- Black Friday can bring out the worst in some people.
- Retail workers Business Insider surveyed shared some of their most cringe-worthy stories.
- We also scoured Reddit for workers’ horrifying accounts of Black Friday mayhem.
If you ask the people who work in retail, Black Friday is rarely described in the most flattering of ways.
“Being retired now, Black Friday is a nightmare of the past,” a former retail worker told Business Insider. “In my many years in retail, each one seemed to get worse.”
This isn’t to say all Black Friday shoppers are horrible people.
As one retail worker told Business Insider, “For the most part, people have always been very nice and patient. They can see it’s busy and I’m doing my best to get everybody taken care of.” They said it’s usually the customers who are never satisfied — “we can spot them a mile away” — that are more likely to make a scene.
In honor of the “wild and hectic” day when everyone is “tired and cranky” — their words — Business Insider asked more than 40 Black Friday workers to share some of the most outrageous things they’ve seen working Black Friday.
We also scoured Reddit for horror stories told by former Black Friday workers.
SEE ALSO: 14 things Black Friday workers wish shoppers would stop doing
DON’T MISS: Black Friday workers confess 9 things they’d love to tell shoppers but can’t
“Black Friday is like Hunger Games. The tributes are released, and everyone thinks they are extra special, so they should be allowed to just open pallets and take whatever they want well before the sale.”
“I once saw a fight between strangers because someone changed lines. They did not cut in line, they just got behind the other line. And someone in front of that person — so no way they were being affected — decided to verbally attack this person …
“… the person fought back. Nasty things were said, and both these individuals had kids with them to witness this.'”
