Friday black as tar

It was cold and dark that morning. I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. I got ready and headed for Walmart. I lived in a small town, so there were no ultra-hip clothing stores or specialty electronic stores to stand in line for. Instead, most of the people in the Mini-Cassia area, who didn’t brave the bad road to go to the bigger cities, stood in line to get a great deal at Walmart. I met up with my friends Mayra and Paty. The lines for the stores were already long. They actually went out of the parking lot.My friends and I stood in line for about 20 minutes until we saw the store open. The lines were obliterated as people started running for the doors. I didn’t want to be left out in the cold, so I grabbed my friend’s hand and ran. They herded us like cattle into the lobby of the store. It was packed. I couldn’t move around much. After running around like a fool for about 10 minutes, I found my friend who had filled the cart with useless junk. She bought much of it for the simple fact that it was on sale. She checked out and we headed for breakfast. That was my first Black Friday experience. Two years later, I am in a different town and a different situation. I got out of bed on Black Friday, but this time it was to work at the Boise Towne Square Mall. Black Friday is the single busiest shopping day of the year. With all of the economic troubles this year, many were skeptical of how things would go. Early reports showed the crowds matched last year’s. Sales reports with dollar amounts won’t be available for a few days. And the masses of people did show. When I arrived to the parking lot of the mall, it was already full. I arrived at four in the morning. By the time our store was ready to open at 5 a.m., people crowded the doorway. Most of my fellow sales associates were nervous because we had never worked a Black Friday. Truth be told, I was nervous, because I heard all the stories of chaos and fights and workers getting slapped in the face by angry customers. I was what the retail service calls a "line tamer." I made sure the checkout line didn’t get too out of control and made sure people where checked out in a timely manner. A veteran worker told me that a girl that did my job last year was slapped by an angry customer, which made me very … worried. I surely didn’t want to get slapped in the face by some random angry women. This year none of that happened. The lines for Black Friday were long, but not feisty. People were eager, but not rude. Customers waited in line close to 40 minutes to check out, but nowhere near two hours like in past years. Through all the hustle, bustle and getting up early, Black Friday means one thing that makes Black Friday worth it all: Christmas is coming.

JULIAN RODRIGUEZ
Arbiter Journalist

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