* My black friday plan *
1. Go to the bar after turkey dinner, drink heavily.
2. Bar closes at 4am, leave.
3. Grab a quick bite at the 24 hour diner on the corner.
4. Arrive at your store of choice near 5am.
Note: If you are going to Best Buy, bring a flask and travel in pairs. You need someone to hold your spot in line while you take smoke breaks.

While I sure as hell don't miss Black Friday, I do miss getting holidays off. Since I started working in healthcare about 10 years ago, I think I've had one Thanksgiving off. I'm trying to get someone to cover my Xmas shift this year, but it's not looking good at this point. Bah.

I never understood the post-tryptophane shopping rush. I avoid all stores like botulism on black Friday. There is no sale deep enough to lure me from the comfort of my couch.

*slips a twenty in jon's g-string*

Careful honey. The scars are still healing from all those c-notes back in my exotic dancer days.

I'm with pips- I wouldn't want to go shopping on Black Friday. I worked it during my retail days, and that was enough.

My boyfriend actually suggested going (engagement) ring shopping that day - I told him he was nuts! I'm not going anywhere near the Mag Mile on that day, and Jeweler's Row = too close.

For non-Chicagoans, the Magnificent Mile is the stretch of Michigan Avenue downtown where all the big stores and fancy boutiques are. Jeweler's Row is pretty much self explanatory.

Instead we'll be getting drunk and playing D&D with our friends.

I think our plan is to sleep in and play rock band/super mario galaxy. I might head out to the yarn store to pick up some discounts, but that's it.

Ah, Black Friday.

I wish I wasn't so damn drunk, or I would make this, long, like 8-para comment.

Anyway.

I wish I wasn't so damn drunk, or I would make this, long, like 8-para comment.

OK, now you have to. Please?

OK, now someone has to explain what is so special about this Friday.

dg: You're a non-US bunny, right? As the day after Thanksgiving, it's the first official shopping day of the Christmas season here in the US. Everyone goes crazy, stores open as early as midnight or 1am, others at 4am or 5am. Long lines, lots of people, lots of money.

dg: Black Friday is the day that all retail workers dread. If they have children, it's what they tell their kids about to keep them in line.

The day after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Xmas shopping season, with huge sales events at all major (and most minor) retailers. Consumers know about this and use it as a warm-up for the nasty despicable behavior they will exhibit through to the end of the after-Xmas sales sometime in January.

Let me put it this way: the last retail job I worked (Tower Books in Sacramento) encouraged us to take out lunch hour at the bar across the street on Black Friday - and, indeed, for the remainder of the holiday shopping season.

Fuck You, Pay Me.

A friend of mine quotes this to me often when I tell him a former mutual boss of ours is calling me to do work for pittance.

Black Friday: Do Not Want. I'd much rather go for a hike in the woods and happy hour starting at 3pm.

It's, of course, called "Black" Friday cause, presumably, with all the shopping, it's the first day of the year where the stores' bottom lines go from red (in debt) to black (profit!). For me, when I too toiled in retail, it meant black armbands.

I've only ever been off work once for Black Friday, and I had fun. Of course, you go into it knowing there will be crowds, and you go with a plan. And I certainly did not go at 4 am. I arrived around 7:30, with a list, found what I wanted (plus, stuff for me!) and was literally in and out of each store within a half hour, average. Oh, and I went alone, as Mr. V would not have the patience.
Heck, after putting up with all the turkey fiascos at work, Black Friday is a cake walk.

Ah, I thought it must be something like that. Here, it is the post-Christmas sales (retailers would not dream of major sales before Christmas when people will spend no matter what the prices are) where chaos reigns. The post-Christmas sales are usually news story #1 for a few days before and after and most centres have police on duty and huge numbers of private security guards in every shop just to stop people scratching each other's eyes out. People have, literally, died in the rush to get into centres the instant they open and people camp out the night before to be at the front of the line. Bizarre stuff.

Same here, dg. I used to work at a large record store whose Boxing Day sale was ridiculously popular. Staff had to work 12 hrs on that day or they were fired (which made it kinda difficult to see your family for Xmas if they lived elsewhere), and people would camp out the night before. They would actually leave their families and/or friends on Xmas day to camp out on a sidewalk in the rain for the privilege of lining up in a sweltering, crowded store to buy cheap stereos and cds and such. I never did figure that out. It was the one time of year when our oxygen tank actually saw use--people would pass out in the store and have to be brought into the back to be revived. (It was also when we discovered whether staff had been using it through the year to aid in hangover recovery.) I was so glad that at least my coworkers and I could hide out in the warehouse and drink good scotch or home-made eggnog or whatever delectable refreshments us warehouse people brought in.