Lines a mile long, extreme coupon hunting, and if there\u2019s not a sale\u2026 Well than you may as well shut down for the months of November and December. That\u2019s right, folks\u2026 It\u2019s the Holiday season. And no matter how long you\u2019ve worked at your place of employment, and no matter the precautions that led you to this time of year\u2026 Nothing will help prepare you for the chaos you are about to endure. How do I know this? Because for the first time this year, I was given the opportunity to partake in my first every Black Friday, or as retail refers to it \u201cGreen Friday,\u201d experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cJazz, clock in and hop on cash registers,\u201d my boss tries to yell over the pulsating music and the chatter of customers shopping in our store.<\/p>\n
It was 4pm on Black Friday. The mall had opened at midnight (16hrs earlier), and the sale we were having had started the day before Thanksgiving (2 days prior). Yet we already had a line forming around the store. I hadn\u2019t even been in there for more than 10 seconds and I was already being ordered around.<\/p>\n
I clock in, and hurry to the back room to grab my headset and nametag. I put my purse in my locker, and I head back out to the sales floor where I will embrace my fate at the ever-demanding cash register.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our biggest day of the year guys, let\u2019s make sure we talk to every single customer!\u201d my boss says as her voice can now be heard in my right ear thanks to my headset.<\/p>\n
I take my post at cash register two.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, how are you doing today?\u201d How I start 9 out of 10 conversations with customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood, good,\u201d says the woman, \u201cHow are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat! Getting all of your Christmas shopping done?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n
We were taught to always be \u201cfriends first\u201d with the customers, have real conversations, etc. So I try, although I\u2019ll admit, I say pretty much the same lines over and over. It\u2019s repetitive, but how many different ways can you really address a complete stranger?<\/p>\n
\u201cSure am! Just have a few things left on my list, and this will all finally be over,\u201d the woman laughs.<\/p>\n
I shoot her a smile. I haven\u2019t even started Christmas shopping. Is that pathetic?<\/p>\n
The woman begins fishing around in her purse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I might also have a coupon around her somewhere\u2026 Didn\u2019t you guys just send out a coupon recently?\u201d the woman asks.<\/p>\n
The entire store is 40% off this particular weekend for the big \u201cBlack Friday\u201d sale, mind you.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe so\u2026 Our entire store is 40% off this weekend, so I doubt they would send out another coupon on top of that,\u201d I try to say with my best customer smile I can work up. But really, this woman is asking for another coupon? She\u2019s getting what a normal employee gets as a discount on a regular basis. That doesn\u2019t happen often, and she\u2019s complaining?<\/p>\n
The woman is unhappy. I can tell by the way she begins to scrunch her face up. I try to think of something as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you would like to sign up for our store charge card today I can save you 55% instead of the 40% everyone is saving,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n
Her eyes light up.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve done it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, alright! Let\u2019s try that!\u201d She\u2019s ecstatic.<\/p>\n
I typically hate pushing the charge cards onto people. I have my own reserved feelings about them, but the things people will do for a coupon these days.<\/p>\n
I finished ringing the woman up, and sent her on her way having only paid 45% instead of the of the 60% a majority of other people were paying.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t stop there, though.<\/p>\n
I stayed in that line, in the EXACT same spot for 3 hours. The flow of customers was constant through the cash register line, and almost every other person brought up the concern of more coupons.<\/p>\n
It was like that book I read as a child, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie<\/span><\/em>. In this book the Mouse is given a cookie, but then it wants milk, and so on and so forth until it\u2019s asked for just about everything.<\/p>\n These people were coupon crazed even after we were giving them the best deal we had had all year!<\/p>\n Finally 9pm rolled around, and I was the first to sprint to the front of the store to close the doors.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did it guys! We survived Black Friday! You all were great!\u201d exclaimed my manager over our headsets. Then she started rattling off statistics for the sales we had accomplished that day.<\/p>\n The store was a mess, my feet hurt from standing, and I was scheduled for at least two more hours to help clean the store up. My first Black Friday in retail, and the last 6-letter word I ever wanted to hear again was \u201ccoupon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lines a mile long, extreme coupon hunting, and if there\u2019s not a sale\u2026 Well than you may as well shut down for the months of November and December. That\u2019s right, folks\u2026 It\u2019s the Holiday season. And no matter how long … Continue reading