Black Friday Experiences

Aaron Shurtleff | November 28, 2009
This is dedicated to all you folks that I hope were not out there on the streets and in the stores with these people... like I had to be. :( And if you were, please share your hell stories! :)

So, one of my many (many!) tasks this fine Black Friday where I work (a little store called Fargef, in the land where the letter T has been replaced by F...see what I did there? Clever!) was to hand out designer re-usable shopping bags. (Well, gee, you might ask yourself, how is the designer re-usable shoppingbag different from the regular re-usable shopping bag? There's a black and white paisley edge on the top of the bag...and it was free. That's pretty much it...) (I think there's more offshoots than actual storyline here...). Anyhow, as I handed out the bags, I had to make a point of telling every guest (*sigh*) that within the bag is 1) a Fargef flyer, so you know what's on sale (seriously, though, if you're standing in line outside a store at 4 am, and you don't know what's on sale inside, shame on you...and die), 2) a Red Card application (10% your entire first purchase if accepted! C'mon!!), and 3) a map of the store, showing where the sale items are. Now, some of you may not know this, but you can't just drop 64 32-inch televisions just anywhere on the salesfloor and expect them to fit. No, you have to put them where you can , and the softlines sections (clothes, etc.) is perfect. All the racks are easily movable, as opposed to the ones everywhere else, that are mostly immobile (though some guests try REALLY hard to move them, but that's a story for another day). So, that's where a lot of stuff is, so that's why we give you a map, which shows where the stuff you might want is.

So, we let the people in (incidentally, the local news channel 10 was filming our store opening for the news, so you might have seen me on TV. I hope not, though...), and I personally had to walk (calmly, for my boss does not put up with any crap) all the guests right to the section of the store where the TVs were (also my job, making sure people respected the one TV per guest rule), before they got to where they could fan out. The 64 32-inch flat screen HDTVs we had in stock were sold out by 5:05 am (from the 5:01 opening, so 4 minutes). By 5:25, I personally heard 3 complaints that guests were upset that they went all the way over to Electronics to get the TVs, and they weren't there. And I don't mean they were annoyed. I mean they were angry and speaking in a very aggressive tone of voice.

Oh, and incidentally, they didn't appreciate being told that I personally handed to them the map, which clearly showed where the TVs were. Nope. They didn't care for that at all. *facepalm*

Aaron Shurtleff | November 28, 2009
Oh, you think I'm done? Hell, no! I saved the best story for last!

So, I'm getting reports from our cart attendant that there is a guest out in the parking lot crying. (Also my job, deal with parking lot problems...) [As an aside, whoever the dumbass is who was parked in the handicapped area and left their two huge dogs in the back seat, where they kept setting off the car's alarm, because they got really excited when someone passed by (and if you are familiar with where the handicapped parking section is, you know that a LOT of people passed by there on the way into the store) so that I had to hear non-stop car alarm for 30 minutes can also die] So, I ramble around the parking lot, and I finally find this sweet old lady who has a cane, a cart with a couple things in it, and a sad, tear-stained face. :( Truly, even my jaded heart of stone felt a little bad. She came to Fargef to buy just one thing, and she can't find her car, and she just got it, and she parked right up near the front, because she can't walk very well... So, I get the description from her (in addition to hearing about her anti-theft protection, and how hard it would be to steal...it was 10 minutes just to find out what the dang car looked like!!) and off I go through the parking lot. Maybe 7 or 8 minutes later, I find the car...out towards the back end of the parking lot, far from the store. (Note: This is not my first day on the job, and as soon as someone tells me how absolutely sure they are that they parked close by, I start searching out towards the back end of the lot...and it works every time...EVERY time...) That's fine though, I'm just happy to have helped that sweet old lady find her car. I go find her (I told her to wait for me where I spoke to her, but she wanted to keep looking...whatever), and I bring her to her car. She's overjoyed! She's happy! She asks if there's anything she can do for me (which I am required to say no to..not that she could have done anything for me...if she was 50 years younger..well, idle speculation isn't helping here...)! Then, as we get to the car, she looks at it and she says, "I didn't park out here this far. I think someone's playing with me." WTF?! (What I actually said was "Excuse me?", which is why I still have a job...) and she said to me, "There's no way I left my car out here this far away. I think someone moved my car as a joke."

Fortunately, Fargef's policy is that we cannot call the police for a guest in a non-emergency situation, although we do supply the phone to allow them to call the police. I don't know if she eventually called the police or not. I kinda hope she did...

Seriously. Don't go out on Black Friday weekend. But, if you do, I'll be out at Fargef..with all the (other?) crazies. Come stop by and say hi!

Aaron Shurtleff | November 28, 2009
Good news! I checked the video on-line, and I do not make an appearance on the news!! So, I have preserved my entire 15 minutes of fame for a later date!! :D

Amy Austin | November 28, 2009
That sounds like an *awesome* way to spend the day after Thanksgiving! ;-D

Jackie Mason | November 28, 2009
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Samir Mehta | November 29, 2009
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Lori Lancaster | November 29, 2009
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Scott Hardie | November 29, 2009
I've read a number of opinion pieces by economists about the Black Friday mania this weekend, and I'd like to summarize their collective message: What the hell is wrong with you people? Have you learned nothing from the last year? Bitterness aside, they have a point. Exuberant over-spending on things that we don't need, and irrational competition to acquire the most stuff or find the best bargains, are a big part of why we're in this economic mess. For a while there, we seemed to be learning that. Now it's back to spend spend spend as usual. Personally, I think part of the rush of spending this weekend was about finally getting a chance to buy something nice after holding back for so long, but I see their point.

There's a recurrent theme in the news reporting about how well the retailers will or won't do this holiday season that seems to sympathize with them, as if it's supposed to matter to us whether the Wal*marts and Targets of the world meet their overinflated profit projections by successfully manufacturing sales frenzies. In a macro sense, as bellwethers for our larger economic health, sure, I guess I want to know. But that profit doesn't stay in our community or benefit us personally, and it's dispiriting to be asked implicitly to root for these corporations to reap their annual fortune. Shouldn't this information be of concern to shareholders and not the general public?

Tony Peters | November 29, 2009
My experience this weekend was working at home depot....we sold lot of Buckethead Vacume cleaners along with a bunch of 5gal "Homer Buckets" the other odd thing was the number of 2x4's we went through....something like 400 during my shift alone. People were polite and more interested in DIY stuff than new tools

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Samir Mehta | November 29, 2009
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Jackie Mason | November 29, 2009
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Lori Lancaster | November 29, 2009
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Jackie Mason | November 29, 2009
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Kelly Lee | November 30, 2009
I had a pretty awesome black friday experience. Around noonish I went to Joann's to buy some flannel for a fitted sheet (which, btw, is totally ftw) and some fleece and flannel for a gift for my mom, whose chief hobbies center around watching tv and being cold. Great deal too, 2 bucks for fleece (it's usually 5 or 7 bucks) a yard, and flannel at $1.50 a yard....so heck yeah!

And the store wasn't any more crowded than usual, AND I didn't have to wait for the lady cutting to finish with her customers to ring me up (usual) since they had more workers to ring up. All in all, a good day.

Dave Stoppenhagen | November 30, 2009
Jaime and I went out around 11am and hit Walmart and was surprised to see that there were a lot of HD Flat screens and $78 Blu-ray players left. We didn't go for the madness, only to pick up a few things for my nieces out in California, and we didn't see anyone walking out w/ cart loads of stuff. People usually only had a couple of bags and no large ticket items. Now that could be because it was in Elgin, which is not a wealthy community, or people just were not spending.

Lori Lancaster | November 30, 2009
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Scott Horowitz | November 30, 2009
i went shopping the best way on BF... online.. .bought a printer from bestbuy.com was half price... the $10 shipping was worth not going to the store..