Wednesday, 11 November 2009

• Black Friday

  Years ago when I was the mother of only two children, still married to my first husband, and living a very conservative lifestyle, I was known to hit the Black Friday sales. I would even head out with my sister on Thanksgiving night to the few stores that were open. We caught the sales, fought the crowds, and felt smug about the ten cents we saved on Christmas ornaments.

  I have not participated in Black Friday madness since I moved to California. I am unsure if it is the fact that I am now the mother of eight children and my second husband is always at work on that day, leaving me without that all important childcare; or if I have just outgrown the madness. Do I really want to stand in line for five or more hours so that I can save a few dollars on a DSi that will  most likely be sold out by the time I get there? Or the even worst scenario; another store will put it on sale days later at an even better price and I will be stuck either knowing I got screwed or fighting that return line.

  I think that my lack of participation most likely stems from my time spent in retail sales during the holiday season. I have never in my life seen more people act a fool than I witnessed my two years on the front lines of retail. Customers that I would see on an almost daily basis suddenly lost their damn minds all in the pursuit of a perceived "great deal". I saw my fellow workers gearing up for that holiday nightmare with the same preparation one would expect a soldier heading to war undergoes.

  List of "black" items? Check

  Radio to call for backup? Check

  Scanner gun for price checking? Check

  Advil for the headache you know you are going to get? Check

  Pepper spray when you are forced to tell people the item is out of stock? Check (okay I made that one up)

  Plans for after work at the bar? Check

  It was a nightmare that we dreaded for those weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving. People were rude, they were pushy, they didn't want to wait and wanted you to know exactly how many items that were available back in electronics even though you had never set foot in electronics in your life.

  I mourned the day that Wal-Mart did away with their lay away policy, but I have to say that on some level I understand. The only thing worse than working the front lines on Black Friday was working in the Lay Away department on Black Friday. Lines literally ran through the entire store all the way out to the parking lot. For reasons that still make no sense to me, there were only about four people in the entire store that were "qualified" for lay away. This meant that only two people actually worked the front while the other two worked the back getting the boxes put into place. It was like putting a kitten in front of a stampede of elephants and expecting it to hold them off. Can you say impossible?

  The actual picking up of said lay away was almost as bad. Again, two people working the front while two searched the hundred or so trailers brought in to store merchandize. Seasoned shoppers knew to pack a lunch and arrange for the day off because it was going to take you all day.

  So, this has taken a completely different turn than when I started. How does that always happen to me?

  Do you plan on taking part in the Black Friday madness or are you going to just wait and see what happens the weeks leading up to Christmas? I think I will take the sit back and watch approach.

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