Walking in to Journeys Kidz in the Greenwood Park Mall on Black Friday last year, senior Hairo Rivas had to go to work on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

“It was a really long day, and really stressful. You get a lot of headaches, and you get hungry,” Rivas said.

Another reason that working at Journeys Kidz on Black Friday last year was stressful was because if Rivas didn’t get a certain amount of sales, he could’ve gotten fired. He also says that the customers didn’t know what they were looking for, so he always had to be on the job and selling the entire time.

Not being able to sleep the night before and staying up past his bedtime was the hardest part of the entire experience for Rivas.

“I was really tired and I was hangry,” Rivas said.

Last year Rivas recalls  one very angry customer. In the Greenwood Park Mall, there is a regular Journeys and there is a Journeys Kidz. Journeys Kidz only goes up to a size 6 in women’s, and Journeys has 7 and above.

According to Rivas, a lady who wore a size 8 in women’s tried to fit into a size 5 shoe, so she didn’t have to pay more money for the size she actually needed.

“She got mad, threw the shoe on the floor, then tried to fit her foot inside of the shoe. It was really funny, and then she just stormed off,” Rivas said.

Rivas says that Black Friday will be easier this year, because he now works at Starbucks and they will just be doing their regular hours from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For senior Hailey McKinney, things weren’t much different than what Hairo experienced. She worked at UniversiTees last year on Black Friday and will be working there this year too.

She was scheduled to work last Thanksgiving from 6 p.m. until 1 a.m. and then she had to go back to work from noon to midnight on Black Friday.

“The hardest part of working Black Friday last year was the constant flow of customers,” McKinney said.  

It was her first time ever working on Black Friday and she got very little sleep in between her shifts.

Although she will be working at the same place she did last year, McKinney is now the assistant store manager.

“That means I’ll be doing the schedule for Black Friday and I’ll have a lot more responsibility as we start the holiday season,” McKinney said.