Christmas Eve At Wal-Mart- Unlike Do Many Other Days

What do Christmas Eve and New Years Eve have in common? Answer: Both are amateur days. If New Years Eve is amateur night for drinkers, then Christmas Eve is amateur day for shoppers.
Our store was packed the entire day. So many shoppers were in a daze. And those not in a daze were on a cell phone or texting. I must have been hit by at least 10 shopping carts being pushed by shoppers who weren't paying attention. I am 6'2 and 270, so I am pretty sure I am quite visible, but still I managed to get hit.
At times, the lines at check out were short, but most of the time, the lines were long. We ran out of shopping carts several times.
And of course, the shoplifters came and brought their Christmas cheer. Metro police could have set up a substation here because they were so often. The worst case was when a young woman was busted for stealing. She was with her kids, an 8 year old and 5 year old and an infant. When she was busted, she started fighting in front of everyone. She probably thought if she brought her kids along we wouldn't have stopped her- wrong. She also had a warrant so she went to jail and the kids went with CPS to Child Haven. Probably the best thing that ever happened to those kids.
We had so many workers there busting their butts and we also had some guys treat like a party. Met a friend worked there. He was fired the day before for missing too much work and he was fired on his birthday. Cold.
Then at 7:30, we closed the doors and posted our big beef guys from security and other large looking people in front of the doors to keep the people out. We turned away at least 200-300 people in about a half hour. Many people were shocked that Wal-Mart was closed. There was some confusion because the sign said that the store closes at 8:00, so people thought they can come in at 7:55 and do all their shopping were turned away. Only 1 lady became belligerent. She was yelling and screaming until she was introduced to the Metro officers who were there on another call.
A lot of the store was cleaned out, so there won't be too many after Christmas sales on Saturday. I think our store did about $600,000- $700,000 in business yesterday.
On the way home and then on the way to take the hound to the dog park, we noticed that K-Mart and several large grocery stores were still open.
So, I survived another Christmas Eve at Wal-Mart, which will probably be my last one at Wal-Mart. Now, to enjoy Christmas day by going to a show (look for a review later) and out to eat.
Merry Christmas, everyone.