Black Friday and the War on Thanksgiving

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

After I worked my first (and only) Black Friday, I promised myself I'd never put myself through that again.

Years ago, I worked in the pharmacy at Wal-Mart, and because the pharmacy is closed on Black Friday, we weren't required to work. Then my manager came at me with these big, sad puppy-dog eyes, saying that they were going to be short-staffed that day. I caved and agreed to work at 4 or 5am. I can't remember the time exactly - all I know is it was too damn early to deal with all the BS I had to deal with.

I was pushed, shoved, and called a "dumb broad" when I didn't know where a toy was (that we only carried in the store that ONE day). No one listened when I tried to organize the check-out lines, and people looked at me like I was worthless. I've never been so disrespected and so disgusted with people before. It was awful.

Maybe that's why Christmas is my least favorite holiday… because it seems to be the time of year when many people are so mean to each other, all because there's a sweater on sale.

No thanks!

My favorite was the folks who came in still drunk/high from the night before who vomited on our floor. Every.single.year. Thank God for temp workers, right?

And then, of course, the company, in all of its wisdom, would roll out Black Friday promotions which would tie an employee up with a customer who opted in for about 15 minutes.

It's obvious that many of the decisions which make Black Friday so effing miserable for all involved are made by individuals who haven't ever tried to run just one store.. it's a very different skillset than running a region or country full of stores and those executives really could learn a lot.

Companies like Wal-Mart.. well really, just Wal-Mart specifically, allow really dangerous scenes to be created by these doorbusters. These sales have major quality of life implications for employees, and in the end, with all of the loss leaders they sell on Black Friday, it's not even all that profitable.

One might even argue it's degrading to the customers, most of whom are low wage earners to be herded into the store, forced into dangerous, sometimes violent confrontations with other customers and made to miss quality family time because this is the only day they can afford to shop on.