Thanksgiving/Black Friday Tips
1. To echo
@slowhands stand your ground. There was a poster here last year who was at the electronics boat and got rushed by a bunch of guest. He says his walkie calls were ignored. If you fear for your safety don't hesitate to call "Cold Chilly Green" (Even if you aren't injured but are simply unsafe) -- your LOD is required to respond to such a call immediately.
2. Partner with your leadership to find out our Q4 Policies. For example our price match policies change a lot for the Holidays. May or may not have gotten into it with a seasonal who offered to price match Best Buy when I had just told a guest that we cannot.
3. Expect the worst then realize it's not so bad. The one nice thing about Black Friday is the store is staffed incredibly well. It's going to be chaos but once you relax and realize there isn't much you can do and you have plenty of people to commiserate with you leave at the end of the day not feeling so well.
4. If you're planning on calling out, when the schedule for Black Friday comes out next week please try to give your shift to someone who isn't scheduled (despite the all hands on deck calls, a few dozen people or so don't get scheduled Black Friday every year) Don't screw your team over if you can.
5. Don't get fired over merchandise. Our AP Director for our group was telling our ETL AP to watch people closely for purchasing guidelines and partner with my ETL for terms. If you hide merchandise for yourself you will probably get caught. We had some idiot on this site who used to brag about how he would hide merchandise for himself and other BR team members. He's gone now, maybe he left Target but I bet he got fired because he was a pompous idiot.
6. Enjoy the food at your store. I know a lot of stores say they don't have FFF days anymore but HR's are required to do food for at least Thanksgiving and/or Black Friday. We're also doing food several weekends in December. I'm going to encourage TM's who aren't scheduled to come in and enjoy catered food. If they don't provide any food call the hotline, they have no way of finding out it's you who called and the budgets for food in November is insanely high. Also your mood will be a lot better if you aren't tired and hungry, probably won't be able to help the tired but you can help the hungry.
7. Take your breaks and lunches. You work for Target you don't make enough to justify skipping them.
8. You will have some downright nasty guest. It's a badge of honor. Just remember they will be gone in 5 minutes and you will also see some extremely kind/friendly guest who help each other out or show genuine appreciation for you doing what you do.
10. If you need someone to talk to, take a moment to do that. Our group had a TM suicide Q4 last year. I don't think retail caused the suicide but remember the team is here for you. Speaking for my past experiences our camaraderie is always amazing Q4.
11. You didn't notice I skipped #9 haha
