Hi, everyone, it’s me, a girl who works part-time at a leading home goods store during the holidays.
You can already see where this is going.
Yes, the holidays are a special time. They are a great opportunity for everyone to get together, give thanks and gather around tables filled with sumptuous home-cooked meals.
However, the holidays have also evolved into a sale-drenched capitalist phantasm that starts the moment you set down your fork after Thanksgiving dinner — or, in some places, several hours before you even carve the turkey.
Black Friday is allegedly dubbed black for its ability to turn retailers a profit, or send them into the black, though anyone who has ever worked in a store or a mall knows the true meaning of Black Friday is the darkest day in November. It is one that crushes souls and removes twinkles from eyes.
It is so, so important that while engaging in Capitalism Fest 2016 everyone remembers to be respectful of those employees losing their eye-twinkles.
Black Friday is the one day a year that people can show their true, hateful colors. Though I suppose this year, there are two: Black Friday and Nov. 8.
As a cashier and sales representative, I have dealt with a wide range of unhappy customers on a normal day, but on Black Friday, when people are up far too early and are naturally pitted against their peers in an all-out war for steals and deals, customers can be much, much nastier to people who are just there to help them.
Just last year Black Friday, a customer almost pushed me to tears after demanding that I allow her to return a box of toffees from the previous holiday season with no receipt or card used to purchase it. “Why don’t you want to help me?” I can still hear her screeching.
Often, customers take out their anger at their situation — whether it be standing outside in the cold, losing out on a flat screen television or feeling rushed in a crowded dressing room — on the poor retail workers.
If you do choose to venture out into the display of humanity that is Black Friday, please remember everyone around you is still a person, including those tired-looking college students standing behind the sales counters.
Especially now, around the holidays and after a significant national tragedy, everyone is experiencing maximum levels of stress. Any amount of kindness and courteousness can and will help.
Remember that this is the season of giving, and the best thing you can give any retail worker is the gift of not being a giant asshole.
