Black Friday madness ensues

Despite its intense atmosphere, Black Friday became more of a holiday to me than Thanksgiving. With both of my parents being immigrants the Philippines, I have never felt deeply connected to the founding of this country and even less so after studying the brutal details of Christopher Columbus’ treatment of Native Americans in American History.

So when my mom shook me awake from a mashed potatoes induced food coma the day after Thanksgiving when I was twelve, it put me in a state of wonder to see clothes up to seventy percent off at the Gap or Target when I usually wore my sister’s hand-me-downs. As hectic and chaotic as Black Friday is, it is definitely a lot more relatable than the story of the Pilgrims and more interactive than sitting on a sofa watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Black Friday 2014 wasn’t very different for me compared to any other year, besides going with friends instead of my mom and sister. With a curfew of two in the morning, I left for the Glendale Galleria and Americana at Brand around midnight. The parking lot was beyond congested, with the temporary traffic officers for the holiday shopping season whistling in every direction. My first stop was Victoria’s Secret after getting dropped off, which had opened at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving night.

Although the store had only been open for about six hours when I had arrived, the damage was already done. Apparel lay strewn about in complete messes; perfumes, headphones and phone cases were on the floor, in drawers, just about anywhere imaginable. Women walked around in pajamas and UGG boots, carrying stacks of merchandise while men and children patiently waited for them, standing around the area of the store on smartphones and iPads.

Many Hispanic women looked as if they were doing hauls from the retailer, as fellow customer Jazmine Hernandez explained: “In Mexico, there aren’t any Victoria’s Secret stores so I end up buying here in the states. So when I go back or decide to ship things over there, I can sell them for higher prices. But I usually give them as gifts to my sisters and aunts. They love the bras and perfumes, especially.”

The line at Victoria’s Secret was by far the most time-consuming of the whole trip, being about twenty minutes long and measuring almost out of the store. Aéropostale’s line was about five minutes long, albeit much more disorganized.

The amount of people inside far exceeded its capacity with workers too busy restocking and refolding merchandise to regulate lines. A shortage of workers seemed to be a common issue among retailers, with Target’s workers nowhere to be found and when they were, too busy to even check prices.

Besides working at ludicrous hours for extended amounts of time, customers were harder to appease than usual on Black Friday. I didn’t witness any serious events of disrespect towards workers during my trip, but “serious” is an objective word. Many people snapped at workers to look for an item in their size or to check the price of something again and again, but nothing escalated past, “May I speak to your supervisor?”

Being scheduled to work on Black Friday is something of a curse to retail workers. Working for many more hours than usual is stressful, and sleep-deprived customers in severe rushes add onto that. Senior Hripsime Khachatryan said she worked Thursday night until Friday morning at Aéropostale during Thanksgiving weekend last year.

“Imagine the Lion King stampede scene at the mall,” Khachatryan said. “You’re a worker being Simba and the customers are the wildebeests, and now imagine them targeted right at you and it doesn’t end for hours. That is what it’s to work during Black Friday. I’m so much happier now that I’m working at Pacific Theaters. The stampedes only happen every so often during a rush so I have time to breathe. Apparently people would rather have nachos with extra cheese than a turkey, but hey, everyone’s got a different way of celebrating.”

Despite going shopping during the peak hours, my experience was as tame as I could hope it to be, and I was fortunate enough not to witness any Black Friday madness besides lengthy lines and highly impatient customers. Merchandise was seriously marked down as it was advertised, but the discounts are not longer worth the midnight trip and a body to body crowded mall for me. (Just managing to escape Forever 21 was a feat of almost worth bragging about.)

Maybe I’ll give Cyber Monday a shot next year, but for now my post-Thanksgiving consumerism is happily over with.

My exhausting experience isn’t much different from others. Junior Jada Javier shares my former passion for Black Friday sales. “My family and I go to a family member’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and leave around ten,” Javier said. “The first place we hit is Target for the electronics and appliances that my parents want.  Then we do what I want and go to Urban Outfitters and H&M, and we just sleep for the rest of the day after all that, it’s so exhausting.”

Other shoppers have chosen to ditch the vicious parking situations and overcrowded malls to surf the Internet for deals on Cyber Monday, the Monday following Black Friday. Both days had merchandise highly discounted, with shipping and handling as the main difference. Aside from the pain of having to wait for purchases to be delivered, the convenience of it is what kept people in bed on Black Friday and opening up their laptops for Cyber Monday deals.

Glendale High junior Brittany Beaton said that she didn’t enjoy the people shopping experience on Black Friday. “Everything’s picked apart and the stores are a mess, the lines are long, so there are obvious cons to Black Friday. Cyber Monday gives you a chance to stay home, relax and take your time while shopping, and most of the sales are equivalent or more beneficial than Black Friday’s,” Beaton said. “When I’m shopping online I usually go for summer or fall apparel, because that stuff’s way cheaper than winter stuff. My favorites are Urban Outfitters, H&M, Nasty Gal, American Apparel, Free People and Victoria’s Secret.”

In contrast with the shoppers that consume all that they can on Black Friday, many people choose to abstain from it altogether. “Black Friday is a ridiculous day where people become greedy and violent,” said junior Gennine Lagman. “It really defeats the purpose of Thanksgiving, when people get together and spend time being thankful for family and health and then a couple hours later they suddenly become materialistic.”

Lagman has a point, as eruptions of violence occur each year. For whatever reason, the rock-bottom savings seem to turn a few shoppers’ eyes into cartoon cash signs and take over all sense of boundary. In 2008, a worker at a Long Island Wal-Mart was trampled by a Black Friday crowd and found dead when the chaos ended. Wal-Mart seems to be a repeat offender of violent events, with two men being arrested in a stabbing over a parking space in Virginia during Black Friday 2013.