Dear Black Friday

I sorta hate your guts...I told Kristen this morning as I was leaving the house at o'dark 30, that I was going to write this.

I've never actually worked a traditional Black Friday in all my retail experience. I've done retail for years...I'm sure you're shocked too.

When I worked at Shoe Carnival I didn't end up working Black Friday. I'm sure I gave some lame excuse to them to avoid working 12+ hours in full shoe madness.

On my application for Walmart I told them I couldn't start work until AFTER Thanksgiving weekend. Dennis and I actually didn't even leave the house that day. Nothing I was going to buy for Christmas was worth the swarms of people, pushing, fighting, swearing, and the lines. No thank you.

After that it had been quite the time since I had worked retail. In Germany we went shopping on Black Friday last year, but more for an awesome deal on a Christmas tree. (Unfortunately the one we had, from my grandparents, was dwindling. It looked a bit like Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree) We ended up saving extra money (thanks to me...) and we were able to buy Kaylin more presents. Oh and I think Dennis got the super, mega, nerd edition of Avatar. *Insert eye roll here* I have noticed that my Christmas spirit started a bit early last year. I was so excited to have Kaylin's first Christmas that it was almost unbearable to make it until the 25th. I'm starting to get that way now too. I even find myself singing along to Christmas music and not minding it, BEFORE Thanksgiving was even over.

However this year I did not get the pleasure of dodging the Black Friday Bullet. My part-time gig at Kohl's led me to one of the longest shifts I've ever had. Midnight. Kohl's opened at MIDNIGHT. I was scheduled at 2 am, which meant even though I'd miss some of the crazies, they were still going to be flocking around destroying my departments.

When I got to work this morning, I was downing my coffee, smiling, greeting and hoping no one noticed that I had ABSOLUTELY no desire to be there. What so ever. I grumbled as I cleaned out dressing room after dressing room, hanging clothes, folding and re-folding jeans, and sorting them back for the floor. Yes, I am VERY thankful I have a job, one that allows me to work. But there is just something about the stress of Black Friday that I was not into at all.

Anyways, what is it about shopping? Kohls, Target, Old Navy, and Best Buy all opened their doors at Midnight. I can't vouch for the rest of the stores, or company for that matter but by 3:30 or 4 am, we were so slow. The midnight rush had died down considerably. I clocked out around 6, headed to Walmart to get Kaylin's presents and there was no one there. 6 am! They still had everything that I could want or think of needing, and had plenty of it.

When did our society become so money hungry? I know Kaylin and I went to bed at 8 last night so that I could get enough sleep to make it through what I thought was going to be the longest day ever. Even though Thanksgiving was dying down, I was still losing out on family time to get ready for this "big day". When did our stores starting caring more about profits and less about their associates spending time with family?