I know I'm in the minority on this, but fuck Black Friday. If you've been around me for a while, this does not shock you. But I absolutely despise the naked greed of people who fight over stupid shit for a deal that really, in the big picture, isn't all that much of a deal. So here is my annual reminder to not give in to our corporate overlords. DO NOT GO OUT TOMORROW.
Do not camp out overnight at some store's doors. Do not give back all that money you make to the corporate scumbags you made it from. Do not resort to violence for stuff that you don't need. Don't do any of it.
And here's my entreaty to the corporate overlords: don't make your employees work on this day. Give them a fucking break. Let them stay home with their families. Let them take a day to do what they want to do, not what you want them to do.
I only ever worked retail one year during which Black Friday happened. Spoiler alert: I didn't work that day. Sears had a mandate, from the tippy top, that every employee must work Black Friday. I did not show up. I made it very clear to them that when they hired me, I could only work weekends. This was a supplemental job for my real job, where I made real money.
When I showed up for work the following Saturday the acting boss of the shoes department asked me why I wasn't there the day before. I told him exactly why. This isn't my real job, and if I lose it because fuck Black Friday, then so be it. I didn't tell him that I actually had the day off on Friday because, in case I haven't said it enough, fuck Black Friday.
I didn't get fired. I think it's because my boss felt doomed at that job, himself. Maybe he saw that I still had hope to escape the clutches of Sears. Now that Sears is gone I wonder what happened to him. It must have been a terrible day for him. I genuinely feel bad for him.
So yeah. Don't go out tomorrow. If enough of us stop doing this, Black Friday will stop being a thing. Let's make that happen.
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