On the Friday after Thanksgiving, John Muir College senior
Anna Chun woke up at 4 a.m. to three alarms; one on her clock, one on her cell
phone and another on her laptop.
Chun is an associate at Express in Westfield Shoppingtown
UTC and had to be at work at 5 a.m. Because of the expected crowds, employees
were not allowed to park at the mall. Because Chun lives near UTC, she opted to
walk, rather than follow her bosses’ suggestions to park at the Regents lots
and take a shuttle to the mall.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the first
shopping day of the holiday season, and is aptly named after the fact that
retailers are “back in the black” — turning a profit. Some stores open as early
as 5 a.m. and offer deals to attract customers that are only valid until a
certain time.
The UTC parking lot was filling up, lines were forming
outside stores and people were already carrying bags — all before 6:30 a.m.
On a regular weekend at Express, there may be five or six
people working on the floor during peak hours, with two or three people
stocking items. During Black Friday, there were 15 to 20 people working on the
floor during peak hours with 10 to 12 people stocking. To prepare for the
holiday season, 119 people needed to be employed by mid-November, as opposed to
about 40 people that are employed during the rest of the year.
Chun had worked at a retail store during Black Friday once
before, and though she anticipated Express to be very chaotic, with customers
and employees running around and no time to rest, she didn’t think customers
would be so unruly.
“I worked at a smaller store, which was crazy enough,” she
said. “[But on Friday,] we had this woman almost curse at us. I thought she was
going to eat my head off. I put lines along the cash wrap so that people would
know where to stand in line, and she wasn’t standing near any of them. Then she
yelled at us saying that she was waiting for us and saying that we were trying
to get smart with her.”
Although in-store sales are thriving, people like Denise Nguyen,
a parent and Chula Vista resident, said that the Internet and Web sites like
www.bfads.net make it easier to search for bargain items and compare prices.
“I don’t have to waste time waiting in a lot of lines at
different stores,” she said.
Before Thanksgiving, Amazon.com had a contest where
consumers could vote for a number of products that they would like to purchase
at a big discount. Each product has their own buying day, and on that day,
consumers are randomly selected to get the deal that they voted for in that
round.
Express associates hosted a potluck so that they did not
have to waste time at the food court during their lunch breaks.
“Everyone brought in something to eat; we had drinks, sweets
and bagels, but I actually tried to go get some food in the food court during
my break,” Chun said. “By the time I got my food, my break was over.”
Chun’s workday was hectic and exhausting. Although she had
been anticipating working on Friday, she was thrilled when the long day was
over.
“I actually was super excited to open,” she said. “Sounds
crazy, but you get a rush when you’re constantly busy. I actually like working
when its super busy because the time
goes by much more quickly. After my
shift was done, I was so exhausted. I went home and napped literally for three
hours.”
