I spent a fair bit of my early adult life working in retail. I worked my way up from Worker Elf to Manager of a very busy store. I worked my share of Black Fridays, so I can speak of them not only from the perspective of experience, but now, distance.

Those Fridays sucked.

The “Black Friday Phenomenon” wasn’t a phenomenon at all in the 1990’s, when I was in the trenches of retail sales. We sales associates called it Black Friday for having to deal with the teeming hordes of people who would come through our places of business; those masses were enough to blacken anyone’s mood. There were sales to be had, for sure, though not at the establishment I worked at, which was famous at the time for only having one sale a year, after Christmas.

I remember well the crowds of people. I remember trying to get through the packed store to the break room so that I could unwind for a few minutes. Once there, my coworkers and I traded stories of shopper meltdown and unreasonable demands. No one really seemed happy. The sales staff would have preferred to have been home with their loved ones. The shoppers weren’t exactly having fun, either. They were marking items off their lists, grinding the gift purchasing out and getting it done.

All I knew at the time was that Black Friday kicked off a six week period of very long days. Product couldn’t get onto the floor fast enough, and everyone’s nerves were frazzled. It wasn’t merry, and it wasn’t jolly. It was ho-ho-ho-rendous.

I did earn a lot of overtime during those holiday seasons. Thank you FLSA.

In the years since leaving retail, I make it a point to NOT visit a store on Black Friday unless it is absolutely necessary. I guess it’s my own version of Buy Nothing Day. I’ve ventured forth in previous years for cold medicine and such, but I stay home if I possibly can. There’s no deal out there that could lure me into a hotly crowded store. There’s no bargain that could make me feel OK with plunking an item on a counter and enduring the tired stare of an underpaid sales clerk who hasn’t had a break in way too long.

Now, to those who went out and nabbed that huge flatscreen television for a song today, good for you. I truly hope you got an awesome deal, and that you paid cash. However, I was content to stay at home, read, do a little laundry, and think about the coming holiday season with quiet anticipation, not wild-eyed frenzy.