On most Black Fridays in previous years, I have been apart of the anxious mob awaiting any and every sale to occur throughout the Philadelphia metro area.
However, this year, I was on the other end of the Black Friday madness as a cashier at Rampage, in the King of Prussia Mall.
Since I was already aware of the massive crowds that pack into KOP every weekend, I was somewhat prepared with what to expect and acknowledged that it would most likely be multiplied.
Though it usually only takes me 30 minutes to drive from my home to the mall, I planned to leave an hour and a half earlier due to the pending battle for a parking space.
Since I was scheduled to work until closing, it was crucial that I park somewhere in the vicinity of Nordstroms that is located near our designated employee exit.
My search for a spot involved a half an hour of figure eights throughout the three levels of the parking garage and resulted in practically stalking two women to their car in order to retrieve their empty spot.
Of course, my need to be trendy and my inability to follow my manager’s’ directions, I wore boots with heals that began to feel three sizes too small after about five hours of continuously ringing up customers’ purchases. Fortunately I was prepared with a spare pair of shoes that I should have just worn in the first place.
The customers in Rampage were a lot more pleasant and patient that what I had expected. My co-workers and I managed to do a great job with keeping our lines flowing smoothly and approaching any and every customer that entered the store.
Though Black Friday was a lot more hectic than any other day in the mall, the anticipated negative attitudes were not present at Rampage.
However, the most unpleasant part of the day was the appearance of our store once all the customers had cleared from the mall at 10 p.m. Due to this factor and the large amount of money that needed to be counted from the day’s sales, closing the store lasted two hours as opposed to the regular one hour closing routine.
After 10 hours of work, I exited the mall at midnight I was relieved to see my lonely car sitting on the second level of the parking garage outside of Sears.
