As an employee of a Wal-Mart Neighborhood grocery store and I was offered a chance to work at a Wal-Mart Supercenter and it was truly a strange experience.
When I got to the store, on eastern and Serene and Eastern, a fairly nice area.
For the first hour or so, the store had more employees than customers and then the human waves of people came and came and came.
We had all cashier stations open, about 30 in front of the store plus others around the store.
We had a large security presence- from Wal-Mart security, to private security to at least 4 Metro police officers, so there were no major security problems.
In addition to the security, the Wal-Mart shut off large sections of the store, so customer traffic was limited but organized. If you needed some diapers for your baby, go somewhere else, same if you need chips and salsa.
But, I have to say that this Wal-Mart had some of the slowest cashiers I have ever seen. Some were just slow and others, just stupid. We had couple of cashiers try to sell customers the Wal-Mart credit card while other people were waiting in line. And the prize to the cashier for getting someone to sign up for the credit card? A shiny balloon.
But it was amazing to see how many people who came out shopping on Thanksgiving. Some people complain that it is wrong to stay open on Thanksgiving, but the public obviously want to go shopping on Thanksgiving, so give the public what they want.
And so, who is the public who shop on Thanksgiving?
From 4:00 to 6:00, at the store I worked at, in my little corner of the world, it was almost exclusively Hispanic and Asian people- mostly families. Knowing the area, that is not the demographics in the area, so many of these people were coming in from different areas of the Las Vegas Valley.
The media is trying to make a big thing about hoards of people at Wal-Mart stores and yes, there were hoards, but they were organized hoards. And hell, what do you expect when you have a couple of thousand of people who decide to go shopping at the same time?
And the other good thing about having Brown Thursday is that it relieves pressure on Black Friday, so it will safer and saner than if all the stores just had their sales on Friday.
One last thing, while not every customer fits into this category, there were some really stupid customers who tried to buy sale items and got the wrong items and then blamed Wal-Mart for their mistake. Perhaps, reading comprehension was not their strong suit. That and following simple directions, like how to swipe a credit/debit card, not knowing that you actually had to pay for an item or deciding that talking on the phone or texting was a great idea when checking out.
In the end, I never participated in a huge Black Friday sale and unless I am working, I don't ever plan on doing so in the future. Too many people, too many stupid people and I just don't like crowds, so I will stay at home watch football games, drink beer, then drink more beer and boo the Green Bay Packers as they get their butts kicked.
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