Store managers told us many times leading up to this Black Friday that we might be "pleasantly surprised" by what time we open. Well, it seems we're opening at 5pm Thursday, which I'm pretty sure is an hour earlier than last year. Apparently we don't care about the negative press that's starting to be a bit overwhelming.
87 thoughts on “November 12, 2014: Well, Maybe Next Year”
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I thought your headline referred to the Potter County Battlers volleyball team, which came one game short of reaching the state tournament last night. On the other hand, they lost to the other team in my parish, the Sully Buttes Chargers, who will go to the state tournament.
It might make me a bad person, but every year I wish for dry-as-dust turkeys and dinner table squabbles for anyone who plans on participating in commerce that forces a retail worker to work on Thanksgiving.
I'm with you . I remember last year I forgot something when we drove to Omaha, so I made a Target run Friday morning around 10am. The store was a ghost town with about ten employees for each customer. Apparently the early rush doesn't last too long. Such a waste.
Yeah, that happened last year. Last year we stayed open all through the night; I worked 5-12, was off all night, and then did a mid shift Friday. Some of the all-nighters were saying they saw no more than 10 or 15 customers, and it was dead well before I left. This year we're closing from 1am to...something, which I guess might be the "pleasant surprise" my GM alluded to.
I think I heard 8 am. What I don't understand is, why not make 8 am Friday morning the "door buster" time instead of f***ing dinner time on Thanksgiving day?
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
I thought the midnight sales were kind of pushing it, but I think those were a much better situation than 5pm ON Thursday, even.
Yea, I don't get the business side of this. Are retailers really making money off of these stupid arrangements?
The numbers suggest we aren't, but I guess the fear is that if we open eight hours after other retailers, everyone will be done shopping. I can't agree. These once-a-year shoppers would do this every day if they could. They're addicted. The people I see on Black Friday are people who never come into the store otherwise.
Woud it be fair to view the Thanksgiving "deals" as a perk from the retailers for their shopping addicts? I think a retailer could set itself apart by offering the same deals on Friday or Saturday, but perhaps a greater percentage of those "deals" would go to non-addicted customers, making them less attractive to those who already have swallowed the hook and are reliable spenders.
I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my wife participating in Black Friday. I've expressed my displeasure with the idea many, many times but it never works. Thanksgiving is one of the two holidays I really enjoy (the other is the 4th of July: Thanksgiving on the grill) and it sucks that a large number of people across the country don't always get to enjoy it because of "deals".
I don't think you need to apologize for Black Friday, since that's on Friday and not Thursday. That said, I like to participate in Black Friday, but from the comforts of my PC.
This. Linds and I do a lot of shopping (especially media shopping) on Black Friday weekend. We tried doing the actual at-store Black Friday shopping one year, and it was frustrating and not particularly enjoyable. Online Black Friday shopping is awesome.
While you're at it how about all the employees forced to work at hotels, restaurants, airlines, police, firemen, casinos, convenience stores, the army of people it takes to put on a professional football game and the thousands of others working on Thanksgiving. Personally, I think the whole black friday/thanksgiving day shopping is stupid, but as someone who worked in the hospitality industry for years I'm not going to get upset about retail workers having to work.
The major difference is that you don't sign on to a retail job under the assumption that your holidays will eventually be taken from you. In those other industries, you know it going in.
This, particularly for essential services (police, fire, medical, energy, military). Everyone gets holiday duty at some point (unless somebody is playing favorites), so while it's a bit disappointing to be at work instead of with family or friends you don't grumble too much.
I remember my father saying that while he was in the Army the Jewish servicemen would take shifts on Christmas or Easter and be relieved for the Jewish holidays, and vise-versa
How long have retailers been pulling this Black Friday stuff? I think by now, most employees know what to expect.
That doesn't mean I'm a fan. Just that it ain't exactly a surprise anymore.
Not long. The first seven years I was in the company or so, we opened at six in the morning on Friday (or within an hour or two of that). It was fine. It went to midnight two years ago, which was kind of idiotic because after the initial rush we were completely dead for hours. The "fix" for that was last year when we opened at...I'm seeing 7pm from my co-workers and former co-workers on FB.
New employees know it now, but this may have been a major consideration for me when I joined the company.
Don't forget newspapers and news services. I went for years without having Thanksgiving off because it was a low priority compared to other holidays. We would usually get two days off out of Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve/Day and New Years Eve/Day. I generally ranked Christmas Eve/Day 1 and 2 for my priorities (we open presents on Christmas Eve except for stockings, which are filled by "Santa.").
"Pleasantly Surprised" because there will be less temptation to actually attempt a holiday dinner with your family.
Holiday Luncheon!
But I thought they were claiming it would be staffed almost entirely by people volunteering to work that day. Surely they aren't coercing people into volunteering!
I'm not sure how it is everywhere else, but AZ is a "right to work" state so at least one or two of my managers already spend all year in the mindset that they can force the employees to do anything. Still, they do seem to take seriously the people who say "If I have to work Thursday, I'll quit" and those people aren't scheduled.
For me there's little reason not to do it. My family's all in Minnesota and it's time and a half, so as dumb as the whole thing is, I may as well get in there so someone doesn't have to. Of course, as one of the veterans, they'd probably want to strong-arm me in there anyway, even if I was against it.
Strong-arming veterans?!?! This shall not stand! I shall turn to FACEBOOK to spread my ill-informed rage!
Are you implying our veterans only have weak arms?
/Wishes there was someone here watching Jeeves & Wooster so I could make a Spode reference.
//PS. Found the entire Jeeves & Wooster series on DVD at Costco for three sawbucks.
ooh. I'll have to look for that Jeeves & Wooster set. I loved the books.
Hugh Laurie before he got all that.
My favorite Hugh Laurie before he got all that scene is the murder trial of the bird in Black Adder Goes Forth.
Oh man, my wife picked up Season one of "Bits of Fry and Laurie" from the library and it's the most AMR-tuned comedy I've ever seen.
But we couldn't watch it all because work's been busy and I left for deer camp.
Had teenaged or college-aged AMR been exposed to this he would have endlessly quoted it like some others quoted Mike Myers films.
How my college roommate of British heritage and a short British residency in his youth* never saw or told me about this, I'll never know.
*Just enough accent and that people would think he was gay and had an intentional affect.
I mentioned that show a lot a couple of years ago. Where were you?!
You mention a lot of stuff
and didn't embed any clips
and didn't tell _me_ specifically to check it out
I wasn't faulting you. You didn't know me as a teenager or colleger.
PS. Pepper: if you're still looking for funny stuff to watch with your friend, this comes highly recommended by me.
Excellent, thank you!
I watched it on PBS when it first aired. Not quite as good as the books (how could it be?) but still quite good.
In my wife's never-ending search for more British Literary Adaptations (That Aren't Bad)* at the library she picked up season one and I immediately flashed back to middle school where my literature teacher saw a restless, troublemaking, but somewhat kindred spirit and recommended some books about Jeeves. I never did, but I may still have that slip of paper with the book titles and author's name that she wrote in a box somewhere. I don't know how I would have appreciated them as an 8th grader.
*and some are bad... flat lighting, drawn out pauses, expressionless acting, appearing like plays filmed on site, poor audio without subtitles or even captions, accidental cuts, etc.
A reference to Spode spurs me to my semi-annual delurking so that I can share one of my favorite paragraphs in literature:
"The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going around in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting 'Heil, Spode,' and you imagine it is the Voice of the People.... What the Voice of the People is saying is: 'Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?'"
/raises a glass to PG Wodehouse
Was going to mention the same thing.
If my time conversions are right, Philae* landing should be just after 10AM...
*every news agency seems to be reporting it wrong; Rosetta is the probe, and Philae is the lander that was detached and landing on the comet, no different than the Cassini probe with the Huygens Titan lander. Rosetta isn't making the landing
And a selfie
Like Curiosity, that's when we find out, right?
We'll find out. Live from Darmstadt right now...
ESA releases first hi-res photo from the surface of comet 67P.
They really went all out to make that soundstage look real, didn't they.
It's today's Google Doodle, and the first link is to a CNN article with an auto-play video. Within 5 seconds, the reader says "...comet whizzing through the atmosphere..." Um, no.
Mrs. Runner informs me that one of the bowl predictions is Minnesota vs. Missouri in the Music City Bowl, which could be interesting...
We're a long ways from that. If the Gophers beat Nebraska and Wisconsin (regardless of how they do vs. Ohio State), they're in the B10 championship game. I would hope they would at least get to the Holiday Bowl if not the Outback or Capital One Bowl even if they lose the championship game.
Heh. Heh heh. Heh heh heh.
They beat Nebraska last year and they've beaten Michigan and Iowa this year. It's not too hard to conceive that they could beat Wisconsin in a down year for the B1G.
It would be interesting because the Gophers would have to be in the ACC or SEC to play in the Music City Bowl.
Not according to what she sent me:
Ah, I should have read before I said anything. Starting this year, there is a shared Gator Bowl/Music City Bowl tie in with the ACC/BigTen.
Fun fact: the last time the Gophers won a bowl game was the 2004 Music City Bowl. They beat Alabama.
If only there were places on the Interwebz that addressed these questions reliably.
If one believes the write-up in the Repository, the Music City Bowl gets the 3/4/5/6 team from the ACC this year vs the SEC #3. Its 6-year deal has three years each of ACC and B1G teams on one side of the ledger, but it's a little unclear whether that's 3 ACC, then 3 B1G, or there's some choice.
The above quote seems to suggest that the TaxSlayer-née-Gator Bowl gets first choice of ACC vs B1G, which would seem to imply that the Music City Bowl will get a B1G team this year.
Figuring out bowl scenarios makes my head hurt. Hahah.
I've mentioned before that one of my colleagues played a couple years of minor league ball for the Twins in the late Eighties/early Nineties. Today he showed me a note he received from a young baseball card collector who sent a couple cards for him to sign (along with an SASE - good job, kid!). Pretty neat stuff.
I know a young guy from our church drafted last year who told me his first (major) card should come out next year (I'm guessing in Topps' Bowman set) and I'm looking forward to seeing it in person.
SASE is a must -- good on him. I'm not into IP/TTM* autos myself, but there are many people who collect them.
*in person / through the mail
Judging by the handwriting, I'm guessing the collector was in third grade or so. Just the right age to get excited about getting the auto'd cards back in the mail.
Do minor leaguers who don't make it to the Show participate in signing events? I imagine it's hard to get autos from many of them any way other than through the mail.
Absolutely they do! They're the big draws at many events (don't forget Twins Fest has a several prospects there signing), and lots of minor league teams have cards made to give away as an attendance draw at their games. Topps (and other unlicensed brands) have minor league sets, too. Spring Training is another place to get autos. While I don't try to get autographs on cards, I do see if I can't get an auto or two on the cover of my game program.
I've traded cards with a guy in the Twin Cities who's business is to print cards for HS sports teams, so, I guess, there may even be high school "signing events"?
Many collectors won't touch IP/TTM cards, because technically they're "damaged" because they have writing on them! Only the certified AU cards for them (me included) -- in other words, it has to have been signed for the card company and inserted that way into the pack.
They don't have many former prospects that never made it to the majors though.
One of my favorite Seattle restaurants, the widely-esteemed Paseo, has closed in the wake of a lawsuit alleging labor abuse, unpaid wages, and racial discrimination. Paseo made some of the best sandwiches you could find anywhere on the planet; I still think about the sandwiches we ate there. Shout-out to ubes, wherever he is, for recommending we make a point of eating there in our first trip to Seattle. Unfortunately, the memories of that wonderful taste will now be tinged with this news.
Start practicing now, Citizens:
Glynn'd!
This looks like just a throw-in to the Glynn report, but I don't remember this being announced previously.
and as if by magicks, M11/16 now is a candidate for a AAA managerial job with the organization. It's almost like they were grooming him or summat.
Im surprised the internet did not because the Twins made another in-house hire.
Waseca'd.
heads up to the bird lovers in today's STRIB: Rescued hummingbird to get a plane ride .
Seems a bit ridiculous. Plenty of birds go to the wrong place. I had a Varied Thrush in my lawn last November, a Pacific Coast species similar to a robin. Should I have asked some authorities to get it where it belongs? What of the late warblers that may still be found in MN long after they should be in Central or South America? Are we caring less for them because they're just late and lost? They're just as likely to be destroyed by a winter storm. And what of those eiders? They should be on the ocean, not a mid-continent freshwater lake!
Any chance you can put the Woofs weekly schedule back on the sidebar? Even though the Ricky-less version is gonna be tough to watch, that always provided a valuable public service. To me. Thanks in advance.
seconded.
I may have lost the desire to follow the box score, but I'm still pretty pissed that tonight game is late since I can actually watch this one. At least the first half (and likely game) should be over by ten or so.
A home game, too. In Mexico City. (Also Central Standard Time.)
Wolvesian.
I hope papa Glenn got a little extra for the start time.
You betcha!
I will never get tired of seeing that pic in reference to money.
he does need a wad of money shoop'd into his hand, though
Yes. I've been negligent getting it done. Any suggestions for a title for this season?
Love's Labor Lost
Love Stinks, Yea, Yea
Ricky Don't Lose That Number
werd to yickit and other DC-area type citizens. Are you aware of this food blog??
Makes me want to make a trip.
Happy to report that my neck of the woods (Central Ave NE) is fast becoming Eat Street Jr. Too many to mention, really, but Chimborazo (which opened 4 years ago, though I only stumbled upon this summer) is my current fave. Wonderful Sopas, like the green plantain dumpling filled with meat and vegetables in peanut broth. O the roast pork--with llapingachos (cheesy potato pancakes) and fried plantains. Pretty much everything I've tried has been muy bueno. This is Ecuadorian soul food. Reasonably priced, too.
I gotta second the love for Chimborazo! Plenty of tasty vegetarian options. And it's fun to say llapingachos.
I think I'll be taking J here next time we're in the Cities.
Six, I'm in the North Loop now. Let's do lunch.
May have a couple free days next week. I'll let you know.
I was not, now I have something to read before lunch. Yum.
DGS is solid, I've been a handful of times.
Oscar Taveras had a BAC of .287 when he crashed his car. Just awful.
That's the news I've been dreading since I heard about the accident. Not that it would've been any more or less tragic had he been sober, it's just more ugly in the fact that it's so preventable.