Archived Black Friday Open Time Guessing Thread

[TeamRed]

I bet it will be 6 PM or 7 PM heck for all we know they probably won't close at all they will just leave it open 24 hrs you never know with Spot.

 

[Bored Food Aver]

I bet Target will keep all their stores open from midnight the Sunday before Thanksgiving and just run it 24/7 from there, that way all the stupid Black Friday shoppers can get all the shopping they want and Target will rake in all the money and make us all tired and hate Black Friday even more than we already do...

BUT JUST THINK OF WHAT WE CAN DO WITH THAT $5 we saved off a F**KING 100" Plasma TV!!!

(I'm sore on this subject if you didn't guess that already.)

Seriously, having to open Food Ave on Black Friday at my store blew... hard.

All those dumba**es that sat outside in the cold rain last year... then made me have to cook food for them for 5 HOURS straight!? F**k that sh**.

I'd rather be at home with my family.

 

[buliSBI]

I am now seeing a soft opening Red Card event. Have an event setup where guests can come in starting at 4pm-10pm Thanksgiving day but they can only enter the store by showing a Red Card, temp card, or willing to sign up for a Red Card. They would get first dibs or special offers just for having a RedCard. Store closes at 10pm. Cleanup and rough zone. Then open at 4am for a public hard open.

 

[buliSBI]

What was wrong with the 6am-7am openings? The last few years I worked, I opened at 6am then 4am. The chaos of Black Friday that it has now turned into is not worth it. Most of the Black Friday sales are cheap junk. Who wants to buy a 30" Apex TV for $50 only for it to burn out a month after turning it on.

 

[Retail Girl]

Sher, if there's no way that you can work overnight, offer to close instead. I closed two years ago and it was a lot easier than working during the ungodly hours of the morning. The only reason I could do the overnight last year was because I was already working overnight on a regular basis at the time.

All that would do is set her up to possibly end up working two shifts on Black Friday. And that's even less fun. 😛

 

[Deli Ninja]

I'm personally considering volunteering to open Thursday (assuming that this will happen) and closing Friday. Hopefully that'll cover all the gifts I'd like to buy for my family and friends and the rest of that check can go toward the necessities...
I'm betting we won't open any earlier than 9pm. It just doesn't make sense... The extra payroll wouldn't be worth it, from what I've heard/seen.

 

[redeye58]

I opened FA last yr. Early in, early out.
The first hrs were crazy, we did breakfast AND pizzas, people would come over to our line after ordering their Starbux.
By the time I got off, it was like a morgue & I picked my way through the wreckage for the good buys I needed.

 

[Bored Food Aver]

I opened FA last yr. Early in, early out.
The first hrs were crazy, we did breakfast AND pizzas, people would come over to our line after ordering their Starbux.
By the time I got off, it was like a morgue & I picked my way through the wreckage for the good buys I needed.

It was hell. I have 'Nam flashbacks about it to this day.

The horror.


The horror...
The horror...
The horror...
The horror...
The horror...

*goes back to my happy place*

 

[mrknownothing]

Sher, if there's no way that you can work overnight, offer to close instead. I closed two years ago and it was a lot easier than working during the ungodly hours of the morning. The only reason I could do the overnight last year was because I was already working overnight on a regular basis at the time.

All that would do is set her up to possibly end up working two shifts on Black Friday. And that's even less fun. 😛

That's true, I didn't think about that. Her store will need people to work during the day, but they'll probably be scheduled at random.

 

[redandkhaki]

Do you guys remember the TM that started the petition last year? He worked in my district and my STL was really good friends with his STL. That guy asked for BF off months before hand and they gave it to him because of the reason he asked. Because he threw that in their faces that store now blacks out that weekend for time off requests so everyone knows where they stand. Our store allows a limited few to ask off if you have a specific reason and you better get your requests in quick. We also have sign up sheets stating what you want to work and for the most part we do try and abide by that. 99% of all the cashier's first pick is to open so we have a sheet that has time slots and you pick your first, second, and third option, and I try my best to make it happen for everyone. We also have a ton of TM's who want to work double shifts so it's not too hard for me. Of course last year Me and my ETL-GE were right with those cashiers doing a double. If i won't do it, I won't ask my cashiers to do it. We also ask people to come in early if they want if they're opening and we provide desserts, soda, music, and just try and have a good time before hand. I'd say about 70% of the openers come in early for that. I hope that happens again this year!

 

[sher]

Thanksgiving is a blackout date? I still don't understand how it's "black Friday" when clearly everyone's calendar, phone, computer, etc says it's Thursday. I opened last year and walked in at exactly 9oclock (some people were scheduled for 8:45) along with all the shoppers. It was horrible and I didn't know where anything was and I didn't get a map because I didn't realize there were maps. I've never shopped a BF. I didn't know things would be in random places around the store.

Also, it's not that I can't work 9pm BF. I just don't want to lol. I didn't even really go to Thanksgiving last year. I slept most of the day in preparation. Well, I stopped by, took pics in red & khaki with my niece and nephew, ate, and made a to-go plate for my BF meal break. My etl gave us a chance to get out of it, though. I didn't take the out last year, because I didn't know what to expect. I'm complaining now, but I'm sure if she wants me to work it, I'll just grin and bear it. I'm not really in a position to turn down extra money haha. So basically, if I'm scheduled for it, fine, I'll take it, but if I'm not, no complaints from me about not getting the extra money.

 

[Retail Girl]

Sher, if there's no way that you can work overnight, offer to close instead. I closed two years ago and it was a lot easier than working during the ungodly hours of the morning. The only reason I could do the overnight last year was because I was already working overnight on a regular basis at the time.

All that would do is set her up to possibly end up working two shifts on Black Friday. And that's even less fun. 😛

That's true, I didn't think about that. Her store will need people to work during the day, but they'll probably be scheduled at random.

I worked an overnight until 4am and had to be back at 1pm. So it's possible to do an overnight and a day shift and just plain want to slit your wrists over the whole damn thing.

 

[JuicedSoftball1]

I love the red card idea! The hours suck but it would be a great way to make people sign up if you had red card specials!

 

[GrumpyAP]

this is going to be my first ap-black friday and .... lord i'm underprepared.

last year, i pulled the open and close shift for bf. it was ... tiring to say the least.

 

[qmosqueen]

We are a new store with very high sales, and connected to a MALL. So I'm sure black friday we will open at 9PM.
The great thing for me is that i'm a PA (Perishable Assistant) so not much food selling after that big Turkey dinner.
I think for my area (Grocery and PFresh) the 3 or 4 days before Thanksgiving (Turkey Day) will be hardest hit.

Hear that HR schedule more TM's before Black Friday in Market !!

hmmm.. C&S truck (PFresh Truck) comes on a Thursday when will we get the truck for Thanksgiving ??
We get C&S truck Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday.

 

[doxie71]

We are a new store with very high sales, and connected to a MALL. So I'm sure black friday we will open at 9PM.
The great thing for me is that i'm a PA (Perishable Assistant) so not much food selling after that big Turkey dinner.
I think for my area (Grocery and PFresh) the 3 or 4 days before Thanksgiving (Turkey Day) will be hardest hit.

Same here. It will definitely be interesting. Glad I got out of HL when I did! Although with my luck they'll pull me from Pfresh for Black Friday and shove me back in electronics since I'm trained over there...

 

[Backroom81]

The thing I hate the most about opening up so early on Black Friday is that it just front loads our sales. When I last worked at Target, we opened at 6am for Black Friday and the CAFs dropped every 2 hours (11a, 1p, 3p, and 5p). The 1s would be the heaviest because only the grocery side dropped at 11 but manageable since I would have my whole staff by on hand by then.

Now, with opening at 9pm (last year anyways), we have 15 hours worth of sales racking up before a single CAF pull is dropped. Additionally, we have to send one of our guys overnight since our o/n team still has the night off. Normally, I would try to offset the CAF pulls by having the guy drop manual CAFs all night but the past couple of years, I show up in the morning with a PDA full of EXF pulls and a boot ETL demanding I focus on those. Then, he/she gets all surprised when the 12s drop and it's a 15 hour pull time.

 

[konk]

There has to be a better way than typing DPCIs into EXFs for the ad. Isn't there an ad category under pulls? I feel like every Black Friday is their first one.

 

[Backroom81]

Isn't there an ad category under pulls? I feel like every Black Friday is their first one.

Yes. When you create a Manual CAF, there's a prompt that asks if you want All Items or Ad Items Only.

 

[konk]

That's not what I meant, but would that work for Black Friday? I was talking about #8 or 10 on the pull list.

 

[Backroom81]

That's not what I meant, but would that work for Black Friday?

Not really. At every store I've seen, most of the major ad product for Black Friday tends to be staged on the floor near softlines so the mass of guests can just grab it with additional pallets of it under the line in the backroom to be sent out quickly as needed. There's such a high volume of seasonal, toys, and electronics being sold that's not in the ad that a manual CAF of all items in a fill group would have a much larger impact on the size of scheduled CAFs.

I was talking about #8 or 10 on the pull list.

Are you talking about the screen prompt when you enter the pull application (1-Autofill, 2-Research, 3-POG, etc)? If so, I don't remember off the top of my head what 8 and 10 are.

 

[konk]

Yeah, one of em (or a different one entirely) is ad something or other. I'll check tonight.

 

[konk]

#10 Ad Prep

 

[Backroom81]

#10 Ad Prep

In all the years I ever worked at Target, I have never pulled an Ad Prep batch. I don't even know how to make one.

 

[konk]

Same here.