Black Friday Stresses Teens Working in Retail
Rhieley Mulder, sales associate at Kohls in Neenah
November 30, 2019
Black Friday is without a doubt a stressful holiday for employees and customers alike; this is especially true for teens working in retail.
Rhieley Mulder, both shopper and worker, is familiar with the highs and lows of the bustling holiday. She currently works as a sales associate at Kohls in Neenah along with Clare Towne. “The customers flood in and the lines get really long. It can definitely get stressful,” Towne said.
Business Insider ranks in the top spots of large business websites. It was created in 2007 by Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget, who was a man of high status because of his exceptional works. Business Insider gives insight to teen involvement during Black Friday, claiming that adults cannot stay awake to engage in the Friday festivities. This easily explains why adults are losing interest in the Friday frenzy, and why teens like Mulder are being scheduled to work.
“I am looking forward to working Black Friday because I get paid a lot, and they have Thanksgiving food in the breakroom,” Mulder said.
She demonstrates optimism about the strife-filled holiday as her first shift draws near. “I enjoy shopping on Black Friday because I like good deals and I enjoy shopping in general,” Mulder said.
This attitude is growing among teens as they take over the Friday industry.
Clare Towne has worked Black Friday several times. “It usually isn’t busy all day because most of the shoppers who come in are older,” Towne said. She feels she is lucky to work in retail at a store that mostly entails older shoppers, instead of a teen-driven location like the mall. The holidays are like an airport, with people constantly coming and going.
Mulder and Towne both agree that Black Friday would be more manageable for the younger generations if older consumers built up the stamina to survive Black Friday.
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Kylie Strullmyer • Apr 7, 2020 at 1:54 PM
As someone who worked at American Eagle for 2 years, I can confirm that Black Friday is the busiest and most stressful day of the year for retail workers. There are both pros and cons for working on Black Friday, such as a pro is that everyone use to bring in a dish and we would have tons of food available to us to eat during our breaks. A con would be that the hours are longer, and the store stays open later and opens earlier. Some stores dont even close and stay open all night! Another con would be that it doesnt count as a holiday so workers dont always receive extra compensation for working exhausting long hours. There are both pros and cons to working in retail on Black Friday, but the experience is something that is worth the work.
Kara Cowell • Mar 30, 2020 at 9:49 AM
While this article is a bit of an older one, I think it is interesting to look back at the stressful time in retail on Black Friday and compare it to certain scenes in the retail world right now. While many stores are closed, the essentials of food and hygiene remain open and packed at most hours of the day. Additionally, similar to many stores pushing hiring before black Friday, many grocery stores currently are trying to hire seasonal workers during the crisis management period. Connecting most to this article though, I think it is interesting to notice that while teenagers were the majority population on black Friday, it is more the older populations who now brave the chaotic supermarkets to purchase the necessities. Putting these two unlikely scenarios side by side offers for a unique comparison which wasn’t even plausible at the time this article was written but is interesting to look at now.