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Christi Diggs
on May 23 2013 - 06:00 AM
A drop of spin, a cup of deception and tsp. politics=Apathy
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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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- kim nakahodo - Profile | Pictures | Blog
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I write the same blog every year pleading with people to remember their fellow man during the holidays. No, not the ones that the red kettles do good work for; the ones that march the tile floor in your favorite retail store.Every year, the Black Friday Madness gets earlier and earlier and this year is no different. It seems that the stores are slated to open at 8 p.m. this season. That seems crazy, but foreseeable. I predict next year will be 6 p.m. and subtract 2 hours each year that follows. This won’t stop. I don’t care how many petitions are signed or how many of my old nametag brothers and sisters threaten to strike, big box stores will not go back. You know why? Because shoppers will show up no matter what time that store opens.Not to sound cold, but they know shoppers will show up if you cut out Thanksgiving all together. They just haven’t had the guts to do it….. yet. I can’t fault them for this; they have shareholders that want profit. They fear that a competing store will edge them out if they don’t open at the same time or better yet, they can beat them to the punch by opening up before their competition.After all, this is the week that retailers push their books into the ‘black.’ Most retailers operate at a loss all year and make it up in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This urban myth is true; at least it was in my retail experience. Our store would do months worth of transactions on that magical day. I know my area would do hundreds of transactions with a mighty staff of 3 registers. YES! 3! The rest of my crew were on the floor trying to help guest and keep the craziness at a minimum.This is easier said than done. I can’t tell you how fast humanity breaks down during the madness. When someone sees that a bin of their prized discount item is getting low, the crazy takes over. I have seen it HUNDREDS of times… and it gets nastier every year. My fondest memory would have to be the year I was mauled for no-named MP3 players. I brought the last box of these hunk-of-junk players out of the back room and I heard it…. “SHE HAS THE LAST BOX!” It was like ringing the dinner bell in a tiger pit. Those ladies were on me in a hot minute. The great thing was, I saw EVERYONE of them the day after Christmas in the return line.So I will leave you with this plea, be kind to your retailer. They are away from their families, working VERY hard under excruciating conditions so you can buy discounted no-name electronics. REMEMBER – if a deal is too good to be true, it probably is!
If more people would shop local and stay away from the big box store, they would get higher quality items, keep money in their commuties, use less gas and so on. Buy local!Each year I find it easier & faster to shop online. I've seen great online deals on various items from all sorts of places. I'm thinking about sleeping in.Last year I did brave Black Friday in order to go to Toys R Us when it opened at 9, and then went to Target when they opened at midnight. I thought everything was orderly at both places, at least in the lines outside. What I thought was crazy was the line inside Toys R Us just to pay. I won't do that again. I was so glad to get the one item I needed at Target and then leave and go home to bed. I'll look at the ads this year, but I highly doubt I'll be out in that mess again.
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