'The registers are completely down and the lines are growing fast': 20+ Retail workers who had to work Black Friday

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 29, 2024 3:00 PM EST

Retail workers of the world are in for a crazy day each and every Black Friday. Just in case they wanted to try and escape that day, many employers refuse to let their employees take that day off. It's so important to the sales of the stores that they need all hands on deck. They know that as soon as they open their doors to the customers, there will be a wave of people rushing to get their hands on the newest tech, the hottest clothes, or whichever toy is THE holiday toy for kids (in previous years, it was Tickle-Me-Elmo or Elsa toys). Each year there's at least one toy that people will try their hardest to get before the other customers grab them all up. All employees can do is try to control the crowds and get everyone into the checkout line safely and quickly. However, as the people below can tell you, working Black Friday can quickly become a harrowing experience that they'll never want to repeat. 

At least one employee had a positive Black Friday experience, though. One grocery store worker wrote that they loved working the day after Thanksgiving because, after all, who buys food when they have a full fridge of delicious leftovers? 

Up next, this person is refusing to buy their wife a plane ticket, just because she's working hard to pull herself out of debt! 

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  • 01
    MELY SALE MELY
    via LumenSoft Technologies on Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Retail workers of reddit, what's your Black Friday horror story?
    via u/catofthe-canals
  • 03
    Theb diaries We had a lady call the police on our store because we sold out of a TV. I really wish I was lying... they came too.
    via u/theb****diaries
  • 04
    zechgroove It was technically the day AFTER black friday, but it was still busy as all h I. I worked as a customer service supervisor at a CompUSA before they closed down (think BestBuy), and ALL of my checkers called in sick that morning. ALL OF THEM. So I
    via u/zechgroove
  • 05
    am the only one ringing people up, for the first like 6 hours of the day. When I finally got a 15 minute break, I went into the back area and blew up at the first manager I could find I was so p ed and stressed. He just sat there and let me vent to him. After a little while I went back to him and apologized to him, and he was cool with it all. That day sucked.
    via u/zechgroove
  • 06
    IntentionalTexan Worked at a store that had a service department. They couldn't ring up anything at the service counter but they had a computer which made it look like a register. Guy is standing there patiently waiting to be rung up. Finally somebody notices him and asks what he needs. "I'd like to pay." he says. "I'm sorry this isn't a register" replies the service tech. The guy
    via u/IntentionalTexan
  • 07
    then proceeds to try and convince the service tech to let him pay because the line for the main registers is three hours long. Of course the service tech couldn't because he didn't have a register. He just had a computer for making appointments and such. So after 15 minutes of argument the guy moves off to find the line. Here's the fun part. While he was
    via u/IntentionalTexan
  • 08
    arguing somebody else saw him standing by something that looked like a register and so got in line behind him. Then people saw the shorter line and got in behind them. With nobody to control it the line to nowhere grew quickly. 15 minutes was all it took for the not-line to snake all the way around the department.
    via u/IntentionalTexan
  • 09
    So when the doofus who started this whole fiasco went to find the right line he found the end of the line he had started. Then the guy behind him heard that there wasn't a register so he followed the first guy. Then the next customer followed the 2nd and so on. They walked around in a circle for an hour before somebody noticed them. We almost had a riot when a manager had to tell 100 people that
    via u/IntentionalTexan
  • 10
    they weren't in line and had just waited an hour for nothing. That same year we had several scuffles at points where the register line had forked into two lines. From then on we marked off a huge register path and had several employees just manage the line.
    via u/IntentionalTexan
  • 11
    TheWasteland... Worked at Wal-Mart years ago; One of my mangers. thought she was being sneaky and swapped my Black Friday off shift, with an on at 9 am (My shifts. normally didn't start until 1, and ended at 9, so this was utter bulls ). I was in the bakery department and had to work all of Thanksgiving the day before, and they ended up needing more
    via u/TheWastelandWizard
  • 12
    help. I came in at 6 am that day, and worked a 14 hour shift, because most of my team had been given the holiday off, my managers. excuse being "You're young! They have families they need to be with and kids to celebrate with!" so I was pretty angry. I found out that the Black Friday sale was a 65" LCD tv in electronics and PS3's, so needless to say it was going
    via u/TheWastelandWizard
  • 13
    to be a bloodbath, I stayed in my department because there was literally no one else there and caught up on much needed sanitation, when the manager found out before the sale started she came my way to rain down fire, brimstone, and bulls. on me. Thankfully, I could use their own bulls policies against them. There needs to be at least one member of the
    via u/TheWastelandWizard
  • 14
    bakery crew on hand to write on cakes, and since I was the only one there, they were sh outta luck. I got out of Black Friday bulls got an easy day of work, and the perfect spot to watch the chaos all while over a manager I hated. It was a beautiful day.
    via u/TheWastelandWizard
  • 15
    Steelergrl2310 I worked for a golf superstore as a cashier. Black Friday customers. come rushing in and the line starts. I proceed to scan the first item and nothing... the registers are completely down and the lines are growing fast. The only thing
    via u/Steelergrl2310
  • 16
    we could do is take every transaction manually. Write down SKU's, calculate tax, and use the old credit card swipers for 3 hours. I never worked retail during Black Friday again.
    via u/Steelergrl2310
  • 17
    AstronomicalAr... This year was surprisingly tame, people were all in really good moods which in turn makes me happy. Last year a woman yelled at me for taking too much time to finish her transaction, that her kids were in the car and she didn't want CPS to take them. Okay then!
    via u/AstronomicalArtist18
  • 18
    Tastes_like_SA... I worked at a grocery store in high school. Black Friday was my favorite day all year. Hardly anyone goes food shopping the day after Thanksgiving.
    via u/Tastes_like_SATAN
  • 19
    C.. Former GameStop manager. The worst one I ever worked was 2006. Everyone wanted a Wii. When I got to the store at 4am to prep for the 5am opening, there were people wrapped around the shopping center in a line for the thing even though I had a sign on the door explicitly stating that we could only guarantee them for the first 6 people. When I
    via u/CowabungaM8
  • 20
    made the announcement to the folks in line, I thought I was about to get my a kicked by more than a couple ped grandmas and soccer moms who had been waiting since midnight. After opening, our systems were unbearably slow when processing credit cards, but they still worked. The rest of the day was busy, but not too terrible other than the bitchy people who couldn't
    via u/CowabungaM8
  • 21
    find a Wii. Fast forward three days later, a lady walks in to the store with a bank statement and starts laying in to me about her card being charged $200 4 times (Processing, not drafted yet btw). She insists that she won't walk out until I give her $600 cash from the register. It ended with her and I on speaker phone with my district manager who
    via u/CowabungaM8
  • 22
    politely told her to and call her bank. Cops were very nearly called off during the ensuing screaming. This is with a store packed with customers. Fun stuff. As it turned out, our credit. card processor had been overwhelmed that day, and this turned out to be a wide issue. It was the explanation for the system slowdown on
    via u/CowabungaM8
  • 23
    Black Friday. The charges dropped off after a couple days. Edit: As others have mentioned, she had every reason to be p ed. I would be too. This woman made it very personal, to the point where she was taking liberties with my sexuality and parentage. Be ped, but you can be angry without being a raging
    via u/CowabungaM8
  • 24
    S.. Someone else's experience reminded me of one I had a few years back... I worked at a toy store in the mall. Really fancy mall, and we only sold one brand of toys. Anyways, we were all about interacting with the parents and especially making the kids feel special. It was probably the best place in retail to work, not
    via u/StarCraft_Tenor
  • 25
    gonna lie. If I could have had full time with benefits I'd have stayed. Anyhow, early December a woman comes into the store with her two children - probably aged 5 and 7, no older than that. I overhear her say "I'll be back, stay here" and she just leaves them. Not a word to us, she just vanishes. Within minutes it got busy -- as in, 50 customers plus kids.
    via u/StarCraft_Tenor
  • 26
    There are only 3 employees in the store: two on register, then there's me...the shift manager...supposed to be helping people shop. There is no way I'm taking my eyes off of these kids, but there are too many people here. Five minutes go by. Then ten. Then fifteen. I'm checking in with these little dudes to see how they're holding up. They're
    via u/StarCraft_Tenor
  • 27
    just fine, but I'm the type who takes 100% responsibility for children in my store. I call mall security because I'm freaking out about the need to watch them. At this point, I have to make a return and do a bunch of customer- maintenance. No way to keep track of the kids. Turns out mall security called the cops. The officers show up about 25 minutes
    via u/StarCraft_Tenor
  • 28
    after this lady left her kids - the lady gets down and makes small talk with the boys while the man waits outside. Things slow to a crawl im the store, so my fellow employees entertain the boys while I speak with the officers. Apparently their mother had gone to THE OTHER MALL ACROSS THE EFFING 4-LANE STREET. At 7:30pm. During crazy-busy shopping time.
    via u/StarCraft_Tenor
  • 29
    She eventually did come back for them, but it had been close to an hour. And in Ohio, that is way past what counts as child abandonment. I dunno what happened to her/them, but all I remembered is the shock of "who the hol thinks that's a good idea" and "omg is she going to jail" while I watched the officers children away. her and her
    via u/StarCraft_Tenor
  • 30
    HeyNomad About 15 years ago, I was working at a book store in a mall. Somehow, around 5pm maybe, I found myself the only employee in the entire store--not a single coworker to be found, and we were slammed with customers. We usually had music playing in the store, controlled by an ordinary 5- CD stereo in the back office, and of course this is the day
    via u/HeyNomad
  • 31
    the inoffensive holiday music gets brought into circulation. Around the time I found myself alone, I noticed the stereo had become stuck on repeat, just playing the same song over and over. It was at least an hour before I was able to get away from the
    via u/HeyNomad
  • 32
    counter, and so that was the day I was forced to listen to some kind of generic "A Very Jazzy Jinglebells" some 30 times back to back.
    via u/HeyNomad
  • 33
    ToSay_TheLeast Worked greets at American Eagle today. My job was to stand at the front and tell you what the sale was. Some lady walked in with like 8 bags and the alarm went off. So I smiled and said that it went off most likely because there's possibly still a tag on one of her items. This was her response:
    via u/ToSay_TheLeast
  • 34
    "I JUST WALKED IN AND YOU'RE ALREADY ACCUSING ME OF STEALING?!?!?" And then stormed off. Nothing special honestly, just another day of retail. Yeah.. Small Canadian town life...
    via u/ToSay_TheLeast
  • 35
    Needs MoreYellow About 6 years ago I was working at a mall bookstore's cafe. I had the opening shift, which (thankfully because it was in a mall) was 8am-2pm. Unfortunately, the late shift person called in sick, so I had 2 hours off before a 4pm-close shift. While that sks, it wasn't the worst part of the day. I actually had a customer who was
    via u/Needs MoreYellow
  • 36
    stalking me and spent the ENTIRE day sitting in the cafe reading a book and occasionally coming up to order something new. Any time I wasn't behind the counter or in the back room he followed me around, including during my 2 hour shift gap. I didn't dare go to my car on my break, because I didn't want him knowing what it looked like, and my manager didn't want to call security on him if he
    via u/Needs MoreYellow
  • 37
    didn't actually approach me. Worst Black Friday ever. Luckily, 2 weeks later he did approach me while I was working and asked if he could clip my fingernails as a keepsake. That was enough to get him banned from not only the store, but also the mall. My manager also made sure someone walked me to my car for the next few months, so it was all good.
    via u/Needs MoreYellow
  • 38
    kendogg I also worked at Best Buy. 2001. I won't name location. To this day BB was one of the worst jobs I've ever had. 6AM, (mall store) people were climbing the gates, literally. They opened the gates and this massive flood of people ran from front to back, some ran past me, spun around and screamed a question at me then darted off again.
    via u/kendogg
  • 39
    Management told us that morning that it was a day we'd do near a million dollars in business in one day. - Therefore, it really didn't matter how we treated people. Sell service plans. Sell accessories. The cashflow & revenues will be there - make our numbers look good (paraphrasing)
    via u/kendogg
  • 40
    My tall, lanky friend reached between 2 people arguing over the last hard drive, took ot from them, and handed it to some other guy and told them 'if you're going to act like children, I'll treat you as such'.
    via u/kendogg
  • 41
    • I got moved up front to work 'crowd control'. They had lined up a bunch of big screen TV's to channel people down the media isles (cd's, dvd's), which those lines went all the way down those isles, and then all the way back around the outside. I had customers tell me they were glad I was there, because they were
    via u/kendogg
  • 42
    going to knock out the guy that was there before me. I'm pretty sure 1-2 of those TV's were tipped over as well. In total - an absolute sh show that I do not wish upon anybody. I refuse to g shopping on Black Friday now.
    via u/kendogg
  • 43
    duckmunch I worked at Wal-mart during Black Friday about 12-13 years ago. The hot items that year were $10 DVD players and trampolines. The DVD players were stacked on two tables near the registers and the trampolines were in sporting goods. I'm walking to the receiving area in the back and someone from sporting
    via u/duckmunch
  • 44
    goods asks if I can grab a U- boat( or L-cart) to load up the last trampoline. I had to go all the way to grocery to get one and as I'm coming back, someone asks about an item so I walk two feet away from my cart and some woman grabs it and runs towards sporting goods. I get there and the woman and husband are loading up the trampoline and it wasn't even for them. The other lady that had it and
    via u/duckmunch
  • 45
    purchased it (had receipt and all, just needed a carryout) said "hey, that's mine" and the husband got in her face and said "what are you gonna do about it, b ?". They started to walk off and I was shocked at that point and the husband looked at me and said "the f 's YOUR problem?". I just smiled and told the sporting good guy to call management. The husband then said "run, honey!" And
    via u/duckmunch
  • 46
    they booked it to the front. They made it out of the store with the trampoline too. Then I get to the front near the $10 DVD players. One older woman grabs the last one left on one of the two tables. Another lady grabs the same one. They scuffle.
    via u/duckmunch
  • 47
    One lady decks the other one into the other table FULL of $10 DVD players and they all fall over and she runs. Never again.....
    via u/duckmunch
  • 48
    Omny87 My Black Friday two years. ago was just the opposite of crazy- I used to work in a grocery store, so it was absolutely de d the whole shift. I have never been so utterly and thoroughly bored before or since. I would have k lled for some crazy sh to happen just so I could have a chuckle about it the next day.
    via u/Omny87
  • 49
    djchristensen I am not an employee, but I stood behind a lady at target who was returning a newly bought iPad. She was livid because her iPad wasn't charging. She claimed that the tablet had wifi connection to the store and it wasn't charging like it was supposed to. She was told that the cord came with it
    via u/djchristensen
  • 50
    was the only way to charge. it. She balked at the statement and adamantly said that since it's hooked up to Targets free WiFi it should be charging. Sadly this is not the case and left spot not obscenities. Sad to think she thought wifi charged her iPad.
    via u/djchristensen

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