So I get to the store with my brother at 4:30 and check the schedule. To my relief, I see that I don't have to cashier, face paint or help make wands (my brother got stuck doing that last one). Instead, I'm the counter, which means that I have to sit outside and, using a little clicker, add up the number of people who go inside. So after a big store meeting in the receiving room where everyone is told what we're doing, we go about doing our biz. I go outside, where a table's been set up to the left of the front door. With me are one of the other leads and my department manager (who will be handing out bracelets to purchase the book at midnight). At 6:00 people started lining up outside, people who were buying the Harry Potter book that day. The people who reserved a copy got a yellow bracelet with a number on it. The people who didn't got an orange bracelet with a number on it. What made the bracelet important was that you needed it with you to buy the book at midnight. People with yellow bracelets would be cashed out first, then those with orange. Generally, the numbers on the bracelets would be the numbers that people would be lined up (in blocks of 50). However, we warned people that if the building reached a certain max (520 people) then we'd have to restrict people from going in until the store emptied out a bit, so there was a chance that even if you were one of the first people to get a bracelet, if you left and came back later and the store was restricted, you'd have to wait until the store emptied out a bit (remember that last bit, it's really important). The smartest solution would have just been to wait inside the store for the six hours, after all, we did have tons of activities going on, so it wouldn't have been that long, but a lot of the early yellow-bracelet people chose to not stick around, saying they'd be back later. They probably went to the cinema across the street to watch "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Dolts.
For the first few hours, things went smoothly. We were giving out the bracelets in an efficient manner, there was a cool breeze outside, and we realized of all the employees working that night we had the best job. The only problem was the clicker they gave me: It couldn't subtract in small quantities, so I just had to keep clicking people as they walked in, and when it got to 500 my managers would do a headcount, then had me reduce it to the actual number. Anyway, at the table we were giving out maps of the festivities inside, plus black Harry Potter glasses (with no lens... how low-budget). That latter freebie was a godsend for the kid who showed up with two black circles drawn around his eyes. Oh yeah, later on they gave us "magic rocks" from the "Fool the Wizard" shell game that we called "Sorceror's Stones" and we gave all those out to children too. Am I tripping, or did I just type that?
The calamity began around 10:30. The store reached capacity and the fire marshall had us close the doors. A manager and a cop came outside to explain the situation to the people (many of whom didn't believe us... idiots). We began trying to get people into lines, which was very difficult. People with yellow bracelets lined up to the left, people with orange to the right, and another line for people getting bracelets period. Here's what the problem was: Midnight was only an hour and a half away, so most of those people in the store were not leaving... Thus screwing those outside who had gotten their bracelet early in hopes of being the first in line and had left to go do something else. Man, there were some irate customers, let me tell you. My boss had me go up and down the yellow line (which was gigantic) handing out free crosswords, word searches, and dot-to-dots, which many children and parents were eager to do to pass the time. Later on, the cafe manager served drinks. People were complaining non-stop to the manager by the door, cop cars kept driving by, a hysterical teenager had to be escorted outside of the store by the police, some little boy kept vomitting all over the sidewalk, mosquitos were everywhere, adults walking around in purple robes swearing, the moon was blood-red... It was hell. To make matters worse, Wal-Mart, located about 200 feet to the left of our store, was staying open all night and selling the book for only $15 (we were charging $17). So you had Wal-Mart customers driving by the line and yelling out that you could get the book at Wal-Mart for $15, but most customers in our line said "So what?" and "Yeah, but Wal-Mart's evil" or "Fuck off!". At one point I was crowd control, so I tried to look intimdating by crossing my arms over my chest, but I don't think it got the intended effect... The cop pulled it off much better, though he had actual muscles and agun.
Finally, at 12 we started selling the book to the people inside. When the first purchasees left the store, there was this huge wave of cheering and applause, them holding the books up like they were holy relics or something. More and more people began leaving the store, and finally the outside lines began snaking in. I don't know how many hundreds of people must have been there, but by 1:20 they were all cashed out. Not bad... We still have a bunch more Harry Potter books in the back room (we got about 2,600 copies) but a lot of those will probably go today too: Our store is opening an hour early, in fact. But you know how impatient people are.
I got some freebies though: A pair of the Potter glasses, 2 magical stones, a map of the festivities, plus a black Harry Potter baseball cap with a green owl on front that was given to all the employees to wear (Most people, including myself, chose not to wear 'em... man, a lot of people were trying to buy them off us, probably to sell on eBay or something).
Harry Potter, up yours! |
And not at a bookstore, either. Tomorrow I'm gonna get one.