December 24, 2004

Eight Hours to Go

One more shift and it's Christmas for me. Because of the lame NFL decision to schedule the Packers-Vikings game in the middle of the afternoon on Christmas Eve I expect a rush until the 2:00 kickoff time. 10+ will be waiting for our doors to open at 8:00 a.m. Once the game starts it will die down with the few non-football fans and truly desparate shoppers left.

This will be a wild day in that desparate people will buy anything we put in front of them. Some book we haven't moved all season could vanish in a matter of hours. The really hot item will be gift cards.

If this Christmas Eve is like the others I've worked, when my store closes at 6:00 we'll be kicking out 50-100 customers. Some will even grumble that we should be open later and even on Christmas Day. All the employees will try to make the store look somewhat decent quickly. No one will want to be there any longer than we have to.

Some may think that with Christmas here retailers can catch their breath. Not so. We'll be busy until kids finish their Christmas vacations. Even then, people will be returning stuff and spending their gift cards. To use a football analogy, we're almost to the end of the third quarter.

"Retailers Brace for Last-Day Blitz"