Black Friday

Need I say more?

Yes, I must!!! It is harvest season for retail! Now it is our turn to put in 12 hour days, and little sleep! Yee haw!

So, I am exhausted from working a double shift (11pm to 4 am, 9 am to 4 pm), and am ready to step into a hot bath, but my computer called to me. And, I thought I would share the joy and excitement of my day with you...if you are out there.
Opening the store at midnight...not all it is cracked up to be. My district manager told me to "Be Ready!!!", and I was! There were four of us, all waiting for a surge of people as soon as the doors cracked, but instead of a stampede, we got a trickle of the people who didn't want to compete with the stores across the way (Express and Pac Sun), who were trying to get 40% off before noon...which is kind of ironic, because their clothes are overpriced anyway, so even with the discount, they are probably still way more than DownEast's clothes, and not nearly as cute...if I must say so myself. Anyway, after watching the "bigger" and "better" stores get all the traffic, I felt a little discouraged. As I went back to the hotel room (I rented a hotel room down the street so I didn't have to drive 45 minutes to take a nap for a couple hours, then drive another 45 minutes), I felt a little discouraged. After all the hype about it going to be a dang good morning, it felt pitiful. Well, going back at 9 am, it was still on the slower side, but thankfully picked up around 11 am (our normal opening time...wish we could've opened regular hours). Luckily, there has been a steady flow of traffic since then.
I attribute the slowness to the store still being new, and not a lot of people knowing about it. In fact, most of our customers were from out of state, and they were just walking by and decided to come in and look around. Once inside, however, they fell in love with the clothes, and now want one in their city. But, for the Glendale, Arizona crowd, I am afraid we fell a little short of what I was hoping for. Maybe it will pick up throughout the season, and we will start showing those bigger stores who is boss. We have awesome sales going on every week, which should help fuel some interest in our unique, and affordable merchandise.
So, to finish my train of thought for this long and probably most boring post you've ever read, if you've made it this far, Black Friday wasn't half as scary as I anticipated. And, if anything, I found out who my best employees were, and who won't make it past December 31st. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and is finding the holiday season to be Merry and Bright!
The End!