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    zap rowsdowerDodai Stewart
    10/15/13 12:50pm

    Working in retail on a holiday fucking sucks. Aside from having to work, customers seem to forget that you are the one having the shitty day and are EXTREMELY HORRIBLE. Three years of working on Christmas Eve was enough to make me never ever want to work in retail again.

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      themeaghanshow: season 3zap rowsdower
      10/15/13 1:01pm

      When people would say "happy" or "merry" whatever, I wanted to be like, "Not for me!"

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      KonanTheKardashianzap rowsdower
      10/15/13 1:02pm

      Yeah it is unreal. When I worked Black Friday the mall parking would be so bad that they would make us park at a local train station and bus us in like migrant workers to work 12-14 shifts.

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    LizTaylorsEarringsDodai Stewart
    10/15/13 1:09pm

    Query to Americans:

    Do you "go home" for Thanksgiving (if you don't live in the same city as your parents/relatives) and then "go home" for Christmas, too? Even though those holidays are pretty close together for you?

    From all the stories I hear and read all over the place it seems Thanksgiving is a big deal, especially for university students, even though they would travel home for a longer break for Christmas.

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      afterdarkLizTaylorsEarrings
      10/15/13 1:21pm

      I am self-employeed so I usually fly on Thanksgiving and/or XMas and stay for a week each. It's cheaper and you get more space, I also try to be extra pleasant to the airport folks and flight attendants, it's hard enough working either but having to do it on holidays away from loved ones sucks extra.

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      ParisIsBurneringLizTaylorsEarrings
      10/15/13 1:21pm

      When I was a university student I went home for Thanksgiving but I lived like a three hour drive from my parents' house. My sister went to school in a different state and has only been home for Thanksgiving once since then, when she was living at home before starting her graduate studies. I'll say it probably varies. It's a pretty long flight to my parents' now so I'm more apt to just chill out and spend the day alone or spend it with some friends who are also too far to make going home an option.

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    Archibald_CunninghamDodai Stewart
    10/15/13 12:42pm

    Question: with the internetz being what it is these days, why would ANYONE go shopping on Black Friday if he didn't have to? The crowds, the stopping-in-the-middle-of-aisles-to-text morons, the strollers at your heels, the fighting, the crying, the long lines...do I really need to make a case for all this?

    I do all my shopping at Amazon. I refuse to set foot in a store during the holiday season.

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      Gail_von _KleinensteinArchibald_Cunningham
      10/15/13 12:45pm

      Exactly, I went shopping once on a Black Friday. It was a bit later in the day so it wasn't as crazy. I still wouldn't do it again. My sister did get some awesome deals on board games for her son. Like $4/game. I didn't buy anything.

      Also, part of the joy of Christmas shopping for me is taking my time and browsing aisles with a big mug of hot chocolate. I also try to do most of my Christmas shopping at local stores in my neighborhood. It helps that I don't have a lot of people to buy for.

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      zu_zuArchibald_Cunningham
      10/15/13 12:48pm

      Some people have told me they actually like it. I can't fathom liking crowds of rude people and the inevitable altercations over parking spots.

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    goddessoftransitoryDodai Stewart
    10/15/13 12:46pm

    No. Nope. Nein. Nyet.

    It's bad enough to subject retail employees to Black Friday and that whole of-the-damned routine. Now you're telling me they don't even get to digest their turkey before putting up with this shit?

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      lydkatbrrrgoddessoftransitory
      10/15/13 12:58pm

      For real. When I worked retail, it was REQUIRED that every single employee work on Black Friday. Since my family does Thanksgiving out of town, that really, really sucked.

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    JaneEyre27Dodai Stewart
    10/15/13 12:46pm

    Stores only open on holidays if People Running Things believe they can bring in enough shoppers to make a nice profit on the day. Guess what? It works. Don't blame the companies for wanting to make money. That's their job. Blame - if you must blame someone - all the people who choose to shop.

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      DulleJaneEyre27
      10/15/13 2:03pm

      The unethical things that companies do is always in pursuit of greater profit. They still have a responsibility to be fair and ethical though.

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      SundevilSarah1000JaneEyre27
      10/15/13 7:15pm

      I hate this. I feel like we should stand outside the doors and publicly shame the asshats who want to shop on Thanksgiving day.

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    MeganquitaDodai Stewart
    10/15/13 12:50pm

    Simon Malls are mandating that all stores need to open at 8pm and stay open until 10pm the following day. I know this because I work at one, and guess who gets to work on Thanksgiving Day? THIS ONE!

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      FluterDaleMeganquita
      10/15/13 1:44pm

      Former Simon Slave. Solidarity, dude.

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      Rooo sez BISH PLZMeganquita
      10/15/13 2:21pm

      Giving "Simon Says" a new and sinister meaning in the 21st century, I guess.

      I don't even know that mall (though as an NYC dweller who travels fro T-giving I'm glad to at least have advance notice of this new mess it sounds like is going to be made) but I'm just ... getting chills, and not good ones, at how all this seems to be unfolding.

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    trudibell_Dodai Stewart
    10/15/13 1:11pm

    Join me fellow Jezzies in a new Thanksgiving/Black Friday tradition: not shopping. For fucking anything. Car out of gas? Stay at home. Out of milk? drink water. Don't spend any money on anything on Thanksgiving or the day after unless it's a matter of life and death. That's my plan, fuck Macy's.

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      OrdinaryisOKtrudibell_
      10/15/13 3:06pm

      I've been doing it for years. I refuse to participate in this national insanity. The sad thing is, according to "the experts", it is further evidence of our growing national economic divide in that many Black Friday shoppers are lower income and really need (or so they think) all those bargains like $50 flat screen TVs and $4 toasters at Walmart, while more affluent consumers say they'll either buy online or not at all. Black Friday is just a quiet day at home for us.

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      trudibell_OrdinaryisOK
      10/15/13 3:11pm

      Yeah honestly I never go out on Black Friday because my hatred of crowds outweighs my love for a good deal. Also, I've read that better deals are to be had either right before Christmas or right after the New Year. But yes, the whole thing sounds like a giant sham to lure people into spending money. Capitalism sucks.

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    RedBeansAndRiceDidMissHerDodai Stewart
    10/15/13 1:01pm

    Okay, fuck this. FUCK IT.

    Here's a solution. Considering the stores all set up their Christmas displays before Halloween these days anyway, why not just start the season before Thanksgiving? How about the Saturday before Thanksgiving can be the new "black Friday", and that way we don't have to deal with Thanksgiving being ruined because retailers are crazy and consumers are greedy, desperate, clawing freaks of nature willing to trample their fellow man on the day we're supposed to give thanks for non-material things? GODDAMN IT.

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      Ginger, get the popcorn!RedBeansAndRiceDidMissHer
      10/15/13 1:15pm

      I'm pretty outraged about the slow Black Friday encroachment on Thanksgiving Day. It's one of the few holidays that wasn't about giving people presents. Fuck this.

      Now I just hope that over the next few years the stores will all try to be the first ones open, and Black Friday will end up being on Tuesday.

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    mwj1971Dodai Stewart
    10/15/13 12:42pm

    If you work in retail in the US these days you are pretty much expected to not have any kind of life.

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      BatlifeDodai Stewart
      10/15/13 1:14pm

      I guess I'm the only one who likes the idea of this. Thanksgiving is just a pajama day to me, and I get cabin fever at a certain point, so usually my friends and I go to the movies at night - just to get out of the house. Going shopping sounds fun. But knowing that it would burden the retail workers (although I do know a few who like getting holiday pay and look forward to holiday shifts) makes me feel guilty.

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        FluterDaleBatlife
        10/15/13 1:45pm

        I think a lot of us look forward to holiday pay on smaller holidays, like Labor Day. Thanksgiving holiday pay was just blood money.

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