One and Only Bitch about Black Friday!

[Cherry Blossom Viscount 0]

Circuit City sucks balls. A 5:00am to 10:00 pm shift with only two lunches. Pray for me.

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

Suckers.

[welshjerichomark 0]

Man i'm so glad Thanksgiving doesn't exist over here.

[Slayer 0]

Man i'm so glad Thanksgiving doesn't exist over here.

Instead in November you celebrate a holiday devoted to a man who tried to destroy Parliament

 

Hmmm...

[welshjerichomark 0]

Yeah. Great isn't it?

[razazteca 0]

Whats the deal with the Harrold store?

[Art Sandusky 0]

I want to know what FOOSTER thinks about Black Friday.

[Cran Da Maniac 0]

I feel your pain my brotha Spoon.  I have to get my ass up at 5 a.m (which I hardly do) and go in at 6 a.m, to Wal-Mart, to work in the Electronics.  Everybody has been telling me horror stories of years past, so I'm rightfully scared about going to work.  Hopefully I'll survive

I think that as long as you can pretend you know what you're doing, you'll be fine. All people want is for you to tell them which camera is the best choice, and even if you know jack shit about cameras you can probably just read the info labels while chatting them up, and then look like a godhead when you talk about how this one has a macro setting for extreme close-ups.

Eh that's what I do anyways. I just can't stand big big crowds of people, and getting up early

[SamoaRowe 0]

Circuit City sucks balls. A 5:00am to 10:00 pm shift with only two lunches. Pray for me.

Circuit City does indeed suck. But I only say that because I work for Best Buy and there is a Circuit City right across the street from us. They are struggling though, we get all the business.

 

On a side note, tomorrow from 6 am till 12, the Simpsons Season 1 is $11.99 on DVD. How much does that rule?

[tpww7 0]

Ugh, I want Simpsons Season one...but I'm not getting up until after 10..it better still be at my Best Buy.

[SamoaRowe 0]

Black friday wasn't too bad for me...

 

 

... when the store opened, it was like a flood invaded the store. It was quite the sight. I was going to buy the Simpsons season one while it was still on sale during my break at 11:30. However, the person who went on break before me came back forty minutes late and I missed out on it. To say I was pissed is an understatement.

 

The best part came around 1 pm when the registers all started acting goofy. Credit cards and gift cards suddenly no longer worked. The computers went all slow and it was terrible. It was okay though, cuz I got to leave shortly after this disaster went into play.

 

Black friday was an interesting experience and I'm not exactly dreading next year.

[Slayer 0]

Black friday wasn't too bad for me...

 

Yeah, well... you could've ended up like this woman

[Art Sandusky 0]

People actually ran up to the counter and yelled "CAMERAS!" "CAMCORDERS!!" DVDs!!!!" at me. I just shrugged and said "yeah, what about them?"

 

The first ten minutes felt like an hour, but after 9 or so it was tolerable.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Best Buy has a killer deal:

 

Intel Celeron 2.4 GHZ Processor Notebook

256 MB DDR RAM

30 Gig Hard Drive

DVD/CD-RW combo drive

14" Display

 

$899.99 - $100 Best Buy Mail-In Rebate - $150 Mail-In Rebate - $150 6-Hour Best Buy Mail-In Rebate = $499.99

Oh man, for the first time in my life I went to one of these Black Friday sales.

 

Never again.

 

Waiting in line that wrapped around the store for more than TWO HOURS? I can't begin to describe the chaos that took place.

 

And regarding the notebook Waldo's talking about, Apparently each store didn't have many of these in stock. I heard one person talking about this guy that arrived at the Best Buy I was in at 2:30 a.m.

 

Sad thing was he wasn't the first one in the lot -- and when the store opened he was SIXTH in line. He also got one of the last notebooks.

 

Oh, and Pee Wee your response was gold...

[SamoaRowe 0]

The line at my Best Buy actually went pretty fast. The longest people waited for was 45 minutes. I like to think it was organized chaos.

[Guest stardust]

I got to work 15 minutes early yesterday after driving two hours from my parents' house. 2:30 to 10:30 shift. By the time five or six o'clock rolled around we'd already doubled our sales goal for the day and yet the store was virtually dead. It seriously looked like any other friday evening. The people who had been with the company for a while ended up processing left over shipment from Wednesday so the shipment team would have room in the stock room for the truck that came in at three this morning. That's how slow we were. And the store was completely recovered by 10:15 (we closed at 10). All in all, not a bad Black Friday at all.

[SamoaRowe 0]

Sounds like what happened at Best Buy. I went back to browse around in the evening and nothing seemed unusual. I guess the registers were still going slow but everyone was happy with how the morning had gone.

 

 

Today I found out that management was pissed off that we only made the efforts to sell a few occasional magazine subscriptions and Rhapsody discs though. Ah well, we were too fucking busy selling the stuff that people came in LOOKING for.

[Guest stardust]

Yeah, by the time we closed we had almost 50 Old Navy Accounts processed, and yet management was still bitching at us for not getting more. I was actually surprised we even had that many; last year we only processed like 20 something ONA's, simply because people didn't wanna hold up the lines or didn't wanna take the extra five minutes to go through the application process or just didn't want a credit card.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Funny how that works -- managment wants you to pimp their "in-house" wares and promotions, but yet they also want you to make the lines move fast.

 

I got to work 15 minutes early yesterday after driving two hours from my parents' house. 2:30 to 10:30 shift. By the time five or six o'clock rolled around we'd already doubled our sales goal for the day and yet the store was virtually dead.

 

Sounds like there weren't high expectations for your store (Oh, and the Old Navy I walked by while I was in the nearby mall was PACKED! Ironically, the one store I thought I was going to have the most trouble with, Toys R Us, was the easiest to deal with -- I think I came after their initial wave of idiot customers.)

 

Today I found out that management was pissed off that we only made the efforts to sell a few occasional magazine subscriptions and Rhapsody discs though. Ah well, we were too fucking busy selling the stuff that people came in LOOKING for.

 

Christ, while I was in line I had FOUR SEPARATE CSRs try to pimp some extended warranty on the DVD player I bought. There was also this chick with a reindeer antler "hat" pimping gift cards and two guys pimping that "rewards" card. When they came to my neck of the woods I flashed mine out and they kept walking -- I was the hero for the group around me because they were tired of getting hassled by these floating CSRs...

Edited November 30, 2003 by kkktookmybabyaway

[JHawk 0]

Luckily all I had to do was walk the floor and answer questions rather than work the registers. I don't have to deal with management when they get pissed off about not getting all the extended warranties they wanted.

 

And that WalMart trampling story is exactly why I think these 6am sales are complete bullshit. When you set things up so that the opening of a store looks like the Running of the Bulls, it's only a matter of time before something like that happens.

[SamoaRowe 0]

Today I found out that management was pissed off that we only made the efforts to sell a few occasional magazine subscriptions and Rhapsody discs though. Ah well, we were too fucking busy selling the stuff that people came in LOOKING for.

 

Christ, while I was in line I had FOURE SEPARATE CSRs try to pimp some extended warranty on the DVD player I bought. There was also this chick with a reindeer antler "hat" pimping gift cards and two guys pimping that "rewards" card. When they came to my neck of the woods I flashed mine out and they kept walking -- I was the hero for the group around me because they were tired of getting hassled by these floating CSRs...

That is the exact type of feedback most businesses should hear. It's okay and all to promote special things like that but it's no good shoving it down the customer's fucking throats. This goes double for Sears, who I used to work for. How many times did I hear customers bitching about how all the cashiers are forced to shove Sears Cards down their throats.

 

 

I like Best Buy though, I'm not terribly upset about the magazine/Rhapsody/gift card thing because no one came after me about it. Until then, Best Buy is still my favorite place to work.

[Slayer 0]

 

Today I found out that management was pissed off that we only made the efforts to sell a few occasional magazine subscriptions and Rhapsody discs though. Ah well, we were too fucking busy selling the stuff that people came in LOOKING for.

 

Christ, while I was in line I had FOURE SEPARATE CSRs try to pimp some extended warranty on the DVD player I bought. There was also this chick with a reindeer antler "hat" pimping gift cards and two guys pimping that "rewards" card. When they came to my neck of the woods I flashed mine out and they kept walking -- I was the hero for the group around me because they were tired of getting hassled by these floating CSRs...

That is the exact type of feedback most businesses should hear. It's okay and all to promote special things like that but it's no good shoving it down the customer's fucking throats. This goes double for Sears, who I used to work for. How many times did I hear customers bitching about how all the cashiers are forced to shove Sears Cards down their throats.

 

 

I like Best Buy though, I'm not terribly upset about the magazine/Rhapsody/gift card thing because no one came after me about it. Until then, Best Buy is still my favorite place to work.

Ahh yes, I remember my Best Buy days, during the whole MSN rebate promotion... thankfully I was merch, so I didn't have to deal with that shit as much as the sales folks, but they'd still have expectations for us to do occasional selling and promoting, to which I would say "You're paying me to stock shelves and re-arrange shit, not to sell shit... especially when you know I'm not a customer-oriented person. That's what sales folks are for"

 

Yeah, I know I probably should have had some expectations, but really, I'm not a salesman, nor will I ever be one. Thankfully they got the hint after the first couple of months (out of two years there) and left me alone

 

Now that I think about it, a week from Monday is the two year anniversary of my departure (think about that one)

[the max 0]

 

Today I found out that management was pissed off that we only made the efforts to sell a few occasional magazine subscriptions and Rhapsody discs though. Ah well, we were too fucking busy selling the stuff that people came in LOOKING for.

 

Christ, while I was in line I had FOURE SEPARATE CSRs try to pimp some extended warranty on the DVD player I bought. There was also this chick with a reindeer antler "hat" pimping gift cards and two guys pimping that "rewards" card. When they came to my neck of the woods I flashed mine out and they kept walking -- I was the hero for the group around me because they were tired of getting hassled by these floating CSRs...

That is the exact type of feedback most businesses should hear. It's okay and all to promote special things like that but it's no good shoving it down the customer's fucking throats. This goes double for Sears, who I used to work for. How many times did I hear customers bitching about how all the cashiers are forced to shove Sears Cards down their throats.

They do that to us too.

 

We have to ask if people have our Finish Line Winners Circle card, then, if they are paying with a credit card, ask them if they want to sign up for 3 free months of Sports Illustrated...then we have to ask them if they want to donate some money to the Finish Line Christmas Charity.

 

Of course, our managers get entered into contests, and win TV's and 500$ Best Buy gift certificates (my manager just won both of them for Sports Illustrated's contest), but the people that help get nothing. No cool contests, a dollar added on our check for every subscription. Wow.

 

They don't really let me ring anymore, because I don't ask anyone to sign up for anything. So, the managers don't like that they might be missing out on winning a house or something, so I'm kept away from the register.

[Slayer 0]

Of course, our managers get entered into contests, and win TV's and 500$ Best Buy gift certificates (my manager just won both of them for Sports Illustrated's contest), but the people that help get nothing. No cool contests, a dollar added on our check for every subscription. Wow.

 

They don't really let me ring anymore, because I don't ask anyone to sign up for anything. So, the managers don't like that they might be missing out on winning a house or something, so I'm kept away from the register.

And therein, you've found the dirty little secret of BB (and for most retails I imagine, but BB is the one I'm most familiar with)

 

Why do they push promos so much? They bring in the money

 

Why do they push PSP/PRPs? They bring in the money (almost 100% profit, those things)

 

And more money for the parent company means big bonuses for management (wanna know why they keep emphasizing that numbers' board every morning/evening?), which results in them pushing that onto you, but being the low-end labor, you get nothing beyond your wages and discount. That is why they're management though, deserved or not.

 

But hey, I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

We have to ask if people have our Finish Line Winners Circle card, then, if they are paying with a credit card, ask them if they want to sign up for 3 free months of Sports Illustrated...then we have to ask them if they want to donate some money to the Finish Line Christmas Charity.

AHHHH! Another thing that pisses me off.

 

When I worked for National Amusement (Think Showcase Cinemas) we had to ask people if they wanted to donate money (buy a hippie golden heart pin) to some goofy charity. Funny thing is we were REQUIRED to sell out of all our pins that we had to pimp on customers that just bought a movie ticket and was about to mortgage their house for a tub of popcorn.

 

To make matters worse, before every movie they played a PSA with Mel Gibson pimping the patron to put out even more money, and ushers had to walk with a money bucket to try and squeeze every last dime out of these poor people.

 

Of course, NOWHERE during this fleecing did National Amusements even mention how much money THEY were donating. Oh, did I hate those times.

 

(Although whenever I was an usher I taped over the bucket and wrote "Super Savers Usher Tip Jar" or something equally dumb when I had to play collection plate waiter. Might as well make the best of a bad situation I say -- my one manager thought it was funny as hell. The other one didn't think so.)

 

And the other week some 90-year old hag cashier at Wal-Mart asked my better half and I if we wanted to donate $1 to some goofy fund. I then replied. “No. Would Wal-Mart like to donate $5 to the Frank Winters pay-the-rent fund?”

 

Cashier said no – heartless b*tch...

[Guest stardust]

I got to work 15 minutes early yesterday after driving two hours from my parents' house. 2:30 to 10:30 shift. By the time five or six o'clock rolled around we'd already doubled our sales goal for the day and yet the store was virtually dead.

 

Sounds like there weren't high expectations for your store (Oh, and the Old Navy I walked by while I was in the nearby mall was PACKED! Ironically, the one store I thought I was going to have the most trouble with, Toys R Us, was the easiest to deal with -- I think I came after their initial wave of idiot customers.)

Actually, by the time six o'clock rolled around (I'm probably not supposed to be discussing this, but oh, well) we'd already done over $60,000 in sales (no, I'm not making that number up). On a normal Friday, we normally do $6-8,000. From what I heard, we were extremely busy in the morning when we first opened up until around 2, and even after that business was brisk, and we didn't really have any lags, it just happened to look like a normal Friday night.

 

And as for the bothering customers thing, I'll be up on register and I'll greet the customer, ask them if they need gift receipts, then ask if they want to save 10% by applying for an Old Navy account, and by the time they get up to the register they tend to cut me off halfway through and say "I've already been asked five times." And I hate asking people if they wanna sign up for a credit card, especially if I'm out on the floor (they made me walk around with the friggin clip board last night for like an hour, so I just avoided the MOD and only asked like three people out of the 30 or so I talked to and greeted...if management had known I'd done that, I would've gotten written up).

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Actually, by the time six o'clock rolled around (I'm probably not supposed to be discussing this, but oh, well) we'd already done over $60,000 in sales (no, I'm not making that number up).

A buddy of mine that just got a job at Best Buy said he wasn't allowed to tell anyone how much business that store does. He told me that he could get canned for doing so.

 

Hope one of your bosses isn't reading this *dust...

[Guest El Satanico]

On a side note, tomorrow from 6 am till 12, the Simpsons Season 1 is $11.99 on DVD. How much does that rule?

What! That wasn't in the fucking ads.

 

Also, I've never heard of Grocery Stores getting hit hard on Black Friday. The day and weekend after Thanksgiving should be slow for them.

 

The closest I got to retail was working at a movie theater. We never really had certain times of increased customere traffic. It would pick up during holidays, spring break and summer, but it more depended on what movie was out if we'd have a rush of customers.

Edited November 30, 2003 by El Satanico

[Slayer 0]

A buddy of mine that just got a job at Best Buy said he wasn't allowed to tell anyone how much business that store does. He told me that he could get canned for doing so.

Meh, if Best Buy didn't want Joe Blow Checker talking about their numbers, they wouldn't continuously pound the numbers into their heads every single day

 

I can't remember any other retail job I had where management talked openly about the numbers with the low-end employees. Usually those numbers were hush-hush and for managers and bookkeepers only.

 

On a side note, tomorrow from 6 am till 12, the Simpsons Season 1 is $11.99 on DVD. How much does that rule?

What! That wasn't in the fucking ads.

 

Thanksgiving day ad, front page, center left

 

Also, I've never heard of Grocery Stores getting hit hard on Black Friday. The day and weekend after Thanksgiving should be slow for them.

 

As a former grocery employee, I can vouch for this

[SamoaRowe 0]

A buddy of mine that just got a job at Best Buy said he wasn't allowed to tell anyone how much business that store does. He told me that he could get canned for doing so.

Meh, if Best Buy didn't want Joe Blow Checker talking about their numbers, they wouldn't continuously pound the numbers into their heads every single day

 

I can't remember any other retail job I had where management talked openly about the numbers with the low-end employees. Usually those numbers were hush-hush and for managers and bookkeepers only.

 

Yeah, I've never been told not to discuss how well the store is doing. I don't really give specific numbers out, I just give a general "good" or "bad" for how things are going.

 

 

 

I can say that when I left Sears, they were $100,000 in the hole.