[Phew…] What a year it has been and we’ve made it. For everyone who works in retail, we have crossed the hurdles of holiday season and now we can let out a giant sign of relief (for at least a moment now). If we trip over one hurdle, we'll all have to quickly stand up and make sure the next hurdle doesn't smack us in the face twice as hard as the first one.

During the holiday breaks, in between, we are the holiday season zombies: exhausted, sleep-deprived and lacking a substantial amount of caffeine and frozen pizzas.

Surely the holidays won't be 100% perfect, but no one wants to know that we couldn't recover from our mistakes.

The holiday season starts in November for us. However, there’s a subtle difference working in a electronic or clothing store compared to working in a grocery store.

A Thrilling Thanksgiving: The First Hurdle

Thanksgiving is the first hurdle of the holiday season and it starts the moment the turkeys arrive at the store and ends after Thanksgiving Day. “Black Friday” is nonexistent for a grocery store employee, but it is equivalent to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I didn't know, until it was too late, that I agreed to work that day.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest day of November. I consider it the day that everyone single person in America forgot to buy something for Thanksgiving Dinner. Approximately 100 customers will shop that entire day at the grocery store. Individual customers, customers with large families and employees from other jobs dressed in their uniform will appear.

Continuous amount of calls will occur that day too. These calls start with, “I’m calling because every other store doesn’t sell this, but you do... do you still have it?” These calls end with customers arriving and saying, “I called earlier and you ensured me that you had this.” If you are lucky enough a customer will specifically ask for you to answer them because you talked with them earlier and placed them on hold. While they are on hold, you had to search for that item in the store to ensure that you still have it. (Yes that did happen to me)

We (employees) scatter around the store running to find more spices, or switch tasks because there are longer lines at the cash register and not enough employees to bag items. The marathon run for all.

We just hope that we won’t get any surprise ‘visits’ that just add up to the mess.

Most popular questions asked:

Where’s the gravy/pineapple slices/ham/seasonings/pumpkin or do you have anymore?

Are these the only bread crumbs that you have?

What’s the exact price of this turkey?

Christmas Craze: The Second Hurdle

It’s dead before Christmas. Empty and quiet. Customers still shop, but it’s not as hectic as before. Don’t be fooled; however, we all have that anxiety building upon us for the second hurdle known as Christmas.

This hurdle will be slightly longer because it starts the week of Christmas and ends Christmas Day. The seasonal aisle will change, and you’ll find yourself surrounded by unlimited holiday candy and Christmas cards. What won’t change is the rush the week of Christmas.

It’s the week where typically wives send their husbands to the grocery store. These clueless, confused husbands roam the stores endlessly searching for products until they find one of us to ask. Most of us are still exhausted from Thanksgiving, and will constantly repeat, “I can’t wait until the holidays are over," while trying to hide our excitement for the actual holidays and spending time with our families.

Most popular questions asked: (throughout December)

Where are the bread crumbs/French onion seasoning/pumpkin seasonings?

Do you sell Christmas lights?

Do you have any more crab legs?

Countdown to New Year’s Eve: The Last Hurdle

Europe’s Final Countdown maybe playing only in my head on repeat after Christmas knowing that New Year’s Eve is almost upon us. While the day after Christmas some of us went to work beyond exhausted, we still dug out energy for the homestretch.

The most overused word by everyone is cocktail sauce. Cocktail sauce circle our minds as we are either making sure we have enough or if we even have it. And what pairs well with cocktail sauce? Seafood. So while most of us fill shelves with cocktail sauce, others are filling coolers with seafood. While searching for cocktail sauce, we are also searching for New Years Eve knick-knacks that we somehow lost among the rest of the holiday stuff.

Although customers are typically buying appetizers, but anyone working New Year’s Eve will envy those who ironically had the day off. Every fruit non-alcoholic champagne will be cleared of the shelf. Shopping carts will be filled with all types of food and drinks of all sorts. While us employees, are counting down to the New Year.

Most popular questions asked:

Where are your New Year’s Eve stuff?

Where are your crab legs?

What aisle is your champagne, what about the fruit non-alcoholic champagne?

What aisle are your fruit cocktails?

We can finally let out a sign of relief while trying to recover from that mistake that we made by staying up until 4am and forgetting that we have to work at 10am the next day. Or trying to recover from throwing the most spectacular New Year’s Eve party to wake up with a headache and trying to function at work without anyone noticing that you are just not feeling it. We are all trying to hide that zombie within us.