After the turkey has been consumed, the wine-induced giggles have quieted and the last of the relatives have told their tried (tried and tried again) and true jokes, it is time to head home from the Thanksgiving festivities. While some begin to wind down in their tryptophan haze, others begin dosing on caffeine to gear up for the second half of their night. All over the country while house lights are going off, headlights are coming on for a fleet of mini-vans, SUVs, and station wagons. An army of Diet Coke-laden Americans set out with grit teeth to meet the wee hours of the night. Their mission? Get the deals at all costs.

No one can escape the day known as Black Friday. A tradition as American as apple pie, the official start to the holiday shopping season has become the behemoth of the retail world. Touting the title of “busiest shopping day of the year,” Black Friday lures all kinds to its steals and deals. An estimated 212 million consumers spent $10.69 billion across the country on just Friday, and a total of $45 billion from Thanksgiving Day to Sunday. Clearly, it’s a big deal.

I have no doubt that many of you have braved the cold to be a part of the melee; it truly is an American experience. What many of you may have not experienced, or even thought of, however, is being on the other side of the counter on Black Friday. If you have never had the pleasure, what I am about to describe may blow your mind: I just worked my fourth Black Friday as a sales associate at an outlet mall, and lived to tell the tale.

Black Friday to a sales associate has a completely different meaning than it does to a shopper. Instead of mapping out the route to get the best deals or arming themselves with coupons, sales associates are attempting to strategically place racks to prevent a stampede and bracing themselves to be verbally abused. They are posting the break schedule and stocking the back room with emergency rations. They are putting on their nametags, clenching their fists, and reminding themselves that they are, in fact, getting paid for this. Then, they slap on their smiles, unlock the front door, and run like hell to the safety of the register.

I have had the misfortune to find my niche in children’s clothing retail. I have had the double misfortune to grow up just ten minutes from the Johnson Creek Outlets. Thus, for the last four years I’ve been getting deal-hungry parents their fix for cheap (but still overpriced) mini outfits while conveniently not spending my discount. I have consequently also spent the last four Black Fridays getting an extreme upper body workout by catering to the rampant unforgiving consumerism of Midwestern moms, and boy, is it ugly.

Customers, in their craze to get the last pair of fleece-lined jeans, rarely realize they are not the only human beings in the room. I have seen verbal spats, shoving matches and outright brawls between grown adults over places in line or over the last $5 hoodie. I have been pushed, sworn at, screamed at and clawed by customers while doing my best to ameliorate their shopping experience. I have had to maneuver through hundreds of customers while carrying half my body weight in product, I have had to sprint to and from the back room, and I have had to go for six-hour stretches without taking a break from ringing up customers. And my store is not even a quarter of the size of a Best Buy.

While this is absolutely normal for a Black Friday, it is a disgusting display of human behavior. Shoppers driven to save money completely forget that their task is to give gifts to show their love. They forget that the point of crossing off items on a shopping list is to see the joy on the face of the person they give the items to. They forget the “holiday spirit” and turn into a pack of snarling, self-involved beasts.

This is not the rant of a bitter shop girl. This is a wake-up call to Americans that the dollars they save on Black Friday come at the cost of human decency. Customers are rude to not just employees, but to fellow shoppers, and even their own shopping companions. Citing the early hour as their excuse, shoppers behave appallingly without apology. While this by itself is not novel, the fact that this behavior is now culturally acceptable is.

So, as you reflect back on your Black Friday experience and recall all the deals, the lines, and the chaos, think about the interactions you saw between people, and ask yourself, “was that $3 toaster worth it”?

Allegra Dimperio ([email protected]) is a sophomore intending to major in journalism.