Update5.3127

Tis the start of the holidays, and thus, less updates are likely to begin. I have another part to Mr. Autodelete story ready as well, but figured I would give a general idea of where I am first.

Lack of updates have been due to three things: my new neopets obsession, holidays = busytime, and lack of comments. When I don't see many comments, it makes me desire to update less. I don't plan to stop updating due to those reasons, but I will less frequently. Comments help bring motivation to tell about my day or share a story. Some days I don't need the motivation to update, but to keep a steady schedule, it is nice to have. I imagine most of my followers are busy with their own thing this season, and that's understandable. Just expect less-than-frequent updates from me then (as well as checking on your blogs; I'm pretty backlogged as it is).

Now that the nasty business is out of the way, I been meaning to write about my black Friday experiences from when I used to work for Target. I should narrow that down to just, "experience," actually, since I was one of the lucky ones who rarely had to work black friday in the 5 years I worked there. I worked once for the closing shift, which is not much of a story to tell... and one morning shift, where I worked in the Toys section.

The team leader (think specialized managed) of Toys was gathering his crew for the season's biggest sale, and I was asked to help out. He was a cool, lenient guy and after some nights working, I was able to handle Toys pretty efficiently. I learned the names of which Bratz toy was the hot seller, and why we don't have EZ Bake ovens this year, and other fun toy stuff.

It was the first time I EVER worked an opening for Black friday, so I didn't know what to expect. Had to get to work by 6am, and when I did, there was NO parking and a line I couldn't have imagined. I just parked way in the back and walked over to the staff entrance, to which i was already being asked by customers, "hey do you know how many Nintendo Wii's you will have in stock?" and other such things. It felt as if I was a celebrity being barraged with questions by the paparazzi. I squeezed into the employee entrance and clocked in. As I clocked in, they had JUST opened the store, so through the employee door's window, I saw a bunch of people running like mad. I saw an old lady knock over a man which made me laugh my ass off. I grabbed all equipment that I could for the floor (walkie talkie and a scanner to let us know what is in stock/price/location of item), and headed to Toys.

Wading through the crowd was surprisingly easy, as everyone was looking away. I thanked my stars no one was asking me anything, since usually that red shirt makes you a... ...I can't think of a non punny way to say it... target. I managed to get to Toys, where a few shelves were already bare. I looked at my co-workers asking them for any updates on out of stock items, and they already count off a few. This information was helpful 5 minutes later as I got assaulted with questions of where some doll house was, to which I was able to spout off an answer. At one point it felt like I was directing traffic in that 5 people asked me a question at the same time to which I held up my hands and pointed to each person what is their question. That was pretty cool.

Then came a moment I will never forget. I was helping a motherly-looking woman about what deals we still have in stock, checking things on my scanner for the many locations they could be found when a guy about a foot and a half taller than me actually grabbed me, picked me up for about 4 feet, and then said, "WHERE ARE THE MICROWAVES?!"

I meekly pointed a direction and he was off. The woman I was talking to had her phone out, running over to me, "Oh my gosh, I thought he was going to take you with him!" She had apparently started to dial 911 in that instant. That alone made the experience less mortifying; it's nice to see people actually give a shit about one another.

The rest of the day went pretty peaceful, surprisingly. It felt more like a typical busy day, which was nothing to me. Because of how busy it was, we didn't have to put away stray merchandise (fun fact: customers did that job for us in buying them before we could put some products away). The most annoying part was the friggin cabbage patch dolls, since everyone needed that PERFECT doll and we had some up on a high top shelf stacked pretty high, and people would always want the top one.

Yes, I mad.

It sort of makes me glad I didn't work this black friday either, though I'm sure that could have been some nice money to take home since places usually offer a lot of hours for that day alone. There still is Christmas sales to be had though, to which I hope to be working by.