Survived Black Friday Retail Style

When I pulled onto the lot of the retailer I am working at currently on Thanksgiving night I felt my blood begin to race through my veins and panic start to set in.  It was 45 minutes before we were set to open the doors for "Black Friday" and there was a line of people that wrapped all the way around to the back of the building.  There were cop cars and fire trucks parking randomly along the expanse of the parking lot, keeping the peace I presumed.  And I was starting to feel a bit of a panic attack coming on. 

I cranked up the heater in my car as I set there, trying in vain to mentally prepare myself for the night head.  My heart was beating out of my chest as I realized that I was going to have to walk towards the front of the line of people to gain entry into the building to get clocked in for my shift.  I was so afraid of causing a mini riot, people might assume I was out to cut line... oh crap!

I shut off my engine, put my keys into my purse, opened the drivers side door and realized I still hadn't removed my seat belt.  I unlatched it, stood, pressed the lock button on the armrest and closed the door.  I took a deep breath and then got my keys out of my purse, unlocked the door, and grabbed the bottle of water I'd left sitting on the passenger seat. 

Once I was finally ready to head towards the employee entrance I pulled my jacket hood up over my head, grasped my purse strap with a death grip and marched towards the door.

To my great relief, I wasn't the only employee making that dreadful march.  Halfway across the parking lot my coworker and I banded together, and made our way inside.  My heart was still racing, there were throngs of employees milling about inside the building.  I knew at that moment how big this was gonna be. 

You could feel the tension and excitement in the air as if they had a solid presence among us.  I found the team member from my normally quiet overnight shift that I would be working the electronics counter registers with that night and bantered with her a bit, trying to diffuse our own nervousness.  We barely succeeded in making one another smile and laugh before the management came to call us out into a group huddle of sorts to give us important details for the madness about to ensue. 

Since my team member and I don't normally work registers, let alone see the general public during our normal shifts, we had no idea what language the managers were speaking as they shouted out important details. As the group dispersed to their respective stations for the night, we walked shoulder to shoulder back to our own station commenting on how we were screwed....

As we stepped into "the cage" at the electronics department we felt many eyes upon us as we stood there, clearly out of place... and quite out of our comfort zones.  The gal that was to be our "supervisor" for the evening approached and started rattling off a newer more confusing foreign language.  It didn't take her long to realize that we clearly didn't understand what she was trying to tell us.

"You do realize you have two girls standing here who do not work day shift, haven't had but limited first day training on how to run a cash register, and no NOTHING about this department, right?" I spoke as a silence fell across her lips. 

Her head simply fell to her chest, obviously trying to compose herself after this devastating news. 

Once she'd swallowed the reality of it, she stepped up to help each of us log on to the check-out computers, explained a few important basic details and set all three of our minds a little more at ease. 

"It is going to be a tough first few transactions," she began, "but it'll get easier as we go along. Any questions, just yell at me or one of these other guys back here and we'll be happy to help."

In unison my team member and I thanked her and then looked at each other with the deepest of sympathies. 

Before we knew it we could see in the distance the masses of bodies entering the store.  Some made a beeline to the electronics department.  Others filtered throughout the store in search of the ultimate bargain.  I'd venture to guess we were ringing up sales in less than four minutes after the door opened. 

It was sketchy at first.  I fumbled, was about as nervous as could possibly be.  My coworker later admitted to trembling and fumbling as well.  I didn't see it because I was laser focused on the tasks at hand.  But the manager was right, after a few transactions were were more steady on our feet. 

The people just kept coming, with overflowing carts and an abundance of questions.  We fielded the questions to the 'others' while keeping the beep, beep, beep of the registers ringing out as we scanned each item the customers presented us. 

I suppose it was just about two hours in when I was tapped out.  The manager came to me and said I was being requested on the front end by another manager.  So I was let out of my cage (seriously I was caged in by a rolling steel mesh piece of equipment that was filled with the higher end merchandise like iPods and iPads and the like) and I made my way through the throngs of people to find the other manager. 

"I need you to relieve register five for her break. When she returns, you will then relieve register ten." I was instructed upon locating the manager on the floor. 

I made my way to lane five, tapped out the cashier there and kept on rolling with the punches.  I honestly felt better on the front register because there wasn't a cage keeping me in, and there was much more room to work with.  In the electronics cage it was tight, with very little maneuver room.  So that first fifteen minutes flew by and before I knew it I was headed over to relieve on lane ten. 

After another fifteen minutes the tap on my shoulder came with a friendly and much appreciated "go take your break". 

I wasted no time heading back to the break room where I promptly filled a plate with the food that was being provided by a local restaurant. 

Once my break was over I found the second manager I was sent to to see if anyone else needed relieving for break, I was instructed instead to help clean up at each of the registers, returning shopping baskets to their post at the front of the store, taking unwanted merchandise to the guest services desk to be sorted and put into carts to be pushed back out onto the floor.  So I did that for about an hour or so.

At that point I requested a quick bathroom break and was shocked to find the line extended nearly out the front door of the store.  I contemplated walking back to the back of the store where there was a single use employee bathroom but the thought of walking through the crowds was just too much so I took my place in line. 

The line moved faster than I expected.  I was close to the door when I customer came out and approached me.  "They're animals in there, using those rough paper towels because there isn't any toilet paper."

I thanked her for the info, sighed heavily as I stepped out of line to find the manager and let her know we needed major assistance in the ladies room.  She told me to go back to the toilet paper section, grab the biggest pack of toilet paper I could find, and start putting rolls in the stalls.  This made my day, because the first stall I gained access to was the large handicap stall which I could use myself, then place a few rolls of paper into and get out of without being mauled.  After washing my hands, I tried to place rolls into each of the other stalls as they became vacated between patrons, but people looked at me like I was Satan himself so instead I stood back and waited for them to enter and complain about there being no toilet paper before I offered them a roll under the door. 

Once I felt like there was a sufficient amount of rolls in the bathroom I took the remaining rolls to a safe location and then went and informed the manager of the situation and location of the TP. 

I expected her to tell me to either relieve someone on the front lanes or to head back to my post in the electronics cage.  But to my surprise she asked me to head over to guest services and help them sort through the merchandise being brought back from the registers. 

15 cart fulls later I was told it was time for me to take my lunch and I did so joyously.  I put away another plate of food, enjoyed an ice cold Ginger Ale, and propped my feet up.  The evening was actually flying by, and I commented with other coworkers at how smoothly things seemed to be going.  We hadn't heard about any brawls at our store (which cannot be said about other stores in the area) and overall the crowds, while larger than I ever imagined, were smaller than anticipated.

The great rush was dying down when I returned to the electronics cage after my lunch break.  The line that had wound through the store for aisles and aisles was considerably shorter and the decibel level inside the store was measurably lower.  

My team member welcomed me back, looking much more at peace with her lot in the cage than at the start of the shift and we fell into an easy rhythm checking people out and bantering back and forth.  Before we knew it there was no longer a line, so we began cleaning up around us, laughing and lightening the mood.

She took her lunch and last break, I took my last break, and before we knew it our shifts were coming to an end. I was scheduled until four-thirty AM and she until six-thirty.  I felt bad leaving her to be the sole cashier in the electronics department.  But I wasn't about to stay longer than necessary.  Thankfully the crowds had died down to a mere trickle and the rest of the staff in the store had dispersed to begin clean-up control. 

I felt like a drunk driver as I made my way home, exhausted but satisfied with how the night actually went.  I did take a personal vow to never work retail during the Holiday season ever again. But felt oddly glad to be able to have had the experience of it.  All in all, I survived it.  And have a much greater appreciation for what it takes to accomplish it.