Black Friday: The WorkerThe crowds were screaming at ridiculous hours.

11/27/15By:

Heavy ice-rain and snow flurries were not enough to halt or even stall one of the most anticipated marketing holidays in America: Black Friday. For the students who had retail jobs, it meant they were most likely going to have to work.

“I hadn’t really put much thought into what employees think when they’re told they have to work Black Friday," Shaelyn Applegate, 9, said. "Probably something like, "Well, this is going to suck" Similar to Applegate, not a lot of people took it upon themselves to think about any of the workers behind cash registers or consider who had to keep the store intact. "When I got there, you couldn't tell the difference between what was and wasn't supposed to be on the rack," Meghan Weber, 12, said. "I actually watched people just drop things on the ground if they didn't like what they grabbed--com-pletely oblivious." Weber was scheduled to work a brutal 8 pm to 4 am shift, and said she had to drink multiple Red Bulls in

order to remain conscious throughout the Black Friday all-nighter. This caffeine intake, combined with sleep deprivation and stress was actually enough to cause her to get sick when she finally took leave to go home. "I don't think high school student-workers should have to deal with ridiculous hours and stress of Black Friday," Dean Gary Gra-ner said, "Their usual hours are more than enough." This perspective came from West's dean, but another student-worker, Brandon Busse, 10, offered a differing opinion. "The day flew by, and I got to make a lot of people happy," Busse said. "Honestly it was a great work experience--the extra pay didn't hurt either."

Tedious work. A large job during the holidays is setting up hundreds of Black Friday advertise-ments.. C. Peterson.

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Black Friday: The Worker Black Friday: The Shopper The masses realized their savings destinies.

11/27/15By:

Crowds lined up at stores and hands were placed on the glass while feet shifted in antici-pation. With treasured coupons and sale-point references in hand, local Black Friday shop-pers were eagerly waiting for the doors of their choice busi-nesses to open. “My plan was seriously just to hit up every store as fast as possible, preferably without getting trampled," Melissa Simmons,11, said. "I also considered battle armor, you know, because Black Friday gets pretty physical.” Stuffed from their Thanks-giving feasts, hundreds of Ne-braska shoppers swarmed stores across the state, many hoping to save on their Christmas shop-ping. “I bought four iPads! Four! For like, 50 dollars from

Walmart," Jose Arriaga, 10 , said. "When else would something like that ever have been able to happen? Black Friday is the freakin’ best." Though Arriaga’s experi-ence was successful, not every student was as enthusiastic about braving the midnight crowds. “Black Friday stressed me right out, I mean talk about crowded," Marie Day, 10, said. "Nobody needs that--I’ll just shop online,” Others had a similar mindset to Day’s. Black Friday became a nationwide 'holiday' around 2001, and had been a tradition ever since. Many people were beginning to claim that this infamous Friday was losing its touch to rivals like ‘Grey Thursday’ or ‘Cyber Monday.’ Yet, these stakes didn't seem to

phase local shoppers like Sim-mons. “The crowds don’t lie. Black Friday was crazy--crazy fun that is," Simmon said. "You get to burn off all the Thanksgiving calories, and maybe even gear up in battle armor. I don’t think really anything can match that.”

Winning. Melissa Simmons scores on a Walmart candy sale. See connection om pg. 85. C. Peterson.

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