Black Friday is that one time of the year where you get the opportunity to be in the mall from 12am until closing time. It’s all fun and games during that day. Especially with all the amazing deals that large department stores give out. Yes, it is all fun and games, until you’re on the other side of Black Friday. Fun fact about Black Friday: it begins by the reason of its name. Throughout the year, businessmen have stock, and usually the numbers don’t meet, so the stocks are color red. But on Black Friday, it all changes, because it sets out the balance, it fades to black. In order for this to happen, you all know it involves really good deals. While helping the pockets of oneself and businessmen, there is someone truly important in this list that we always forget, and often disrespect. That retail worker that is the intermediary between your deal and their boss’s monetary gain. That person, for the third year in a row, has been me.
I was never a fan of Black Friday, the idea of people pushing each other around to buy unnecesarry things just the day after we celebrate being grateful for what we have, didn’t seem right to me. So, imagine to my surprise when I worked my first year in a Black Friday. The preparation is crazy, hectic, and excruciating. I have been blessed by the fact that I never have the 12am shift, because in all honesty, I don’t know how I’d react to it. So the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the people who have the “closing” shift are the ones that suffer the most. I remember being called to work, right after ending my class. And it’s all good, at least I thought it was. So, I get to my shift, that was in storage, and it’s even crazier. Some of my coworkers began working as early as 7am, and left at 5pm, I remember starting my shift at 4pm and leaving at 1am in the morning. My inventory shift consisted in classyfing items that went to different stores according to what they sell, tagging prices, and adding a lot of back up items so we wouldn’t lose sales on Friday. After I was done with that, my responsibility was to equip my area of work to be prepared, so I did. I remember being sad all the time, because at least, in my first year working, that day, was my birthday.
When we finished with that, we went home. We slept. The next day, we try to have bonding time with our families. I work in the same town that I live, but some of my coworkers are from a lot farther areas, so their family time is usually cut short. We try to have as much fun as we can, until we see the clock ticking, getting near to doomsday hour. My heart goes to all the Wal-Mart employees.
Tick Tock, your time is running out, I thought too much for my own good. So, time’s up with our families by this point. If you get the 12am shift, you have to be 2 to 3 hours earlier, this actually applies to ALL shifts, because you won’t get a parking and you WILL be late. This day you have to be fully prepared to clock in, and sometimes, you might even forget your lunch break hour, because there is no such thing as a slow hour on Black Friday. Your shift begins, and in less than 10 minutes, you have at least made more than 5 transactions. In my case, I work in a store where you have to attend the client and also play the role of the cashier, so yes, I take multitasking to a whole new meaning juggling 5+ clients at the same time. No, this isn’t me being an arrogant, this is me telling you how it goes on this day. This is pretty much how it goes during the entire day, this is me not mentioning to you all the rude clients who yell at you if you are slow making a transaction, also not mentioning how you also have the role of a cop because you have to make sure NO ONE steals anything, and this is me not telling either that you might even get threatened or spit in the face if a client isn’t happy. But remember how capitalism says: “the costumer is always right.”
After the end of the day, you go home, you try to relax. You try to take your mind off things. But it really is impossible. Because you wonder to yourself, how is it that others belittle you for apparel, or merchandise in general that they don’t truly need just because it has a tag mark that makes it cheaper? Do we become less of a person to you? Weren’t you grateful less than 24 hours ago for the things that you have? I ask myself these questions, everytime. I wake up to this day with coffee in one hand and cupcakes in the other for all the new employees that have their first Black Friday with me. I give you great service, I sacrifice sleeping hours, while smiling genuinely, I respond with “have a nice day.”. And the funniest thing about all of this, is that I know I will see you next year.
This is for you, for all the students like myself who work and study, for all the managers that cut their family time short in order for black friday to go smoothly, for all the clients who DO appreciate what we’re doing. This one is for all of you. Your work has been truly valued.