Retailers intensify staff training

Many of the shoppers
typically have gotten very little sleep.

By JOYZELLE DAVIS

SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

The horde of bleary-eyed customers had just marched through Best Buy’s doors, and within seconds the checkout line was some 70 people deep.

Cashier Pinky Ethwani’s customer wanted gift cards, each in varying amounts. And he kept changing his mind.

“I want $30 on these, and $40 on those two,” said Landon Wade. “No, wait — only $20 on this one, and $80 on that. Keep the rest the same.”

Ethwani wasn’t fazed. “Would you like me to write down the amounts for you?” she asked with a smile, ball point pen at the ready.

But before she could, the call of “OK, break!” reverberated through a Best Buy store in Denver. Wade and Ethwani, along with 150 co-workers, were taking part in an elaborate, early Sunday rehearsal designed to prepare the store for the mayhem of Black Friday.

The dry run would last for nearly three hours, as employees worked out issues ranging from how to deal with customers who unrepentantly cut in line to fielding questions about Best Buy’s financing plans. Across the nation, retailers are gearing up for one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Nearly 59 million shoppers hit the stores on Black Friday last year. A quarter of them were out at 5 a.m. or earlier on the day after Thanksgiving to snag the best door-buster bargains, according to the National Retail Federation.

“More and more retailers are stepping up their training,” said Scott Krugman, vice president of industry public relations for the NRF.

Black Friday preparations range from dress rehearsals to pep talks and everything in between.

The training is especially important because most retailers add temporary seasonal staff, some of whom have never worked the sales floor.

“If our new hires aren’t comfortable, the customer picks up on that,” said Randy Geist, store manager at J.C. Penney in Westminster, Colo.

To help counter that, Penney runs seasonal hires through extensive practice drills on the cash register before they ever step onto the sales floor.

They’re also assigned a seasoned staff member as a “buddy” to answer any spur-of-the-moment questions.

“It’s such a chaotic day. You just have to enjoy the madness,” said Aaron Sanford, customer assistance supervisor at the Best Buy Denver store who has been through five Black Fridays.

“The atmosphere is actually pretty light. I’ve never been involved in anything worse than someone complaining about someone else cutting in line. Most people are happy to be here.”

Even so, tempers can sometimes flare when customers and employees alike are operating on scant sleep. In that case, most retailers advise their employees to keep smiling — and call their supervisor.

“You just have to learn to roll with the punches,” said Stephanie Jackson, marketing manager at Park Meadows mall in Littleton, Colo.

The preparation at Best Buy goes down to a yellow tape snaking around the entire store to indicate the direction of the checkout line, and colored balloons so customers know where to locate advertised specials.

Employees hand out tickets for the big door-buster items, while customers wait in line, so there’s no fighting over the last cut-price laptop left on the shelf.

“Every interaction that can be shortened makes the day easier,” Sanford said.

Anyone who works in retail knows the minute they’re hired that they’ll never get the day after Thanksgiving off. Penney’s Geist missed only one Black Friday in the past 30 years — for his brother’s wedding — and “I just didn’t know what to do with myself,” he joked.

“When the doors open and you see all of the people stream in, you think, ‘Wow, it’s started!”’ Geist said.

“From that day until Christmas, time is just one big blur.”