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I've worked Black Fridays at OfficeMax, Target, and CompUSA.
OfficeMax wasn't that bad. It was definitely busy, but people were civilized and not crushing the doors. Our credit card server went down one year. Per management, I was pretty much putting in fake authorization numbers for everything under $250, otherwise we would have been killed.
At Target, I always ended up working midday or closing shifts, avoiding the early morning crush. It was always BUSY, but not that bad.
The worst thing that happened was one Black Friday when someone let go of a balloon in the store. A balloon, if it goes in front of a fire sensor, would trip the fire alarms, so we have to pop it and get it down quick. Security usually does this, but the guard on that night was over the weight limit for the lifting machine.
So guess who got asked to try to get it down? Me. Oh, and I have two big irrational fears: heights and popping balloons. The lifting machine is also called "The Wave" for a reason...it shudders back and forth. After about 10 minutes, getting yelled at by two guests for not coming down off "The Wave" and showing them EXACTLY where the CD they wanted was, and three broken lights in the greeting card department, my manager told me to come down and take my dinner break. Someone got the balloon taken care of.
And then there was Thanksgiving night at CompUSA in 2006. Open from 9-midnight. You can blame this dysfunctional and now dead company for starting the trend. I was a front end manager. It was insanely busy, with lines to the back of the store, but people were pretty orderly. Lots of people who don't necessarily celebrate American holidays were there. Worst part of it was counting down 9 registers at the end of the night, when I'd only done the full closing cash office duties maybe 2 times before. Normally I had experienced front-end leads to do that for me, but I gave them all Thanksgiving off because we were short staffed, all the other managers were in that night and could handle the non-front end demands, and they were all being worked like mad the rest of the week (figured it was the least I could do). It was done successfully, but it took 2 hours.
Next company was non-retail and paid double time and a half for the day after Thanksgiving. I usually worked that day and spent the extra money to buy gifts on non-black Friday shopping days.
If anybody wonders why America has deteriorated to the condition that it is in now, they can look to Black Friday for the answer. People can line up and stampede people like barbarians but when it comes to actually caring for their fellow human beings, most put in minimal effort.
Actually, the last photo posted is from the movie Jingle All The Way. The guy getting his thumb bitten is Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Geez, you guys figure everything out.....I just pulled this off Google Pictures....it did look a little crazy, perhaps too crazy...now I see..
Wow, what an academy award winner that movie was...I hate to say I actually have that on an old school VCR...
However, things do happen like this...people have gotten stepped on, tripped, and far worse than bitten...people have smashed each other in the face, fought in parking lots over spots, you name it...
We live in the land of "road rage", what do you expect? LOL!
"Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world"
John Lennon
Beautiful.....
I think this is just a madness of sorts......then again, so is consumerism in general, in a way...
The debts we pile up on our cards, the "I just have to have that" thing, the hours we spend working,
the worries we have about what "people will think" about our status...
Sometimes it is good to remember we are still literally animals, with self-same motivations(artificifial scarcity being what drives "Black Friday").....
Oh no!..Only 5 of those big screens at 50 bucks...let me trip that old lady to get this...
I have actually seen the same thing just catching a d@mn foul ball(mind you, this was not even a home run), at a White Sox game in Chicago....The guy next to me almost clawed my eyes out, and I also saw an adult fight a child for another ball(and the kid cried as the adult walked away with the ball)
The worst thing that happened was one Black Friday when someone let go of a balloon in the store. A balloon, if it goes in front of a fire sensor, would trip the fire alarms, so we have to pop it and get it down quick. Security usually does this, but the guard on that night was over the weight limit for the lifting machine.
I'm a very calm person; however, I get very, very angry when I have to go grocery shopping on the weekend. It literally ruins my entire weekend.
My head would explode if I participated in Black Friday.
Agreed..
It sucks enough to go to shopping anywhere on a nice summer day when everyone is out..
Also, fighting for parking spaces, and people not seeing you and coming "this close" to running into you happens every day shopping....
Our Walgreens is the worst.....we have a way too small lot, tons of blind seniors and rude people, and I see near accidents all the time..some even come close to running over shoppers
I think the road rage aspect of black friday re the parking lots the worst of all...
Actually, I thought the creepy guy in the first pic looked like the porno star Ron Jeremy, but, you are right, he could as well be a Saddam stand-in/look alike....hilarious!
Are they sure they hung Saddam? perhaps the knot broke loose, and he is wandering around the Mall of America like Tom Hanks in that airport movie...
ROTFLMAO! at the lady with the two flat screens. Westinghouse makes the worst POS tvs you can buy!
The funniest thing is she has not one, but two....I would hate to be standing behind her at the check-out line....evidentally she lifted both of these babies herself...
Let's hear it for strong, petite women...like the lady that lifted the car off that person in an accident, with greed you also get superhuman strength....
If they were 50 bucks, I think that dwarf lady from that "Little People" reality show could have lifted those two baby elephant boxes..
moderator cut: image removed
Last edited by Marka; 12-01-2014 at 03:05 AM..
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