Friday, November 25, 2011

Black Friday (Original post date November 29, 2008)

Black Friday. The most popular shopping day of the year. After the mass of the population are done stuffing themselves with turkey and dressing, they rush out into the cold on this ridiculous journey to take their places in front of their favorite retail store with intentions of shoppin' till they drop! I ask myself, "All this for Christmas? Really?" What you hardly hear is the story from the other side; the employee side. Here is what I dug up from my MySpace archive. 


Enjoy!

Black Friday

Date: November 29, 2008
Time: Afternoon
Location: Target Greatland in Chandler, Arizona


I geared up. Put on my red shirt and Khaki pants, black Air Force Ones, made sure my name tag was in place, secured my N.Y.C Strawberry lip gloss in my pocket, and I was ready to go one on one with Black Friday.

No matter how much I mentally prepared myself for this day, no matter how much I played my past retail experience to workin' on Black Friday over and over in my head, nothin' could prepare me for what I had to work through today.

Everybody and they mama was up at my job today. At any given moment, someone was always an inch away from me. And that ain’t even the worse part. The worse part of it all was that I felt empty. I felt empty because I didn't have my Walkie, Electronics keys for the lock ups, or a *PDA. The reason for me not havin' my equipment was because we only have thirty six Walkie's and thirty six PDA's. And on top of that, there are only four sets of Electronics keys. Two hundred Target employees on staff, six of us were scheduled in Electronics, you do the math. That's right. It doesn't add up.

I really didn't think I had a fighting chance. My scheduled Black Friday assigned area was E12 through E24. That's the entire length of Electronics. The popular lock up items are Play Station/Play Station games, XBOX 360/XBOX 360 games, Nintendo DS/Nintendo DS games, Wii/Wii games, iPod's and Zunes. And it's only natural that I have the keys and a PDA on hand since those items were all in my area. I was walkin' around lookin' all pitiful thinkin' to myself, "How in the world am I gonna get through the day without my Walkie, PDA, and keys?” I don't know how I did it. But I got it done. I hustled for my equipment and NO ONE seen it coming. Hell! Neither did I.


My work day started at 11:30 AM. I walked on to the sales floor with nothing. 'Bout time 1 PM rolled around I had a Walkie, my set of keys, and my PDA in position as they usually are when I'm workin' in the Electronics and Entertainment section. I had it goin' on! And the best part was that no one dared to ask me for their equipment back. I guess things just work out that way. 


I'm proud of myself because my performance was so outstanding! I went so above and beyond that a Guest actually took out time to write me a Comment Card and gave me a good review. I didn't know this until Lynette, our GSTL (Guest Service Team Leader), announced that I got a Comment Card and actually read out the entire review from the Guest over the Walkie. No one else on the Black Friday staff got a Comment Card today but me. The good feedback was the highlight of my day. And the best part of it all was that I knew exactly what Guest wrote it out.



...I was the Queen of the sales floor, and as a result, my throat got sore. Cough drop anyone?...



*A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a handheld computer also known as palmtop computers. Newer PDAs also have both color screens and audio capabilities, enabling them to be used as mobile phones, (smartphones), web browsers, or portable media players. Many PDAs can access the Internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi, or Wireless Wide-Area Networks (WWANs). Many PDAs employ touch screen technology.


Thank God I'm not in retail anymore. 

4 comments:

  1. Never could I work retail this day of the year. Or make that ever.

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  2. I worked at Best Buy for Black Friday last year. I told myself, "Never again." I had to clock in at 3 AM with only about two hours of sleep in me. I worked a full 10 hour shift. Pure misery.

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  3. That had to feel awesome to have been the only one to receive a review. Accomplishments like that pump you up big time!!

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  4. Hellz yeah! They don't make customers the way they used to.

    ReplyDelete

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