HumblePie
Lifer
Many here are aware of what last Friday wsa, but since not everyone might be, it was Black Friday. This is the opening day of the Holiday shopping season and it's called Black Friday because businesses are hoping to be in the black (ie showing a profit for the year) because of that one day. There are soo many deals, that people come out of the woodwork to go shopping. I've done the retail sales thing at Circuit City and Best Buy during those times to know how chaotic, packed, and crazy it can be. However, while I've heard yelling and heated arguements, this was the first time I've heard of this.
My friend was working yesterday during the Black Friday affair. He had been scheduled for a nice long 20 hour shift. He was scheduled to work the register all day and basically that means checking people out as fast as he can and moving the lines along at a steady pace.
However, where he was working at yesterday, there happened to he an absurdly low deal on a laptop with, as you might guess, tons of rebates and incentives off. One of them was an AOL signup discount. If you signed up for AOL for a year then you got the discount off. There weren't many of these laptops in the store in the first place and people had been waiting in line since the night before. All the vouchers had been given out already yet people waited in line still hopeful. Many people that had a voucher for the laptop didn't realize you had to sign up for AOL first before getting in line to purchase the laptop or they wouldn't get the discount. This meant many people with a voucher waited for hours in line only to be told to go to the AOL counter to sign up (which was a much shorter line) then the check out register. However, the register clerks would allow those people to cut back into the front of the line if they had waited in line the first time instad of making them spend another few hours waiting.
This is where the trouble began.
My friend got one of the customers with a laptop voucher who hadn't signed up for AOL first. He polietely pointed the gentleman in the direction of the counter and said he would let him back to the front when he came back form the AOL counter. The guy took off and came back a few minutes later. When he got back, my friend let him back to the front of the register line as promised. The problem was the guy BEHIND who got "cut in front" of and not realizing the whole situation. This guy literally goes on a RAMPAGE. He starts cussing and screaming at my friend workign there about letting people cut in line and he can't let his friends cut. When my friend, tried to explain why he had let the original customer get back to the front,the rampaging guy wouldn't hear anything of it. He just kept going on and on.
Finally, my friend said to him, "Look, I'm sorry but that is the way it is. I'll get to you when I get to you."
At this point, the insane customer does the really insane. He decks my friend and proceed to beat the crap out of him while others are dragging him off. My friend ended up with a broken nose and a mild concussion over the ordeal. The guy got carted off to jail at least.
But really, WHAT THE HELL??? Why would someone go that far off the deep end over that? I just don't get it. Especially on a day like that. Delays are to be EXPECTED. If you wanted to get in and get out of a shopping establishment then going on black friday is not the day to attempt that. Then to assault another person because you don't like how things operate? Morons.
My friend was working yesterday during the Black Friday affair. He had been scheduled for a nice long 20 hour shift. He was scheduled to work the register all day and basically that means checking people out as fast as he can and moving the lines along at a steady pace.
However, where he was working at yesterday, there happened to he an absurdly low deal on a laptop with, as you might guess, tons of rebates and incentives off. One of them was an AOL signup discount. If you signed up for AOL for a year then you got the discount off. There weren't many of these laptops in the store in the first place and people had been waiting in line since the night before. All the vouchers had been given out already yet people waited in line still hopeful. Many people that had a voucher for the laptop didn't realize you had to sign up for AOL first before getting in line to purchase the laptop or they wouldn't get the discount. This meant many people with a voucher waited for hours in line only to be told to go to the AOL counter to sign up (which was a much shorter line) then the check out register. However, the register clerks would allow those people to cut back into the front of the line if they had waited in line the first time instad of making them spend another few hours waiting.
This is where the trouble began.
My friend got one of the customers with a laptop voucher who hadn't signed up for AOL first. He polietely pointed the gentleman in the direction of the counter and said he would let him back to the front when he came back form the AOL counter. The guy took off and came back a few minutes later. When he got back, my friend let him back to the front of the register line as promised. The problem was the guy BEHIND who got "cut in front" of and not realizing the whole situation. This guy literally goes on a RAMPAGE. He starts cussing and screaming at my friend workign there about letting people cut in line and he can't let his friends cut. When my friend, tried to explain why he had let the original customer get back to the front,the rampaging guy wouldn't hear anything of it. He just kept going on and on.
Finally, my friend said to him, "Look, I'm sorry but that is the way it is. I'll get to you when I get to you."
At this point, the insane customer does the really insane. He decks my friend and proceed to beat the crap out of him while others are dragging him off. My friend ended up with a broken nose and a mild concussion over the ordeal. The guy got carted off to jail at least.
But really, WHAT THE HELL??? Why would someone go that far off the deep end over that? I just don't get it. Especially on a day like that. Delays are to be EXPECTED. If you wanted to get in and get out of a shopping establishment then going on black friday is not the day to attempt that. Then to assault another person because you don't like how things operate? Morons.
