As I sit at my computer in a stupor from the harried day that I just experienced, I thought that I should note some of the thoughts that I had on this busy day (not to mention I am procrastinating the housework that still has to be done).
For the second Thanksgiving in a row my sweet daughter went to bed after midnight. Last year I was not working and so the lack of sleep did not bother me. This year I had to be at work at 5 am. Yes, 5 am. I needed to be up by 3:45 am to be on time. Kate stayed up until 12:30. Thank goodness for spell check because I am typing this on 3 1/2 hours of sleep.
Traffic was surprisingly heavy at 4:50 this morning. Apparently my stores 6 am opening was late according to this years BLACK Friday standards. People HAD to be places this morning! Wouldn't it be a great world if they were so diligent about their jobs?
Shortly after I got to my store and started to get the registers ready to open we noticed that we had an audience. The dozen people who had come at 5:30 to make sure that they did not miss one sale item, were watching me and a co-worker go about our business. I could feel their thoughts about me and I already resented these people.
Now, you are probably wondering why I would resent these people who help support my paycheck. Let me explain. At Burlington we run very few actual sales. Not what you would find at other retailers. In the Thanksgivings ad we published our current prices. We did have a couple of items that had some Point of Sale reductions, not anything that I would have come running into the store at 6 am for. Could they not shop on another day?
So here I am resenting these people who got me out of bed at 3:45, hoping that the day will be slow. Isn't that what those smart money/econ people on CNN have said? That sales will be down, not so black?
At 6 am we have approx. 50 people who are very anxious to get out of the cold and into our bathrooms. After they had satisfied their needs they come to get our "sales." By 6:20 we had lines, long ones. We had our three best cashiers there and they were struggling to keep up. So I open up, my other CSM co-worker opens up and we were able to relieve the lies. After the rush we thought for sure it must be at least 8am, but sadly we were wrong.
I have to say that the day went remarkably well. We had enough coverage and were certainly selling. But it dragged by, tick tock. 1 o'clock took forever to arrive and that is when I made my escape. But I fail to understand the need that consumers have to loose sleep and torture retail employees all for a good deal. I looked at the paper. There were some good sales, but literally, nothing to loose sleep over.
So please if you can help this tired retail manager understand the reason why she must loose sleep on this day, let me know. I would like to understand. And, if you are one of those who must go out each and every year, do not take offense. I mean nothing by it, and I am too tired to be nicer about it.
For those who maybe interested, when I left we were on track to not only make our goal for the day, but if our current pace kept up we would exceed it by about $30,000. BLACK FRIDAY indeed.
For the second Thanksgiving in a row my sweet daughter went to bed after midnight. Last year I was not working and so the lack of sleep did not bother me. This year I had to be at work at 5 am. Yes, 5 am. I needed to be up by 3:45 am to be on time. Kate stayed up until 12:30. Thank goodness for spell check because I am typing this on 3 1/2 hours of sleep.
Traffic was surprisingly heavy at 4:50 this morning. Apparently my stores 6 am opening was late according to this years BLACK Friday standards. People HAD to be places this morning! Wouldn't it be a great world if they were so diligent about their jobs?
Shortly after I got to my store and started to get the registers ready to open we noticed that we had an audience. The dozen people who had come at 5:30 to make sure that they did not miss one sale item, were watching me and a co-worker go about our business. I could feel their thoughts about me and I already resented these people.
Now, you are probably wondering why I would resent these people who help support my paycheck. Let me explain. At Burlington we run very few actual sales. Not what you would find at other retailers. In the Thanksgivings ad we published our current prices. We did have a couple of items that had some Point of Sale reductions, not anything that I would have come running into the store at 6 am for. Could they not shop on another day?
So here I am resenting these people who got me out of bed at 3:45, hoping that the day will be slow. Isn't that what those smart money/econ people on CNN have said? That sales will be down, not so black?
At 6 am we have approx. 50 people who are very anxious to get out of the cold and into our bathrooms. After they had satisfied their needs they come to get our "sales." By 6:20 we had lines, long ones. We had our three best cashiers there and they were struggling to keep up. So I open up, my other CSM co-worker opens up and we were able to relieve the lies. After the rush we thought for sure it must be at least 8am, but sadly we were wrong.
I have to say that the day went remarkably well. We had enough coverage and were certainly selling. But it dragged by, tick tock. 1 o'clock took forever to arrive and that is when I made my escape. But I fail to understand the need that consumers have to loose sleep and torture retail employees all for a good deal. I looked at the paper. There were some good sales, but literally, nothing to loose sleep over.
So please if you can help this tired retail manager understand the reason why she must loose sleep on this day, let me know. I would like to understand. And, if you are one of those who must go out each and every year, do not take offense. I mean nothing by it, and I am too tired to be nicer about it.
For those who maybe interested, when I left we were on track to not only make our goal for the day, but if our current pace kept up we would exceed it by about $30,000. BLACK FRIDAY indeed.
As usual things have been busy. I have the wonderful opportunity to be home today with two children sick with the stomach flu, Eric and Kate. This started last night with Kate and as soon as she was settling down from everything (@ 3 am) Eric started with it. This was an experience I hope to never repeat. I had forgot how devastating a toddler with the stomach flu can be. We went through half a dozen towels, several rags, 2 pairs of pj's for me, one for her, crib sheet, one bed pillow, and a couple of blankets. Then we had Eric with his bed sheets, pj's, and bathroom rugs. And, amazing Josh, slept though most of the commotion.
