Archived Any rumors yet on Black Friday open time this year?

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Last year, I was working at the (small, family owned) pizza place. My normal weekly schedule went like this: off for class on Wednesdays, worked Thursdays, and worked Fridays at 5pm. We knew at that point this would be the last holiday season my grandfather would be around for (he passed in January). At the beginning of November, I was asked (by text message) by the owner to work 10:45am to 8pm on black Friday because the family all wanted to go shopping for black Friday. I was the only one in the store who answered phones who wasn't family, and of course, the only one with family out of state (who happened to also have someone dying). I texted back that my plans were set, and I couldn't. The owner threw a fit. He threw a fit that I didn't even consider it by checking with my family first (why would I?) and how could I be so selfish? I wanted to laugh in his face....but he was being such an ass, I was the one in tears.

I held my ground. I said I couldn't switch shifts as I wouldn't be coming back until Friday morning/early afternoon, and would be back to work at 5pm. He told me I had better not be late for my shift (never been late in my life...so he was just being an ass). It was the best holiday we could have hoped for. Grandpa alert, jovial, feeling okay, and it was a great time. By Christmas he had gone downhill and already it wasn't the same. I cannot imagine having to have had to stay in state for that jerk of a boss who "had" to go shopping that day.

The best part? At 10am (well before he wanted me there at 10:45am) he posted saying they were home from shopping and eating breakfast and they had the rest of the day to do whatever (they got his grandmother to work, since she doesn't "do" Black Friday, but they were all still pissed at me anyway). So even though nobody's schedule would have been affected, and they still could have worked, they wanted me to miss a holiday with my family (and the last good one with my grandpa) simply so they could have an extra day off? Whatever.

I made the right decision. I knew it then and I know it now. I just wish I would have gotten out of there sooner, because they never forgave me for that.

I fully expect I will work a long day on Black Friday. I hope to be able to go see some family on Thanksgiving and not be alone. If my family lived in town, I would happily volunteer to work an opening shift so someone else could get a closing shift to go see family for the holiday and get back in time to work. I hope if they take requests, they'll let me schedule late to clean up the disaster and at least spend a day with my family. Time will tell...I'm just grateful to be out of the pizza place and that they've been so flexible with my schedule with school. I'll worry about the Black Friday debacle when I see the schedule.
 
PullMeBackIn said:
If this company doesn't care enough about us to give us a respectable warning/timeframe for us to plan our holidays, why should we be beholden to them?
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This is the damned problem. Walmart is waiting on Target and Target is waiting on Walmart. And while they're all holding out until the last possible second so the other store can't change its mind, all the employees get shafted in the middle.
 
Retail Girl said:
This is the damned problem. Walmart is waiting on Target and Target is waiting on Walmart. And while they're all holding out until the last possible second so the other store can't change its mind, all the employees get shafted in the middle.
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Which is funny because they just divide their consumer base by opening at the same time and Walmart has the advantage because they alllready run a 24 hour cycle.
 
Retail Girl said:
This is the damned problem. Walmart is waiting on Target and Target is waiting on Walmart. And while they're all holding out until the last possible second so the other store can't change its mind, all the employees get shafted in the middle.
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I work at Walmart and no one has said anything at all about Thanksgiving and Black Friday. I assume I am working some crazy shift and have already told my parents not to expect me for dinner that day. Last year, my shift started at 5 p.m. The schedule for that week is due to be posted this coming Friday night, so we shall see what happens.
 
pfreshdude said:
Which is funny because they just divide their consumer base by opening at the same time and Walmart has the advantage because they alllready run a 24 hour cycle.
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They may be open, but they don't want to start their Black Friday pricing too soon/late.
 
IMHO opening up anytime between 10 PM to 12 AM is insane because last year by 2 am it was dead at least at my store. I worked sales floor and we had nothing to do because the cashiers were doing our work! The GSTLS sent them out to do things because it was dead up front so they sent them to the sales floor and that made us dead on the sales floor because we were zoning and the cashiers were also zoning and doing reshop so basically everyone was running into everyone some people were even clowning around because they had nothing to do in electronics. I wish spot would open up between 2 am-4 am that would be ideal quite honestly.
 
TargetTeam said:
IMHO opening up anytime between 10 PM to 12 AM is insane because last year by 2 am it was dead at least at my store. I worked sales floor and we had nothing to do because the cashiers were doing our work! The GSTLS sent them out to do things because it was dead up front so they sent them to the sales floor and that made us dead on the sales floor because we were zoning and the cashiers were also zoning and doing reshop so basically everyone was running into everyone some people were even clowning around because they had nothing to do in electronics. I wish spot would open up between 2 am-4 am that would be ideal quite honestly.
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Which we should.. People would still come after they get done at walmart from their 10pm deals or whatever other stores deals earlier in the night.
 
We had our TL meeting about 4th quarter planning today and our STL said that while even she hasn't heard the official hours, she thinks it will be a later opening than last year. She went so far as to guess 4 or 6 am. Apparently official hours will be out next week so that we can write the schedule. Fingers crossed!
 
They had a sign up sheet by the time clock yesterday. It said that it was tentatively 12 but would know later. A lot of people did sign up for 12am.
 
we were told to plan on ten and 99% of my front end team signed up to open. I'm going to have a lot of angry cashiers!
 
i think i have about 5 cashiers that don't want to open. Since i have worked here it's always been like this.
 
At my store they do not care about times they just put people at the times they want. Never opened? They do not care! Never closed? Who cares!
 
The problem are going to be low volume stores. They will not have enough TMs or payroll to stagger enough coverage throughout the entire extended day. About everyone is going have to work a double or 2 shifts staggered shifts within 24 hours.

My home area has 3 low volumes and last year they did not get enough payroll to cover the entire 12am-11pm day. About all the TLs and overnight TM started prep at 8pm and barely got it down by 12am. Worked till 4am-6am. They left and came back at 2pm then worked till close.
 
Everyone has to work black friday, but last year there was a signup list you could volunteer to open, if you didnt sign up then you would get a different shift.
Are they doing that again this year or can we be forced to open whether we want to or not?
 
ncc1701 said:
Everyone has to work black friday, but last year there was a signup list you could volunteer to open, if you didnt sign up then you would get a different shift.
Are they doing that again this year or can we be forced to open whether we want to or not?
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that would depend on your own store. I put a sign up sheet for my cashiers and have them write down what they want to work. I try and give them what they want but like i said earlier 95% of them want to open so someone is going to be mad because they obviously can't all open.
Talk to your TL and let them know what you would want to work and see if they can work with that!
 
buliSBI said:
The problem are going to be low volume stores. They will not have enough TMs or payroll to stagger enough coverage throughout the entire extended day. About everyone is going have to work a double or 2 shifts staggered shifts within 24 hours.

My home area has 3 low volumes and last year they did not get enough payroll to cover the entire 12am-11pm day. About all the TLs and overnight TM started prep at 8pm and barely got it down by 12am. Worked till 4am-6am. They left and came back at 2pm then worked till close.
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While I think we had enough people last year, I am scared for this year. My low volume store is down people, as it is before we even think about the holiday rush.
 
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