The UK has recently imported this tradition, I just don't get it at all.
People literally stepping the fuck -on- other people just to get whatever the new electronic tchotchke is for this year.

Better writers than I have no doubt seen the parallels with religious manias, I just gape in horror at these sort of scenes. How did pople get this way?

"I'd rather pay more"

Fuck that. I ate grits and played with my cats. The day was wasted, but I love grits.

http://tinyurl.com/gvfc58e

Canadian version - wander to stores after work because I need a new stove. Everything is pleasant and quiet and I still get stuff on sale because I give no fucks about trying to get a door-crasher deal.

I accidentally did some black Friday shopping, I guess.

Went and got some fishing line replaced on a reel, inadvertently saved 20%.

Anybody ever worked a Black Friday before? I've vicariously worked 'em, between convenience stores and movie theatres and caretaking for most of my life, but I've never been in the Jankem, so to speak. What's the policy on "you break it you buy it when it's like 5 people fighting over the same product that turns out falling on the ground and breaking?

Played Earthdawn with some buds. Bought Chinese food. Didn't trample anyone. With good karma, the diarrhea dragon won't visit me tomorrow.

Some of these are repeats from last year :{

WORLDSTAR! WORLDSTAR!

Spent the day with my children and parents at Joseph D Grant park outside San Jose. 3 generations all had a nice hike and a picnic, with leftover roast beef sandwiches (no turkey, yea, so what), potato chips and beer. It was a great day.

Was wondering when the BF vids would start showing up here. I figured we grew tired of them like we did with this year's GOTJ

My family had Thanksgiving on Friday because some of us weren't able to arrive until then.

I watched this video while eating leftovers and smiling.

So many fatties.

This was the first year in over a decade my employer didn't force me to wake up at 3:00AM the day after Thanksgiving so I could be at work at 4:00AM to help prepare the store to open at 5:00AM.

Wednesday night, I worked from 12:30PM until 11:30PM hanging 22"x28" signs from the ceiling. There were 536 of these signs to be hung. The process of hanging a sign involves using a tool of my own making which I have dubbed "The Giraffe." It's a lightweight aluminum pole with gadgets on the end that let me attach the sign hooks to the twelve-foot-high ceilings and hang the signs from them. It's a pain in the ass, but beats our old method of dragging a ten-foot-tall ladder around and going up and down it to hang one or two signs at a time, especially if it means you have to move shit on the floor to reach certain spots then put it back where it was when you are done hanging. My coworkers still prefer the ladder method, even though I made enough Giraffes for everyone. They find the Giraffe "too hard" to master. They worked as a pair and hung signs with the ladder while I worked alone with the Giraffe. I hung, on average, four signs for every one they hung, so I guess I hung almost 400 signs single-handed. They were scheduled to come in at 4:00AM Friday, so I guess that's some small consolation.

When we were done, the signs were utterly useless. There were so many so close together and some of their print was so small, they were unreadable unless you were standing at just the right angle within ten feet of them. They were never intended to be hung from the ceiling. They're supposed to go in standing sign holders on the floor next to the items. They were also intended to ONLY call out certain items, but the district manager has a "100% signed" policy for sales meaning every single item in the sales flyer must have one of these signs to call it out. Since that many sign holders would make it impossible to walk on the sales floor, so they came up with the idea of hanging them from the ceiling.

Even worse, the store manager has a policy of calling out some items with signs in sets of three. They had been to another store where a stack of items had three signs in a sort of triangle formation over it and thought they did a good job of calling attention to the item. That these were probably the only signs hanging from the ceiling in that whole store was irrelevant. The fact they were in a set of three was what drew attention. And so, for many items, we must hang three identical signs in a triangular formation with the middle sign being at a higher elevation than the other two. There were eleven such formations around the store, surrounded by a sea of other signs that were not in this formation.

At one point, our head of Security & Loss Prevention came up and asked how many more signs I was going to hang. I pointed to the rolling bin I was using to cart the damned things around. They asked why I was hanging so many signs and I explained the orders came from higher up. They told me to wait for a minute then stepped over to one of the phones we have on the sales floor. They had a brief sharp conversation with what I presumed was the store manager. The security head came back over and told me to keep going. They didn't seem happy about it. After we had finally gotten all the signs hung, I noticed the security head going around photographing the ceilings to show the masses of hanging signs and the way they obstruct the views of the security cameras.

Maybe we won't have to do this next year if security has their way. Maybe, but I doubt it. As long as managers deliver the right sales number, they can pretty much do what they want and the head office, which doesn't want to "mess with success" will let them.

Yesterday, I went in at 8:00AM. My coworkers, who had to be there at 4:00AM, told me there hadn't been a huge line of people waiting to get in as there had been year before. Most people I spoke with estimated it to be about one-third of the size from previous years. The store manager and departmental managers were nervous. They snapped orders at everyone and were generally ill-tempered. Their moods didn't improve until around 1:30PM until a flood of customers hit the store. My guess was most people decided to wait until after lunch to go shopping this year. The managers were suddenly walking around with big smiles on their faces. They get bonuses and promotions based on the stores' sales. Plus, if sales get too low, someone from headquarters comes in and starts telling them how to do things.

Our whole organization is based around rewarding people for grinding down their subordinates and holding them accountable for things beyond their control. No amount of signs will convince people to spend more money.

When I first got in yesterday, a coworker and I built Santa's house. The coworker, who had come in at 4:00AM, spent a lot of time sitting in Santa's throne, complaining about their sore feet and back. I let them. I know it must have been rough. I've been there before.

Our big problem was, the manager had said they were going to buy a new setup for Santa this and had instructed us to throw the old ratty stuff out. Despite being reminded several times throughout the past year, the manager never got around to ordering anything. We had to improvise from what we had on hand. All we really had from the old stuff was Santa's throne and some giant candy canes. We converted blankets & sheets into backdrop curtains, hung Garland, got a pre-lit tree & decorated it and spread a red rug on the floor. We had to take these items from the store's inventory and will probably be using them again for years to come.

Last night, starting at 6:00PM, I pulled down many of the signs. These were for items that were only on sale Friday. I took those down and put up signs for items that would only be on sale Saturday. My coworkers were long gone, so it was just me this time. It wasn't so bad. Taking signs down is a breeze and there weren't nearly as many to put up. Still, I was there until 9:30PM.

Tonight, I go in at 5:00PM and take down all the Saturday-only signs. Again, it will be just me as my coworkers are all working from 10:00AM until 2:00PM today. Monday morning, we have to take down all the remaining signs before the store opens. It will be a rush to do so, but it's better than going in Sunday night to do it.

Of all thing things to be thankful for at Thanksgiving dinner. Be thankful you don't work retail.

You couldn't pay me to go out and get anything in that shit, and if you expect me to pay for it you're insane.

every "person" in these clips are disgusting

Doesn't it seem like we're a species that is just a hair's-breadth from realizing what's important in life, but we find ways to make that gap canyon-wide, and just all of the fucking time, too??