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eggshelljonesKelly Faircloth
12/03/14 2:57pm
Congratulations, I guess, on supporting both a gross consumerist "tradition" (Black Friday) that forces minimum wage employees to work on a holiday that they should be allowed to spend with their families if they want to, as well as a horrible, horrible corporation (Walmart) whose entire business model is based on products made via sweatshop labor and treating employees as if they're drones rather than humans.
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  Kelly Fairclotheggshelljones
  12/03/14 3:02pm
  Not really sure how an article that basically boils down to "this was miserable and sad" is "supporting" Black Friday.
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  andthenshewaslikeKelly Faircloth
  12/03/14 3:08pm
  By spending money at all, at the times you did, you became part of the metrics these companies will use in the future to justify this awful "tradition." It's disgusting that they are open all night on a holiday, but they'll keep doing it as long as they make money at it. And spending any money at Walmart if there is any reasonable alternative is pretty gross.
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RetailBitchKelly Faircloth
12/03/14 2:42pm
I normally don't have such a negative reaction to Jez articles, but oh this made my blood boil.

I've worked SIX Black Fridays in retail. Five in a mid-sized mall for a teen oriented retailer that starts with an A and recently tried to revamp itself, and this past one in a designer outlet store at the busiest place in my state during the holidays. Retail employees usually have no ability to choose their hours, it's a blackout weekend so your availability is irrelevant. Everything is swamped and there's no parking, so they have to leave home hour(s) early to make sure they get to work on time. Customers somehow think that the cashier who makes just over minimum wage has the ability (and time) to gift wrap every gift they purchased when there is a line to get into the store. They call the store asking if they can cut the line because their time is really important. They yell at cashiers because their card got declined and it's somehow their fault. And they make ridiculous comments about how busy it is and how long the line is, while spending five minutes deciding on an item at the register.

Shopping for 12 hours isn't impressive. What is impressive is that retail workers work for 12 hours (or longer) and are as "pleasant" as you claim they are (which, seriously? it's because if they're not like that, they'll get fired). We might be dumb enough to work in a field that doesn't give a shit about our families or sleep schedule, but we're not dumb enough to get fired from it for snapping at a customer on the busiest shopping day of the year (which would mean that another employee would get stuck doing your job, and we've all had it happen enough to know how awful that is).

A better article about Black Friday would have been a version of the one you do with crazy shit customers say. Not one that seems like a half assed attempt at Black Friday shopping that's focused on how messy the store is (and yeah, those tired employees will have to clean that up before they go home and sleep).
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  Kelly FairclothRetailBitch
  12/03/14 2:48pm
  I specified that they were pleasant and helpful to me as a customer as a testament to their professionalism in a set of shitty circumstances, like, for instance, when many customers have probably already yelled at them. Even if they HAVE to be nice, it's still impressive that they were able to keep up the facade.
  
  And, just to be clear, I wasn't shopping for my own entertainment, here. And our sister site Gizmodo has already run several tales of customer bad behavior, so this was another angle on the story. Sorry if it didn't resonate with your particular experiences, but I can't report on bad behavior I don't see.
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  DuchessCrazyLindaRetailBitch
  12/03/14 3:03pm
  if I could give this a million stars, I would.
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yolanda66Kelly Faircloth
12/03/14 3:09pm
Who was buying 6 TVs? Who could possibly need 6 TVs?
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  Kelly Fairclothyolanda66
  12/03/14 3:09pm
  And yet there were SO MANY carts with multiple TVs! I think people must've been reselling them on Ebay.
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  andthenshewaslikeyolanda66
  12/03/14 3:31pm
  They were probably planning on flipping them on Ebay or Craigslist.
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MystiriaKelly Faircloth
12/03/14 3:30pm
That sounds like a really nice Black Friday shopping. I've had ones with angry, aggressive people, large crowds, and ridiculously bad deals, all while trying to watch my younger cousins. O.o Told them no this year.
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  Kelly FairclothMystiria
  12/03/14 3:33pm
  I feel like it says a lot when "ugh boring" is your BEST possible outcome!
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  MystiriaKelly Faircloth
  12/03/14 3:54pm
  That's very true!
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RayBradbury's_ElephantMonasteryKelly Faircloth
12/03/14 2:17pm
This article just served to remind me how I will never shop at Macy's again. I was just at Herald Sq. with my mom (before the Holiday weekend), who was trying to find a plus-sized formal dress. She got fat-shamed and LAUGHED AT by TWO employees in the straight-sized section, then body-shamed again by another employee in the plus-sized section who "wasn't sure she was in the right department" and very mean about it. Thanks, Macy's, for renewing my mother's body image issues. I can't wait to never ever shop at your fucked up store again.
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  drywhitetoastRayBradbury's_ElephantMonastery
  12/03/14 2:38pm
  Years ago my friend's sister was fat-shamed like that there too. She was looking for prom dresses and the sales woman said "I didn't know plus sized girls even went to prom." Thing is she wasn't even actually plus sized anyway; she was maybe a 14 more likely a size 12.
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  Whereismywine.RayBradbury's_ElephantMonastery
  12/03/14 2:56pm
  Macy's sucks.
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DogSlaveKelly Faircloth
12/03/14 2:30pm
One thing no one ever talks about, but which scares the shit out of me, is the danger of sleep-deprived Black Friday shoppers driving. Pulling an all-nighter to save $100 on a TV is not worth risking your life or the lives of the other people on the road. There was a horrible accident here in the Bay Area a couple years ago where a man driving home from a night of BF shopping nodded off and rolled his SUV killing two of his daughters. He was charged with vehicular manslaughter last summer.
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ISpeakJiveKelly Faircloth
12/03/14 2:47pm
This sounds just like every single Black Friday sale I ever worked. Tired, hungry, grumpy sales-seeking zombies.

"Sale...... sale..... shoes? OH SHIT SOMEONE GOT SOME SNACKS GIVE THEM TO ME NOW. NO BITCH, IMMA PUNCH YOU FOR SOME MCNUGS." *is inevitably trampled by people who see the bedsheets go on sale*
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  ChumtheburnerISpeakJive
  12/03/14 11:32pm
  I'm so happy on Black Friday I was told by a guest I was "creeping them out" but it's pure adrenaline, baby... (and the free pizza and coffee)
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LooseSEALKelly Faircloth
12/03/14 2:40pm
The class thing is real. I experienced it this year when I (finally middle class) was discussing getting a new TV with my best friend (decidedly poor) She kept trying to convince me to go to Walmart for a 40 inch TV for $115 of unknown brand. I kept telling her that I didn't need to save money that much. It's like different worlds.
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  yolanda66LooseSEAL
  12/03/14 3:16pm
  I'm not poor now but when I was poor what I would do was:
  
  1 - Buy less stuff - this is the biggie!
  
  2 - make presents - tricky, but it can be done
  
  3 - buy used stuff - my 2 year olds didn't know or care that their copy of Goodnight Moon came from a church rummage sale.
  
  Saving money by buying (6!) cheap TVs is a different world.
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  LooseSEALyolanda66
  12/03/14 3:45pm
  She is of the poor but buy as much shit on sale persuasion, then complain that you can't pay the electric. I still buy used stuff, why would I buy new when I can buy perfectly good used stuff?
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Cheeseburger SlutKelly Faircloth
12/03/14 4:09pm
I'm sure your family is real nice and all but I have to default hate ANYONE that shops those hours. Seriously, I wouldn't have to work them if the demand wasn't there. I hate it's a thing, I hate that it gets written about. Hate hate hate.

Wow you can really tell that after 15 years I'm at the end of my retail career.
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  ChumtheburnerCheeseburger Slut
  12/04/14 12:03am
  I hate that my store has "extended holiday hours" but they do no promotional signage letting customers know so we are dead for an hour and can't close early because we're budgeted those hours.
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GreenEyedMomsterKelly Faircloth
12/03/14 3:51pm
Black Friday in its current (insane) iteration really only has been a "thing" since I've been an adult. I don't like to shop to begin with, and I am not a huge fan of crowds. I have no real anxiety - it's just my incipient misanthropy. My mom and sister talked me into it a few years ago and we woke up at bullshit-o-clock to go shopping. By 8:30 AM, I couldn't decide who I wanted to kill more - my sister, other shoppers, or the Christmas Spirit in general - so I decamped to Barnes and Noble with my Kindle (which I pretty much always carry), bought a latte and a slice of cheesecake (yes, cheesecake for breakfast because fuck Black Friday) and stayed there (occasionally purchasing more refreshments) until my mom and sister staggered back hours later and decided we could go home. If I lived in a town with any realistic sort of public transportation, I would have just gone home. This past weekend, I did 95% of my shopping from my sofa, in my pajamas. Never again, BF, you suck.

(Thanksgiving Day/Evening shopping should always be bullshit, even for people who like shopping. Everybody deserves a chance to spend the day with their families. My daughter works in a movie theater and last year we had to have "dinner" at 10:30 AM to accommodate her batshit-crazy schedule. That sucks.)
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