. For example, we sold over 80 percent of the Keurig coffeemakers we had the past two days. We're down to less than 20 in the store and they're going to be at a sale price for the next month. Unless corporate anticipated huge sales of that and there's a bunch coming next week, it's going to be the second or third week of December before we get more in.

      Sales at my location were up about thirty percent from last year. I almost think that opening at midnight will be the new norm for black friday. I would prefer opening at midnight or 6 am. Most people are up at midnight and it's tough for people who have to work it to get up in time for a 3/4 am opening.

      Comment


      • #78
        I didn't work this year as I'm on leave for school (though I will be working over my Christmas break) but my older brother, who works at the same store as I do, did. He had to be in at eight at night on Thanksgiving and stayed until around seven the next morning.

        Apparently two women got into a full on fist fight before the sales even started at 10pm. What were they fighting over? A waffle iron.

        There were police in the store most of the night to keep people calm and they broke up the fight, so there were no serious injuries, just lost dignity.

        Comment


        • #79
          That's assuming those women had any dignity to lose in the first place. Considering the fact that they were fighting over a waffle iron, I tend to doubt it.

          "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
          Still A Customer."

          Comment


          • #80
            Damage report for my store - some men got in shove match/fight over standing in line for the register in the tools department and we also had to call 911 for someone that passed out (unrelated to the fistfight, though). Don't know the exact details but someone said it was exhaustion-related.

            I hope this is my last BF ever.

            Comment


            • #81
              Fights occurred at another local store, but all we had happen was a uniformed cop getting knocked down.

              Comment


              • #82
                Apparently the person (well, one of them at least) that got knocked down in the incident I described took at least one person's foot to the back, so yeah, I guess it was a trampling.

                We're probably going to have to beef up security next year.
                Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

                "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

                Comment


                • #83
                  Quoth XCashier View Post
                  I wrote this last year, but it bears a

                  (Roughly to the tune of "Signs" by the Five Man Electrical Band)

                  And the line stretched through the store when I clocked in today
                  It was wall to wall with people, going shopping on Black Friday
                  It was Chaos Central at the Fabric Store, with tempers wearing thin
                  So I grabbed my apron and nametag and got ready to dive in

                  Line, line, everywhere a line
                  Blocking up the aisles and breaking my mind
                  Buy this, don’t buy that, gotta wait in line.

                  <snip>
                  Oh, that was too darned funny

                  My sympathies to all you guys, but here's a spark of good news. I saw in the paper that BF sales had their best year ever. Hopefully that will translate into a good Christmas season, and permanent jobs for some of our members who might be looking for one.

                  Cheers!
                  They say that God only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, God thinks I'm a bad ass.

                  Comment


                  • #84
                    Someone smeared feces on one of our mannequins. Eww.
                    "You mean you don’t have the one piece of information you actually need? Well, stick your grubby paws in the crayon box, yank one out and colour me Fucking Shocked Fuchsia." - Gravekeeper

                    Comment


                    • #85
                      I worked from 2300 - 1130 Thursday night. The biggest issue I had was my feet hurting, although I think my feet were better off than other people's feet... I had been issued official shoes a while back but they didn't fit so I bought my own - a set of steel tipped boots. I'm certain that the people with thin black shoes on had less foot support than did I - plus my feet are use to boots like that anyway compliments of the Navy.

                      Customers weren't that bad, a couple of people who were grumpy but most people were happy or at least didn't bug me.

                      I personally broke my "no shopping on black friday" rule after I got out of work. I was already out, but I tried to be kind to the other people working... plus I still had my uniform on so it was kinda obvious I'd just gotten out of work. And from talking to other workers I think some of them were a bit at learning I'd just gotten off of a 12.5 hour shift.

                      Got home and took a bath and my BF rubbed my feet for me. I ended up finally napping for an hour or two and woke up because my feet felt bleh still... so I soaked them in a bucket of hot water & lots of epsom salts and then they felt better. First tried sleeping with a large pillow under my knees cos I expected that sleeping with my legs completely straight would hurt a little - or make my legs restless, but eventually I was able to kick it to the floor and sleep naturally. Woke up at 8am feeling much refreshed.

                      I go back in today... should be interesting...
                      Last edited by PepperElf; 11-27-2011, 05:26 PM.

                      Comment


                      • #86
                        I did a book reading at a book store, with a group of other authors. Didn't sell anything, though.

                        Oddly enough, the bookstore I was in barely had any consumers in it. The place was practically dead. But at least it helped me stay out of the madness.
                        Customers should always be served . . . to the nearest great white.

                        Comment


                        • #87
                          Saturday was incredibly slow for phone calls for me. I'm sure we would have had tons of undertime if so many people hadn't already scheduled that day off - there weren't all that many of us working. I did take a long lunch, though, which I used to wander to the downtown area and buy a few things from the mom and pop stores for Small Business Saturday. At a British/Irish goods store I bought a Scotland bracelet and a tea bag holder (basically a ceramic, saucer like plate shaped like a teapot). As my parents drink tea every night - part of my 1st generation Scottish-American mother's family tradition, no doubt - I will use it whenever they are here at tea time. I also walked over to the candle shop that I love...spent as much time as I could in there, but didn't want to buy something too expensive or that I wouldn't really use...so I just bought a little light up Christmas tree snow globe type thing. I had it on my work desk the rest of the evening
                          "I was only LOOKING, I didn't mean to enter my card's CVV and actually ORDER! REFUND ME RIGHT NOW!!"

                          Comment


                          • #88
                            Today was slow, although we had a few customers who were confused as to why their Black Friday sales papers were no longer valid. (Hello! The start of a new work week and therefore a new sales ad!)
                            "Sigh, I'm going to Hell.....but I'm going with a smile on my face." -- Gravekeeper

                            Comment


                            • #89
                              Quoth simplyanother View Post
                              BUT NO Turkey Bucks, so that was awesome, I freaking HATE turkey bucks, and I hope they never ever bring them back. EVER. EVER EVER. I'm still stung from my first experience with them...years ago. lol
                              Oh dear lord, the Turkey Bucks. The only thing I HATED the most about Black Friday at Random Craft Store was the damn Turkey Bucks. I nearly kissed my former SM when he told us we were NOT going to be doing those bloody things one year. Anyone who worked the year before cheered.
                              Eh, one day I'll have something useful here. Until then, have a cookie or two.

                              Comment


                              • #90
                                Black Friday was busy, but not nearly what I was expecting. Yeah, we're a fast food place, not retail, but we still had people lined up at the doors when we opened at 4 am two years ago. This year was kind of a disappointment. Having the DM there looming over our shoulders was kind of stressful, but I think Saturday was actually busier than Friday.

                                The night before Thanksgiving, however, was freaking insane. I only had 3 closers (excluding me) - one of whom could do either cashier or cook; one who can only do support cook (drop buns & burgers, fetch produce) but can't actually make any sandwiches; and one cook who was too new to have worked up to any kind of speed. I couldn't leave my front person alone to help the cooks, and the cooks couldn't handle the volume! My closers like to tell everyone I'm "zen" because when I'm stressed, I just act really calm and start handling things, rather than freaking out...not the case that night!!!

                                Oh...and the new fun. DM posted on his FB letting people know that our store (we are his home store as he is our former SM) would be open at 3:30 am on BF. One of the comments on his post was that we should have been open all night so people could get coffee. Now he wants us to open for breakfast at midnight next year

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