Hellooo everyone and happy Black Friday! Boy, I’ve got to tell you – it never gets old not having to work on Black Friday any more. After over four years of working retail, the mall madness is the last place that I want to be, whether it be to work or to shop! It’s so crazy to think that as this post is being published, I would be stuck at work running around like a madwoman – if we were living in 2010 to 2014, of course. #blessed

Some retail workers live for Black Friday and that’s cool, but I was never one of them. I detested Black Friday like a fly buzzing in your ear, the common cold, or the relative that you can’t stand at family gatherings. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and I was always very bitter that I never got to fully enjoy it for four years in a row. Of course, I’m thankful for those jobs but my sixteen to twenty year old self didn’t know how to separate the two so that I could still have fun on the holiday, despite dreading going into work in T-minus twelve hours.

As much as I enjoy a fast paced lifestyle, working for over twelve hours straight while on your feet the whole time and rushing to and fro between customers is for the birds. I genuinely don’t know how I did it, especially when I was working two jobs – hello, twenty hour day. And for this reason, among many others, I respect the hell out of retail workers during this time of the year.

It’s funny, because you would think that during the holiday season, people would be full of good cheer and might be even overly kind. Sadly, this is not the case. Don’t get me wrong, I have memories of delightful customers during the holidays, but those are trumped by people who have almost made me cry because the line was too long, I didn’t have the shirt that they wanted, etc. And for what? The shirt isn’t going to magically appear. The line isn’t going to move in double time. And the craziest thing, is that it was always adults that were speaking in raised voices and being out of line to me and my fellow retail workers. Just SHAMEFUL.

So, having said that, PLEASE be sure to be kind to all of the workers that you interact with today, throughout the holiday season, and always. Working retail is a choice and a responsibility – but how many employees really want to cut their family time short to work a long Black Friday shift? Slim to none. Enjoy yourselves during your Black Friday shopping, but be sure to give all of the employees who made your outing possible a little credit! I promise you that they will appreciate it far more than you know.

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving? Do you have any crazy Black Friday stories? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

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