Postcards from Black Friday

Covid Guidelines kept shoppers, and the community, safe, but how did they transform the day?

An+inside+look+at+Black+Friday.

Photo by Tamanna Rumee on Unsplash

An inside look at Black Friday.

My name is Brooks Coleman, and it is my first year working at American Eagle.  I worked on black Friday and wanted to share with the world what I had experienced. For my first Black Friday, I had no clue what to expect, but my associates had given me some small glimpses of what had happened in the past.

Shoppers all across America were anxious for Black Friday this year, but were hesitant due to Covid.  Shops in Virginia were restricted to around 45 people while still keeping a safe distance of 6 feet or more and wearing masks.

While I was at work that day, many people came into the store I work at to look for other people who may have been scared to shop due to Covid, or restricted from shopping because f their health.  One woman came in to look for jeans for her son and was unsure of how to find the right size.  She knew how tall he was but didn’t want to buy anything without being sure, so she had to leave and come back the next day.

Shopping under the covid guidelines means keeping the mask on the whole time you’re inside. (Photo by Brian Asare on Unsplash)

This was a problem for many people because some people lived a few hours away and driving that far is difficult if you have to go twice in two days.

Dressing rooms were also unavailable for this time, because new regulations had been sent out the week before Thanksgiving.  This meant that people coming in to buy things for themselves had to guess what size would fit them, and hope that they got the size correct.  Many people asked about return policies because of this, and some even returned the clothes a week or two later.

Lines throughout the mall near my store blocked some parking spaces, and the lines even crossed over each other in some areas of the mall.  Luckily for the people that had to stand out in the lines, it was not as cold as we thought it was going to be.

The sales this year were as good as every other year, and there were fewer people that were taking space in the store.  Some people may have loved the room, and others may have thought that there was not enough, but as long as everyone followed the rules, no one was going to get sick.

I do believe that Black Friday may have caused a spike in cases, but because of the guidelines put in place, in the end it’s been less than it might have been.