Black Friday

[Manfred Belheim]

I don't know what black Friday is and I don't want to see it when I go on amazon or on the front of the newspaper because I'm not actually American. This is actually very annoying.

 

[Saigon]

I know. Getting stuck with go backs is usually the kind of thing the new guy gets stuck with. It is actually good training, because the new guy does learn where stuff goes, and you find out really quickly whether the new guy is a loafer or not because go backs is pretty much an unsupervised task. You always are going to say 'you need to learn where stuff belongs' (because it is almost certainly true) but it's pretty easy to tell the difference between someone who hustles and someone who doesn't.

The key is; assigning go backs to whoever gets them is usually a management task. That manager, if he is worth even a pinch of his salt, will recognize that there are more go backs than usual and maybe wonder why.

If this form of protest catches on it will be readily detected by management, which is the key to having any effect. All those managers (who didn't want to work on Thanksgiving either) need is some tangible sign of customers being dissatisfied with the policy. When they can point to cartloads of stuff and say 'that would have been bought if we didn't have the lame open on Thanksgiving policy' they might be listened to. As it stands, open on Thanksgiving is just extra sales and extra profits, so mere employees not liking it doesn't matter at all.

By the way...to anyone who owns stock in a retailer that is open on Thanksgiving...you should spend your Thanksgiving down at your nearest outlet apologizing to every employee.

I absolutely agree, it is pretty valuable to both teach the new employee where things are and evaluate them. I think you're pretty optimistic if you think this will make corporate change their policies though. Even if you have hundreds or thousands of people doing this (which there likely won't be). The loss of those customers will be insignificant to the amount of business that they make by starting Black Friday early. Plus most of the incidents will be handled by a low-level manager (a CSM in the case of Walmart) and in most cases won't be reported to the store manager (or their assistants), let alone corporate.

Then there's the fact that most people who consider themselves "socially conscious" and boycott stores for this reasons, are probably reluctant to shop at said stores anyway for other reasons (i.e. poor wages, lack of healthcare, a perceived lack of appreciation for employees, etc.).

 

[Saigon]

I don't know what black Friday is and I don't want to see it when I go on amazon or on the front of the newspaper because I'm not actually American. This is actually very annoying.

Just wondering, but why are you opposed to Black Friday sales existing in your country?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

As I understand it, American Thanksgiving is actually on a Thursday, right? And do you take the Friday off as well, or is it a normal day that people just tend to spend doing an insane amount of shopping?

We have a similar thing in Canada, but on December 26 (Boxing Day). Most places aren't open on December 25 unless they're convenience stores, gas stations, food service places, or emergency services.

But almost every major store is open December 26, and people line up for hours to get bargains. I've done the "it's-freezing-and-barely-light-out-but-I-really-want-that-electronic-gadget" thing, in a long lineup, in cold weather. The Tim Hortons across the highway did a booming business that day with people who kept going there for coffee and hot chocolate while a friend or family member held their place in line.

I don't do that anymore. The vast majority of my shopping is done either online or over the phone, so it's been quite a while since I had to battle crowds and lineups.

It's nice that Canadians can take advantage of some Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. There are some DVDs I'm hoping will be on sale.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I absolutely agree, it is pretty valuable to both teach the new employee where things are and evaluate them. I think you're pretty optimistic if you think this will make corporate change their policies though. Even if you have hundreds or thousands of people doing this (which there likely won't be). The loss of those customers will be insignificant to the amount of business that they make by starting Black Friday early. Plus most of the incidents will be handled by a low-level manager (a CSM in the case of Walmart) and in most cases won't be reported to the store manager (or their assistants), let alone corporate.

Then there's the fact that most people who consider themselves "socially conscious" and boycott stores for this reasons, are probably reluctant to shop at said stores anyway for other reasons (i.e. poor wages, lack of healthcare, a perceived lack of appreciation for employees, etc.).

You are right, but lack of probability of success is a poor excuse for not trying.

I've posted on all the forums I am active on, will boycott the stores for the rest of the year, and will do at least one cart load of stuff somewhere (and tip the kid stuck with the goback). That's my part.

 

[Saigon]

You are right, but lack of probability of success is a poor excuse for not trying.

I've posted on all the forums I am active on, will boycott the stores for the rest of the year, and will do at least one cart load of stuff somewhere (and tip the kid stuck with the goback). That's my part.

That's very kind of you, but most stores don't allow their employees to take tips. Even if you insist and they end up reluctantly accepting it, they have to turn it in to customer service or management, or risk termination (or at least a write up). Some stores might allow their employees to accept tips, but I know many of the bigger stores don't.

If you want, you can always call the store afterwards or file a report on their website in which you can both denounce their being open on Thanksgiving and give the kid who goes back a compliment at the same time. Though sometimes there is a delay in putting unsold items back, so you may very well not know who does it (unless you stick around for a while).

 

[Timsup2nothin]

There's always the 'leave a ten in the cart' approach. If the kid wants to use the ten to curry favor rather than keep it that's their prerogative...and actually probably more benefit than they could get from spending ten bucks.

 

[Saigon]

There's always the 'leave a ten in the cart' approach. If the kid wants to use the ten to curry favor rather than keep it that's their prerogative...and actually probably more benefit than they could get from spending ten bucks.

That's actually pretty clever. Nothing shows someone is honest more than turning in money that they could have easily kept.

 

[luiz]

Just wondering, but why are you opposed to Black Friday sales existing in your country?

Because it's a foreign tradition imported from thin air in a cheap stint to boost sales by claiming to be giving discounts while not really giving discounts.

And I'm happy to inform that my Brazilian friends told me the blow back to the Black Frauds of 2012 and 2013 were so strong that they cancelled it this year. A small victory of common sense.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

That's actually pretty clever. Nothing shows someone is honest more than turning in money that they could have easily kept.

Thanks.

Meanwhile, you should see the blowup on this other forum I posted this on. Immediately some jerk pops the 'I will just do all my shopping on line and hope you uppity retail workers all lose your jobs' hate screed. Just another day.

 

[cybrxkhan]

As I understand it, American Thanksgiving is actually on a Thursday, right? And do you take the Friday off as well, or is it a normal day that people just tend to spend doing an insane amount of shopping?

We have a similar thing in Canada, but on December 26 (Boxing Day). Most places aren't open on December 25 unless they're convenience stores, gas stations, food service places, or emergency services.

But almost every major store is open December 26, and people line up for hours to get bargains. I've done the "it's-freezing-and-barely-light-out-but-I-really-want-that-electronic-gadget" thing, in a long lineup, in cold weather. The Tim Hortons across the highway did a booming business that day with people who kept going there for coffee and hot chocolate while a friend or family member held their place in line.

I don't do that anymore. The vast majority of my shopping is done either online or over the phone, so it's been quite a while since I had to battle crowds and lineups.

It's nice that Canadians can take advantage of some Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. There are some DVDs I'm hoping will be on sale.

I don't know how widespread it is here in the states but the stores here do have a lot of bargains on the 26th and after, mainly just to get rid of all the stuff people didn't buy during the holiday season. Sometimes when I was younger that's when my parents would buy me my Christmas presents (or when we'd use gift cards/money if people gave that to us). I didn't mind. I've always been pretty hardcore about buying stuff cheap since I was little, so sometimes I would've rather my parents didn't buy me Christmas presents and instead just bought them in the sales after.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

For a long time my Christmases consisted of Christmas Eve (real Christmas) with my dad's family, Christmas Day traveling around to various places on my mom's side of the family (meet at my mom's parents' place, have Christmas dinner at one great-grandmother's house and a late after-supper visit to the other great-grandmother, and back home)... and Boxing Day would either be playing with/breaking my presents (my mother was mighty upset that I broke that little ceramic teapot), visits with my grandparents' friends, or going shopping.

That eventually got simplified to Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day was visiting with my grandparents' friends. Boxing Day depended on if there was something we really, really wanted, because by then the crowds were insane.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Just wondering, but why are you opposed to Black Friday sales existing in your country?

For the same reason I'm opposed to all schools having effing "proms" now. It's just inherently annoying for us to be aping another country for no reason.

 

[Zack]

For the same reason I'm opposed to all schools having effing "proms" now. It's just inherently annoying for us to be aping another country for no reason.

What? Are you saying this with a straight face?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

For the same reason I'm opposed to all schools having effing "proms" now. It's just inherently annoying for us to be aping another country for no reason.

It could be worse. Your country could have adopted our policy of invading smaller countries for no reason.

 

[shadowplay]

They've started doing black friday around Toronto lately. I don't mind it so much, since it's not the zoo that it is south of the border, and our Thanksgiving is in October, so there's no conflict for employees. CANADA!

 

[Timsup2nothin]

They've started doing black friday around Toronto lately. I don't mind it so much, since it's not the zoo that it is south of the border, and our Thanksgiving is in October, so there's no conflict for employees. CANADA!

That works. Maybe we should just move Thanksgiving.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

What? Are you saying this with a straight face?

I can't remember what position my face was in when I typed it I'm afraid, but I was being entirely serious if that helps. If it helps you empathise, try and imagine that all the schools near you suddenly started having the children sing the Chinese national anthem in morning assembly each day, and that Chairman Mao's birthday was suddenly being touted as a new public holiday. Maybe you'd be cool with it, I don't know, but I imagine a lot of people would find it incredibly annoying.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

It could be worse. Your country could have adopted our policy of invading smaller countries for no reason.

Pretty sure you learned that one from us in the first place

 

[Zack]

I can't remember what position my face was in when I typed it I'm afraid, but I was being entirely serious if that helps. If it helps you empathise, try and imagine that all the schools near you suddenly started having the children sing the Chinese national anthem in morning assembly each day, and that Chairman Mao's birthday was suddenly being touted as a new public holiday. Maybe you'd be cool with it, I don't know, but I imagine a lot of people would find it incredibly annoying.

So, school dance & retail sales = communist China?