Seasonal worker or fight referees?

It’s getting cold outside, and the weather is nipping at your nose. You decide to snuggle up under the warm blankets and sip on some hot cocoa, tea, or coffee. While you are snuggled up watching the battles in local Walmarts, Best Buys, and Targets go down online, there are people who work during the holidays seasons temporarily. Some students here at Imagine Prep have first-hand accounts of the fights and craziness seen on the news and on Youtube.

Some students here work at Kohl’s. One of them, senior April Cekosh, worked on Black Friday.

“Absolutely. Black Friday for sure. On Black Friday, I was working in our Home and Kids department, and this woman came up to me and asked if there were more Xbox’s,” Cekosh said. “I said ‘No, we are completely sold out.’ So she asked if there were any online, and I said ‘No. Sorry, we are completely sold out, and they were sold out before the store even opened.’ So then she said its Black Friday and it needs to be restocked and that she wanted the XBox now and expects us to sell it to her at that price. I explained we opened at 5:00 (p.m.) on Black Friday, whatever we have that’s all we have. If it’s sold out, I can’t give you any.”

While working on Black Friday one woman stormed out of the store, Cekosh explained.

“I was working POS (which is cashier), a lady said she has a coupon for her stuff,” Cekosh said. “She bought a lot of home stuff that’s a premium item and you can’t buy premium stuff with a coupon. I scanned it and it didn’t go through, so I explained this is a premium item. She got super upset with me saying “Why can’t I use it? I should be able to use it on everything in the store.” I turned it over and showed her where it says what you can and can’t use it on. She demanded me to call the manager, the manager said the same thing so she stormed out of the store.”

Senior Ryley Bates also works at Kohl’s. Although she never saw fights first hand, she heard about some of the fights from her co-workers.

“Black Friday at Kohl’s started on Thanksgiving night this year,” Bates said. “I didn’t get to see the fights, but I heard that some people fought over televisions, and electronics.”

Bates explained she originally didn’t plan to be a seasonal worker.

“I originally applied for a normal position as a POS or work in the Home and Kids department,” Bates said. “But when I hit submit it said the spot had been filled. A few weeks later, however, I got a call saying I could be a seasonal worker for the holidays.”

In 2016, senior Devin Pauzé had a seasonal job at the Surprise Walmart.

“Yeah, I worked Black Friday and Thanksgiving,” Pauzé  said. “It was crazy, there was one person who tried to steal a pair of headphones before Black Friday started and I had to chase her down through the aisles. As I grabbed it she just said ‘what just beat me up already.’ I said ‘I’m not gonna do that,’ so I grabbed the headphones and just walked away.”

Although the holiday season can get hectic, and Black Friday has come and gone, remember that the holiday season is supposed to spread love and joy, not fighting for televisions and headphones.