Black Friday: You in - OR - over it?

[MIB41]

I was out in it most of the day with my wife - Some observations... Why do mall cops dress like park rangers now? With the hat, they're just a fur coating away from Smokey the Bear. Should we walk up and hug them too? That and I noticed there are essentially two types of shoppers - Those who look like they just rolled out of bed (that's me) or those who look like they're dress rehearsing for an Academy Award speech who keep looking around to see if anyone notices. I worry about people who get all dressed up to wait in a line to buy discounted items. There's something troubling in that thought process.

[jwyblejr]

Went to Walmart today,they still had a bunch of the DVDs on sale. I picked up X-Men:First Class,Son of Batman and Justice League:Trapped in Time for $2 each. Also still had the first 3 seasons of Archer for $10 each.

[jwyblejr]

Somehow I missed the copies of Days of Future Past for $8 yesterday. Fixed that today.

[Random Axe]

Okay, here's the perspective of someone who has worked the last fifteen black fridays and dealt with the ugliest sides of humanity and greed. Most of the retail workers will smile and greet you and act like it's an exciting time, but deep down we hate the hell out of shoppers who take us away from our families. This is the second time my store has had to open on Thanksgiving night at 6PM. And honestly the deals are not all that great and it's stuff that can be had at these prices later in December. Thanksgiving and BF shoppers are mostly completely oblivious to the damage they do to us, but the retail community keeps enabling these sub-human organisms and encourages them to engage in combat for a 19.99 tablet that they only have five of.

There were no less than twenty people I spoke with on Thursday who said "it's so awful for your company to make you work on Thanksgiving." Really? You felt so bad for us that you were standing outside our store since 530 looking in the windows and tapping on the glass like we're fish in a bowl with nametags. I used to actually enjoy the fun of that day, the interactions with shoppers and being able to run the concept of my company. Now my nametag lanyard feels like a noose, an interwoven band of contempt and bitterness. If it sounds like I've got to get out of retail, I agree with you. My soul has had a slow leak since 1999, and it's about time I plugged it.