I must be strange because I love the holiday season. I used to work retail too. I loved the fact that it was so busy because my workday would fly by. I even like it as a consumer. I'm not sure why. I used to love to go to the mall on Christmas eve even though I was finished with gift buying. The only downside is the parking. Parking is a major pain during the holidays. Oh...and the increase in muggings. That's not good.
I think I would like the holiday shopping season better if I had never worked retail during it. That is what makes me feel so negative towards it. I agree that people are far too rude during that time of the year. People don't understand that they their attitudes are part of what makes it horrible for most workers. I had a woman flip her lid around Thanksgiving one year. I was working at the customer service desk at a grocery store and she needed canned pumpkin. The problem was that there had been a drought and their was a shortage of the canned pumpkin throughout the US. I am not kidding. I wish I was. This lady got so mad and angry, and of course since I was there she took it out on me. This was also my first job. I had been with the store for almost two years and nothing prepared me for the "Canned Pumpkin Incident of 2009". She verbally attacked me and then she realized that I wasn't kidding. It was horrible. Customers can make or break an employees spirit. It might be a job, but no one has to be miserable. Most customers are the cause of horrible customer service and they don't know how to treat others with respect.
The older I got, the more I hated working at any job that dealt directly with the public during the holiday season. This was especially true when I was a server. I was still in college at the time, but I took a little longer to finish college than most other people I graduated high school with because I was also trying to juggle a full time job as well as a spare part time job. It was kind of embarrassing having to wait on friends of mine from school, who had already started working in their careers and getting settled down. The parking I can deal with, because I just park all the way in the back and be done with it. I don't spend forever looping around the lot looking for a close spot, that's a waste of time. It really doesn't take that much longer to walk to the store, and it's so much easier to pull out because you don't have cars and people swarming around you. Even the long checkout lines I can deal with for the most part, as long as I don't have some screaming kids near me and/or someone who is knocking on deaths door with some illness. What really irritates me are people who just block aisles and walk painfully slow and won't let anyone else by. If you are a slow walker or need to stop to do something like make a call, have the common sense and the common courtesy to step to the side for crying out loud. If you see someone that needs to get down your aisle, do the same thing. I cannot stand these families who all sprawl out and form a giant wall and walk like turtles blocking off an entire walkway. It's so much easier to just shop online, because you don't have to go digging around for a specific color or size of something, or some certain model, when everything is already picked over. I can find exactly what I am looking for online and in most cases it's always in stock.
The crowds. The Christmas music the adverts. The constant reminder that Christmas is approaching and that you need to get your shopping done. The crazy people who take it all way to serious, once nice family people now crazed Christmas monsters pushing in queues and fighting for the latest new fad. The whole drama of it. The same old boring television programmes, the queens speech. I could go on forever.
The Queen's Speech, ha! Americans don't have to suffer that particular atrocity, maybe Canadians do because they are Commonwealth. If I can name two things I do like about the season, they would be, the obligatory showing of It's A Wonderful Life and hearing "Simply Having A Wonderful Xmas Time" by Paul McCartney or Wings.
I make a big circle around shops during holiday seasons. I can't stand big crowds, and watching people pushing around trolleys filled to the brim, doesn't make me feel better either. I also don't like kids out of control, throwing tantrums, overexcited from too much sugar and the anticipation for their gifts. At the same time I feel concerned for the staff in shopping centers who have to spend an average of eight hours a day dealing with tense or irritated customers who are overspending.
I hate how everyone is just so disrepectful. And the whole, I'm in such a big hurry to get home because I'm tired of the rude people when I am being rude. Oh that drives me insane. I get that people have stuff to do but it literally drives me crazy how people act like someone is dying because of it. First of all, they are trying to be in a hurry so that way they can get away from everyone being rude but they do not realize that they are being a part of the rude people. Then they try to cut you off in line whether it be the check out lane or on the highway. It drives me crazy. I have to countdown from 5 to 1 at least twice a day during the holiday season. I try to keep my cool because I do not want to be rude. We should enjoy the days, not make them worse.
I can't stand the other shoppers. It makes it hard for me to feel good about gift-giving when I'm fighting hundreds of other people for a deal. Especially, I can't stand the way Black Friday now starts on Thanksgiving. I like to sleep off my mashed potatoes and spend time with family.
Haha ok, don't rub it in. Thankfully now I am older I can choose to avoid the queens speech which I do. Thankfully the lovely people at Channel 4 have come up with an alternative to the queens speech for all the sane people who don't want to listen to it. I like the Snowman without fail it comes on every year and I get upset when he melts.
What I hate the most about the holiday shopping season is the amount of products that are wasted and thrown out after the holiday season is over. A lot of the stuff that is not sold is actually not saved for the next year. Instead, the stores throw it all out because it is so cheap to make. Also, a lot of the people who buy this stuff throw out their holiday decorations yearly as well. This generates a lot of trash and really bugs me.
I hate crowded supermarket. long lines at the counters. noisy shoppers. This is also the time where the products are messed around by the shoppers. Kids screaming and crying. no parking spaces. Rude staff (maybe because they are tired). These are just the things that I could share. But the general atmosphere is nice. Just do not do last minute shopping and you will be find.
Thing I dislike the most about holiday shopping, are the holiday shoppers! Not all holiday shoppers, but a majority of humans simply turn into arrogant and privileged morons, who like to complaint simply to annoy and start controversy with other people - a clear sign to me, of a human psychologically projecting their stress and repressions. Tis a misnomer to label holiday shopping as holiday shopping, because a lot of people do not act or think "wholly" during such times in a year.
The holiday rush always makes my head ache. To avoid pushing my way through the crowd, I try to shop in advance or at a place where people are likely to flock. I know it's great to celebrate the yuletide season and enjoy the festivities, still I think you can be hindered by too many people gathering around you.
I just hate the crowds. People get crazy and impatient during the holidays. I understand that everyone is busy but people need to slow down and relax. I do more and more shopping online these days to avoid crowded stores with angry people
I am not a crowd person either, but I can handle it as long as the crowds move quickly. I don't like having st shuffle along and take care of not bumping into someone lol. Also, I absolutely hate the lines that you have to endure when you go christmas shopping. There was even a story about two women fighting over the last game in the store, because both of their son's wanted it for christmas. That sort of behavior reminds me of black friday.
The Holiday Shopping Season. lol Only because I end up broke and I can never afford anything for the entire family. So I'm left buying cheap and things that people will hate or eventually regift to someone else. If I had money I would probably think differently, but since I am still looking for work it's bit discouraging and depressing. Also I hate the crowds. I prefer getting my shopping done early and in the middle of the day during the week if I can help it. Otherwise I get anxious and nervous around large crowds of people.
Aside from the commercial feel which I already mentioned, I hate how everything is last minute. I didn't realize this but it seems like every year we're always behind. I guess we're like that with everything but it seems like there is more pressure because you want to avoid the crowds. I plan to change that this year but I still feel like it might happen in some way. There's just always so much to do.
I have to say some of the same things others have said, I don't like the crowds, especially if the spirit in that crowd is bad. People shopping but not really wanting to be there, in a hurry, not really wanting to spend their money, thinking the prices are too high but they have to buy a gift. I'm not into that type of stuff. People in the store shopping not because they want to, but because they feel obligated to, and they let everybody know it. They are loud, impatient, rude, irritated. The attitudes you might encounter in some stores really works to sap the spirit out of the season. I prefer to shop early, or online. Going shopping the day after Thanksgiving? Forget about it.
I hate shopping during holidays. Stores are so busy and prices go up. I have started shopping online during holidays because of the great discounts and it saves me time.
What I find hilarious now how companies skip right over Halloween and Thanksgiving. I guess cashing in on costumes and candy sales isn't appealing anymore. Then you have the whole Thanksgiving thing which still is a day that Native Americans loathe. I can pretty much understand why they skip and head to the joyous, slightly no more God involved, Christmas holiday. It is all about making money and this time of the year is ripe for that.
