Spartan Daily

Spartan Daily



Updated 8:43 pm December 2, 2013









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Black Friday, the aftermath



by Laura Nguyen Dec 2, 2013 9:53 am Tags: black friday, customers, deals, early, Employees, family, money, sales, Thanksgiving, work





Before Breanna van Gastel, a senior child and adolescent development major, arrived at work around 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving, customers were already in line for Black Friday shopping.



“It makes me sad that every year we seem to be opening earlier and earlier,” van Gastel said.



Van Gastel said when she started working for Victoria’s Secret four years ago, the store opened at 7 a.m. on Black Friday and then began opening at midnight.



This year doors opened on Thanksgiving at 10 p.m., she said.



“I'm worried it will keep going until Thanksgiving doesn't exist anymore,” van Gastel said.



As college students enter the retail workforce, they may begin to realize that it can cut into family time and their social life.



“I personally don’t like Black Friday because it’s only been a larger problem in the last couple of years,” Gabriela Pinelo, a senior theater major, said.



Pinelo said she is an employee at American Girl and luckily had a regular shift this Black Friday.



“I’m only going to be working 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.,” she said.



She said her store didn’t promote Black Friday sales but it was open and is very close to a Macy’s, which she says is known to open early.



The American Girl store where Pinelo works opened an hour earlier on Black Friday and stayed open an hour later on Saturday and Sunday.



“It’s ridiculous,” Pinelo said about employees having to work on Black Friday. “I think it’s unfair because their livelihood depends on the job, and it takes away from the point of the holiday.”



Black Friday is flashy and not as great as people say it is, it’s just really good marketing, Pinelo said.



“Last year I bought a computer mouse on Black Friday for $12, but it was $2 cheaper after Christmas,” Pinelo said.



Lloyd Walker, a senior aeronautical engineering major, said the savings of Black Friday are already online, but some people are unaware or just shop because it's tradition.



“The sales are absolutely not worth it," van Gastel said. “It makes me so sad watching people gladly give up (time with) their family when I know plenty of people who would kill to be with theirs."



Walker said he used to love Black Friday more than Thanksgiving itself.



“On Black Friday, you get to stay up all night in the parking lot and go through stores,” Walker said.



He said he used to camp out with his dad on Black Friday.



“These companies aren’t evil,” he said. “They’re doing employees a favor, but some people like to complain.”



Walker said he has worked retail in the past and enjoyed it because he was paid time and a half.



However, van Gastel said that employees are only paid time and a half on Thanksgiving Day and regular pay after midnight.



“Because it is so busy, shifts go by very fast,” van Gastel said. “I also appreciate my coworkers who manage to stick together on the worst day of the year.”



Pinelo said she’s lucky that she didn’t have to work the crazy hours because she doesn’t have a car and would have had to commute by bus from west San Jose to Palo Alto.









Ted Rudow III, MA ·

Class of 1996





Black Friday?__by Ted Rudow III,MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com ) __“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, ‘Come and see.’ And I beheld, and to a black horse......

This black horse’s rider with the pair of balances in his hand symbolizes the rich capitalists who have a major impact on world conditions through their manipulation of national economies. Only one other verse in the Bible pictures a man with balances or scales: “The merchant uses dishonest scales; he loves to defraud” (Hosea 12:7 NIV).



Another prophet, Amos, also said the merchants — the wealthy capitalists of his day who were robbing the poor instead of helping them — “set forth wheat, making the ephah [unit of measure] small, and the shekel [price] great and falsifying the balances by deceit ... that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail” (Amos 8:4-6 KJV).



The black horse, then, represents famine and poverty perpetrated by the rich who refuse to share with those in need. Oil and wine, throughout the Scriptures, symbolize abundance or luxury.