November 21 2005 - "T-4 to Black Friday"

Working In Retail

Retail can be great.  Lots of new people to meet.  Discounts on goodies. But you don't get time off around the Holidays.  And, truely, I've gotten USED to time off around the Holidays.  Christmas and Thanksgiving just about every other company slows down.  But now that I'm working at Best Buy, all things have changed.

Example:  Tonight, the XBOX 360 launches in our store - at Midnight.  So, I had most of the day off, but I have to go into work at 8:30 pm and work until 2:30 am.  After that, I get to drive straight home, drop into bed, and be back at work at 11:00am.  Oh joy.

Example 2:  We all get Thanksgiving day off.  So, Wednesday night I'll be at the store until midnight to get everything ready for "the day after".  Black Friday.  After enjoying a nice Thankgiving dinner with my wonderful wife and the kids, I have to stuff myself into bed around 9pm.  Any later and I might as well just stay up - because I have to be at the store at 3:30am.  Yep, 0330 for you military types.  And I promised my crew I'd get coffee... so I have to be at Dunkin Donuts around 3.

Oh, and dont' forget - Employees can't get the "door busters".  It would be 'unethical' for the employees to grab them up after the customers waited outside for hours... and I do agree with that, by the way.  I guess I'll just have to live with the employee discount... 

Some other thoughts