I SURVIVED!!

As you all know, I work retail. And the day after Thanksgiving is "Black Friday" (the busiest shopping day of the year), and I survived.

My shift was from 8-5 (which was perfect), and we were busy THE ENTIRE DAY!!! In fact, when I got there the line was all the way to the back of the store, and it stayed that way for most of the day. It did slow down from 1-2 (presumably because people were eating lunch), but then it picked right back up again and we had a line again.

One good thing about Black Friday is that (for the most part) people don't really fight with you about prices and such. They know what's on sale, and what's not. They also know that they have to wait in line longer if they make a big fuss about things. The other great part of Black Friday is that the day just flies by. Things seem to go really, really fast. Of course, we're so busy that you don't really have time to stop and think about anything, there's just too much to do.

One thing that I really didn't understand today was that we had some "Big Wigs" come into the store today. That wasn't so surprising, but what did shock me was that they came in at 10am and told us that the store was messy, and we needed to be better "recovered". Well, OF COURSE THE STORE IS A LITTLE MESSY!!!! IT'S 10AM ON THE BUSIEST SHOPPING DAY OF THE YEAR!!! DUH!!! I have to say, that considering how many people were in the store, and our sales, the store looked pretty good. I've seen the store a lot more torn up and a lot less busy. Oh well, we can always do better!! I was just shocked that they said that.

I have to work tomorrow at 6am, which isn't so bad (once you get used to getting up that early) and I have a huge list of things that I have to do. That's the great thing about working retail: there's ALWAYS a million things to do (but that's one of the worst things about retail too. You're NEVER finished!)

I've been a little nervous about things this year, with everything I've heard about the economy. But, I have a theory. We should all stop watching the news. All they ever tell you is bad news. Maybe if everyone stopped listening and thinking about all these scary things, things wouldn't seem so bad. I know this probably sounds weird coming from me (I am naturally a negative person) but, I'm really working on being more positive. I have noticed that things tend to go better when I'm really trying to be positive. This is one of the things I've learned from my boss Lisa. She is always positive. We could have 200 boxes in the back room and the store could be all torn apart, but she always says: "We'll get things done. We always do." Then she'll smile and go back to work. I'm trying to be more like her, and it makes a difference.