What is your least favorite thing about Black Fridays?

[Orrex]

For me, it means the official beginning of the "turn every product into a Christmas Carol jingle" season.

I swear, by the time the 25th rolls around, I'm driven very nearly to genocide over it.

[MrCoffee]

1. A shortage of mall fight clips on the news

I don't care about the latest humanitarian crisis in some country I've never heard of, I want to see grown women beating the shit out of each other over the latest fad doll while their children cry in the aisle.

[Orrex]

3. That is so hot

Is hair-pulling involved? What about face-scratching?

[MrCoffee]

4. It's not a real mall fight without hair pulling, face scratching and torn blouses

and by blouses, I mean tshirts with wrestlers screen-printed on them.

[Orrex]

5. I am so there

I'm practically all a-flutter about it already!

[MrCoffee]

6. Don't forget the camcorder!

[flvegan]

7. I like the shopping cart v baby stroller demolition derby at the opening gun.

[MrCoffee]

8. It's so much better when the store employee only opens one of the doors

Then they logjam at the one door, and the people getting shafted by the locked door start clawing their way over the top of the pile to get to their rightful place, and the crush of human bodies begins to pile up behind the locked door, and the store employee charged with opening the door gets scared and runs off, so the cries of the damned begin to pile up behind that one locked door, and faces smashed against the glass plead in desperation.


Still, nothing beats a knock-down drag out brawl over the very last My Little McBarbie Cabbage or whatever it is. That's when we find out who REALLY loves their kids.

[Parche]

2. when some people go to walmart

i wont name names :grr: :hi:

[emilyg]

23. Hey - leave my Wal-Mart alone.

:hug:

[marknovota]

9. Crazy people.

Seriously, people are nuts on BF. Occasionally I am one of them...

[DarkTirade]

10. This will be my first time ever working retail on Black Friday.

I'm skeered.

:scared:

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. Keep handy your digital camera with "motion picture" option.

And a set of fresh batteries for quick-swapping.

See this as an opportunity.

[DarkTirade]

16. I've got my cel phone with camera and video capabilities.

:P

[Fire Walk With Me]

17. Our society behaves differently now that it realizes that it's five minutes from being on youtube.

Makes ya think :)

[jane_pippin]

26. Good luck. I've put in my share of holiday retail hours.

It's a long day, and people can be crazy, jerks, mean, demanding etc., but really, in my experience there were a lot more nice people than jerks. Maybe I just got lucky since I worked for a small shop for most of those holidays, but even when I worked in a big box type place people were, for the most part, in a good mood more often than not.

Either way, I highly suggest picking up a nice bottle of something you like to drink and the David Sedaris Holidays on Ice audiobook if you don't have it. Go home, get comfortable, listen to his Macy's Elf Story, drink your drink, and know you aren't alone in the holiday working madness.

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

11. Having to refrain from Thanksgiving travel so you can be at retail work early on Friday morning....

...Thankfully that didn't happen to me this year. I'd much rather enjoy a long, quiet Thanksgiving weekend with family members than spend Friday and Saturday stuffing Christmas boxes in front of an aggressive crowd of customers.

Other than that I'd say the whole saturation of everything in stores and on TV with Yuletide jingles - and the fact that the ads ALWAYS show snowflakes, despite the fact that most of us don't see solid white weather for the entire month of December. They never show the raindrops or fog clouds that are ubiquitous to Oregon's holiday season.

[AlCzervik]

12. all of it.

i do not participate in Black Friday.

[143tbone]

13. Do they do this kind of crap in other countries? n/t

[TZ]

14. Bad memories..

I worked retail for six years...:scared:

[texanwitch]

18. I worked retail also,

The shoppers can go crazy.

I wonder what this year will be like.

[Orrex]

19. Was that back when you were a shill for Big Retail?

Or were you already a secret shill for Big Pharma by that time?

[TZ]

24. I was a shill for Big Travel back then

I worked in a luggage and leather store......and NO Orrex, not THAT type of leather.....:rofl:

[hippywife]

20. The fact that

I haven't worked in retail in about 30 years and I have no reason or desire to leave the house that entire weekend.

[jberryhill]

21. It ain't Christmas until Santa flies in on a Norelco razor head

Why Santa would know jack shit about shaving I could never figure out.

[Zavulon]

22. I wouldn't know.

I have never shopped on black Friday and laugh at everyone who does.

[jane_pippin]

25. I hate that it's actually called "black friday" now. Like it's an actual holiday or something.

I'd never heard that until a few years ago and now everyone and their mom calls it that. Thank you, stupid info-tainment news media.

[Kire]

27. Having no money.

None

[av8rdave]

28. Being alone for the day...

I refuse to go to any stores, but I'm in the minority.

[jmowreader]

29. My least favorite part was always running out of doorbusters

Home Depot stores sell 13-foot "Gorilla Stepladders"--the kind that telescope so you can use them as extension ladders, two-sided stepladders, etc.--for $99. On Black Friday, that ladder sold (up until last year--this year they've got a different ladder in their circular) for $59. That's about $20 less than it cost the store. Whether people know it's a money-loser for the store or not, it's still a great buy and they sell quickly.

The first year we did it, my store had twenty-five of these ladders in stock...four in my department, eight in the overhead and the rest on an endcap. Exactly how fast do you think twenty-five ladders at $40 off sold? I spent the next seven hours apologizing to people.

The last year I worked Black Friday, we had 64 of them. I only spent FOUR hours apologizing to people. Much nicer.