After a big, satisfying Thanksgiving day meal, everyone in your family finally quiets down, even your annoying little cousin. You all sprawl over couches and chairs in front of the TV, silently and simultaneously in a mutual food coma. The next day, however, depending on how determined you are, you may wake up in the early hours of the morning to go fight crowds for the mere reward of on-sale electronics, clothing, etc. People push and pull each other, physically fight over items, scream obscene things, and ultimately turn the poor stores into a picked over-battle zone with damaged items scattered all over–and just to save a little money. This phenomenon is commonly known as Black Friday.
What type of “holiday” is this? “Lose-all-manners-and-act-like-a-savage” day? Apparently.
Don’t get the wrong idea. Saving money is great, and some of the prices and deals you can find on Black Friday are unbeatable as well. However, there should be a line drawn between what’s an acceptable effort for getting the perfect price and what’s unacceptable. Fighting, yelling, and being rude to other customers and employees classifies as the latter.
After almost every Black Friday, news reports are released about shopper misconduct, sometimes even reports of deaths/injuries/assaults. In 2013, a Walmart security employee was stampeded to death at an early morning Black Friday sale in New York. In 2011, a California woman doused other shoppers in pepper spray before leaving with the last discounted Xbox. In 2013, a California man was stabbed in the stomach outside a shopping mall and almost died as a result of his injuries. In 2012, two people were shot after a disagreement over a Walmart parking space on the morning of Black Friday.
Is this what it has come to? Is 50% off a flat screen TV really worth someone’s life? No.
“Fighting over sale items is just ridiculous,” says senior Maddux Snook.
Senior Rachael Souhrada describes her experiences with Black Friday as a retail worker. “I work as a cashier at Bed Bath & Beyond, and although it’s not as bad as other retailers that have electronics or huge doorbusters, it’s still incredibly busy, and people are so impatient and pretty rude. As a cashier, we have an eight-and-a-half hour day minimum. We have nine registers open, and it is steady, busy, running like crazy, so we’re trying to run around and get things done and so are the people out on the floor. It’s just an awful holiday because we can’t spend the day after Thanksgiving with our family. We have to be at work, on our toes, catering to these people who are not always nice to us. It’s honestly the worst day of the year.”
Souhrada also adds an account of some rude customers that she has encountered while working on Black Friday. “Last year we had a lot of deals going on until noon, and because we were so busy, we didn’t get all the signs down [when it reached] noon. So when this couple came up [to my register], they had a big cookware set in their cart, probably 11-12 pieces–very expensive. They brought me the item, and they were claiming it was a different price than what it was ringing up as, so I had to call on the overhead pager for someone to come up. We waited for like ten to fifteen minutes for someone to come because we were so busy. When they finally came, my coworker said that we didn’t have that deal going on anymore. The couple got so upset and so mad that they spent another seven minutes arguing over whether or not to get the cookware. They ended up just leaving it in the cart at my register and walking off, without even bothering to put it back. It was so bad.”
For those who have to work on Black Friday, common sense and common courtesy is greatly appreciated. Cashiers and other retail workers are humans too, and sometimes rude remarks and gestures can really ruin their day.
The bottom line is that it’s not hard to continue the thankfulness that everyone celebrated on Thanksgiving for at least one more day. If you must go Black Friday shopping, don’t forget to act courteous, be mindful of others, and be respectful. Black Friday is not an excuse to lose all manners; people should act the same as they do when they normally shop. We’re all in this together; we’re all just trying to save a little money, so a little respect goes a long way.
