Black Friday Gets Blacker

Apparently this year many stores are celebrating Black Friday on Thursday night. Some stores opening as early as 4pm on Thursday to be exact. In Maine, laws prohibit businesses from opening before midnight on Friday morning. Lucky for us here this is not the case.

Things are worse for employees for Target and Wal-Mart as work stoppages could upset the flow of business on Friday. It seems that employees at Wal-Mart are making demands that I find rather foolish. The following is a list of some of their major demands:

1. Better working conditions – Seriously, what are they looking for here? It’s Wal-Mart known for being a dumpy place to work anyway. Are they expecting massages and buffet meals for lunch breaks? If you work at any retail store, expect a crappy work environment no matter what.
2. Desire to unionize – This will never work, as people will complain that they are never paid enough and there never would be any fairness.
3. Increase the minimum wage to $13/hour – This is absolutely crazy. During my 12 ½ years I spent with Staples I barely made over $10.50 over all them years. I saw a television interview with one employee who has worked for Wal-Mart for only 4 years and is making almost $10/hour. It took me nearly 9 years to get to that level. These employees don’t know how good they have it when compared to other retail jobs. In fact, I applied several times in the past with Wal-Mart and each time I went for a lower pay rate each time starting at $10, moving down to $9 then to the low point of $8.50. Still, the company NEVER considered my job application even though I had over 21 years of retail experience! Certainly Wal-Mart is a stupid company.

Overall, I feel that if you work in retail, then you should not bitch about Black Friday. However, during my existence with Staples, I had made an agreement with the manager who gave me full time status that I would work both Saturday and Sunday of every week (except vacations) in exchange for having off Tuesdays and Fridays for personal reasons. This worked for several years until one dumbass manager wanted everybody to work that Friday no matter what. What really bothered me about that was the first year I did that was that my annual trip to Connecticut had to be cancelled because I had to be back on Friday and would otherwise not have made it back on time. What was really sad about that was that my uncle died a few months after that Thanksgiving and I would never be able to spend another holiday with him ever again. I never forgave that manager or Staples for that as a promise was broken and for showing up at 1pm on Friday to a near empty store for the rest of the day. Certainly wasn’t needed that day at all nor was I ever needed on any following years that I was forced to work or else get fired.

This leads to my final comment about this day. No job is worth losing. However, if these employees wish to strike and jeopardize their jobs then there are plenty of people who would be glad to take their jobs and possibly at a lower pay rate. I can’t wait to see how all this plays out.

So maybe I will be joining the crowds at the mall or Target or possibly even Wal-Mart just not at midnight though. Until next time, enjoy the extended weekend and the impending holiday.