Black Friday…Bah humbug!

I always find it a bit bizarre that the day filled with some of the most savage examples of… I always find it a bit bizarre that the day filled with some of the most savage examples of holiday shopping comes right after the day when the entire country is supposed to sit down together and give thanks.

For people who want to get their holiday shopping done early, Black Friday has become as significant a tradition as Thanksgiving. I work at a video store in my local mall, and every year when my boss hands out the schedules, I find myself groaning about my hours on Black Friday. Personally, I would prefer to take the whole day off and spend it reading a book. But no retail worker is safe from Black Friday.

I had always assumed that because Black Friday came so soon after Thanksgiving, shoppers would still be filled with not just turkey, but the holiday’s thankful feelings as well. But every year I gain a few more horror stories to tell my fortunate friends who never have to step foot inside a mall after the first holiday decoration is hung.

Once Thanksgiving ends and the holiday season officially begins, shoppers lose all sense of politeness and manners.

The example I can best recall was when a shopper’s movie had not arrived yet. Despite the fact that he had ordered it only a few days before during the busiest time for ordering movies, he blamed the movie’s absence on me.

I’m used to being blamed for problems that I don’t have the power to solve, like the price of a movie or the fact that the top seller of the year is out of stock. But this particular shopper decided that he needed to tell me what a horrible person I was for not magically making the movie appear for him. He cursed me profusely, which then caused me to forget the No. 1 rule of retail workers — the customer is always right.

When I finally finished berating him for not being prepared and smart enough to plan further ahead when trying to buy popular gifts, I realized what retail had done to me. I had become incredibly bitter about the holidays. In fact, that same year, I called my mother during a particularly heinous day at work and informed her that yes, I hated Christmas. And I still do.

Shoppers seem to make it part of their holiday tradition to destroy a retail worker’s sense of holiday joy. It’s on their list right above buying presents for their significant others. I think that anyone who has worked retail from October to January will agree that sometimes it takes a lot of willpower to refrain from snapping and screaming right back at the customer who refuses to wait in line, demanding to be rung up ahead of everyone else. Since workers are not allowed to show even the smallest sign of irritation toward customers or dare to reprimand them, it’s up to the shoppers to reform their ways to ensure that everyone enjoys her holidays — including those spending 40 hours every week listening to the same string of Christmas carols repeated over and over.

All I really ask of my customers is that they treat me with a little respect. Being paid minimum wage doesn’t make me less of a human being, so it would be nice to be treated as such. In fact, when I smile at my customers and tell them to have a good day, I actually expect to be told, “You, too,” or, at the very least, receive a smile in return. Usually, though, I end up being ignored. It’s really not that hard to express gratitude in the form of two simple words, and I hope that all shoppers will one day learn to do so.

Blaming a simple clerk for something that she has no power to change only serves to upset everyone involved. Despite working at the same store for nearly four years, I still don’t have the power to change the sale prices of the latest must-have movie, so yelling at me about said price will do nothing. I also don’t have the power to let people cut in lines or return movies for cash without a receipt. But no one seems to understand this, and every year I am yelled at about problems above my station.

If I could have any power I wanted, however, it would be the ability to ban all holidays — or at least the consumerist aspects that inevitably come along with them.

The holidays should be a happy time of year for everyone, even those who don’t celebrate an actual holiday or agree with the religious ideas behind it. Despite this, the plight of the retail worker continues to go largely unnoticed.

So this year on Black Friday, and for the rest of the holiday season, take time to think about the damage that angry shoppers do to the poor workers who wait on them. Maybe, if everyone stopped for a second to remember that the holidays aren’t always about getting the latest hit movie and calmed down before entering a mall, retail workers would be able to enjoy the holiday season again.

E-mail Black Friday survival tips to Shannon at slb46@pitt.edu.