Jason Isbell is a top-notch songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist today. However, before he was a member of the Drive-By Truckers or in front of the 400 Unit, he was a retail worker. Today, he took to Twitter to look back on retail’s most hair-raising day: Black Friday.
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“I worked at the Walmart Supercenter in Florence, Alabama on Black Friday 1996,” he wrote in the tweet. “Pure chaos.”
Black Friday is the biggest sales day in the country. Years ago, people would get up early on the morning after Thanksgiving and prepare to wade into battle for a discount on the trending item of the day. These days, stores don’t wait that long. Many shoppers barely have time to digest their turkey and say goodbye to their families before heading once more into the breach for discounts and deals.
However, it doesn’t matter what time the doors open for sales. Retail workers know they’re in for hours of overcrowded stores full of shoppers who left their manners and good sense at home. As a result, many fans sounded came to Isbell’s replies with their stories of Black Friday madness.
First, at a fan’s probing, Isbell expanded on what he saw during his Black Friday shift. “Folks just climbing over one another and wrestling in the aisles,” he said. That sounds about right.
Another fan chimed in with why they choose to skip the biggest shopping day of the year. “Honestly, Black Friday shopping always looks like a rugby scrum to me. Not appealing in the least.”
[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know Jason Isbell Wrote for the Drive-By Truckers]
One fan weighed in saying the worst Black Friday fight they ever witnessed was over $3 washcloths. “I always wondered if the one that lost the fight had to go a whole year without washing! But, I loved working the chaos,” they added.
Another fan chimed in with a throwback to the late 90s. “I was a mall worker right in the middle of the Beanie Baby madness,” they said. “Even at Brookstone, people were asking us if we had them. Absolute insanity,” they added.
(Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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