This year Thanksgiving is on November 26th. Many of you will be enjoying time at home with your family, cooking with relatives, watching the Thanksgiving Day football game, or following a family Thanksgiving tradition. Unfortunately, that is not true for retail employees, like myself. I know I put myself into the retail industry, it certainly has its pros and cons, but I would not continue to work retail for over four years if there was not something I loved about it.
Here was a typical Black Friday & Thanksgiving Day shift I had at Macy’s in the cosmetics/fragrance department, as told by The Devil Wears Prada:
Thanksgiving Day
5:00 pm: Arrive at work with an arsenal of my favorite coffee, water bottle, gum, and snacks. Prep my counter, get everything ready, and then report to the meeting where the managers will be pumping us up for what is to come. There will be plenty of new, seasonal employees that have no idea what is to come.
Doors open! This is like something you have never seen before. People will be actually running in every direction. Hundreds of people.
10:30 pm: Okay, I need more coffee. Iced Americano, 5 shots, ½ shot of vanilla, ½ shot of white chocolate, splash of cream. Please, before I fall asleep into the blush display.
Black Friday
12:00 am: Officially Black Friday. By now, our cosmetic/fragrance door busters are picked over. We usually spend this time cleaning up, replenishing what we can, and just relaxing after the rush. There are always new seasonal employees that are not prepared, so we tend to get sent to their areas to help out until they catch up. It looks like a tornado went through our store.
3:00 am: PURE EXHAUSTION. All of us have tried every cosmetic line’s new lipsticks, eyeliners, lip-glosses, eye shadows, and blushes on the back of our hands by this time. Great, now I have more makeup I want. Go figure. Luckily, I always got to take my make-up off and wash my face once I punched out so I could head straight to bed once I get home.
10:00 am: Get back up to head back into work. At this point I start to get a bit crabby from sleep deprivation, wondering why I continue to work retail year after year…
11:00 am: Back to work, more coffee in my hand, and leftover Thanksgiving food for lunch in my belly, and I am ready for the next round of craziness. Walking into work, I remember why I love retai,l seeing all the excitement that surrounds Black Friday.
2:00 pm: Cosmetics and fragrance departments are busiest during the day. All of us girls are running around like it is ‘Gift With Purchase’ days. Ladies, you know what I am talking about.
4:00 pm: After volunteering to stay late, which I always expect on Black Friday, I leave feeling happy the day was done. My bed never is as comfy as it is on days like this.
Between all the hours, commissions, bonuses, free food/drinks, and time and a half for working Thanksgiving and Black Friday at Macy’s, it ends up being an enjoyable and worth-while experience. Not all retail employers treat their employees as well as Macy’s, and I have had my fair share of other jobs that were not so enjoyable to work at on Black Friday.
That being said, Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks and being thankful, and as long as you hold that true when you go into work on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday, you can have a great experience. Be thankful you have a job. Be thankful you (hopefully) work for a great company that treats their employees well. Be thankful you at least get to spend the holiday with your awesome work family while away from your relatives. Be thankful you usually get leeway on your uniform. Hello yoga pants and comfy Uggs! Be thankful you got to make the customers’ day and holiday shopping list affordable, even if it only may feel like one customer left happy. It is all about perspective. With a positive outlook on working Black Friday & Thanksgiving, everyone can have an enjoyable holiday. Even the retail employees.