A peaceful Black Friday.

Black Friday has come and gone and I found it actually to be kinda a let-down. The big chain I work at opened at 4am but my shift didn't begin until 1:30pm. Those who began work for the opening were in on all the excitement of the insane crowds with lines of people waiting to get in running all the way around the stores expansive parking lot. By the time I came to work the tide of people had began to dwindle.

I was really looking forward to the adrenaline rush of working on Black Friday but I missed out on it. When I first took my place at a cash register, we were no busier than on a normal Saturday. As my shift progressed towards closing time, less and less shoppers came in till we had slowed down to a crawl. I guess all the Black Friday shoppers had done most of their shopping during those early hours and than went home. It seems the store I work at had anticipated this slow down because we weren't over-staffed, they had scheduled less workers for the later shifts in the day.

The only thing that was different for me working on Black Friday verses any other day was the attitude of the shoppers. Instead of the stereotyped idea of the shoppers being impatient and grouchy, all that came through my register behaved in just the opposite manner. They were smiling and asking me how I was surviving the day, if things were going O.K for me, how had business been? They waited patiently if I had to get a price check on an item, remained smiling and not squirming. I had put on my thick skin for the day in anticipation of short-tempered and impatient shoppers so was completely taken off-guard by how friendly they all were. I'm not exaggerating when I say "all," I only had one complaint from one shopper the entire 9 hour shift I worked. I couldn't even begin to count all the caring concern I received instead.

My experience was probably different than others who worked that day, but I can only speak for what I dealt with. I'm sure it was a different story for those working back in electronics or out on the sales floor. My Black Friday adventure turned out to be boring and peaceful with nothing but sympathetic shoppers coming through my register.