The anxieties of school are beginning to slither off students’ backs. Professors, books and due dates will not exist for a short period of time. Students all around are contemplating how to spend their worry-free, restful days. Some students will catch up on many missed episodes of “The Young and The Restless.” Some will take advantage of all the extra time and do nothing but sleep because during the busy semester, it is a foreign activity. Some will eat until their hearts are content, or catch up on all of those nights at Norm’s and Rox’s that they were absent from because of homework. Other students will be productive and utilize this time off from school to work. Wal-Mart is where Andrew Bean, business administration junior from Harvey, is going to spend his days off from school. No, he will not be shopping for the new Xbox or gifts for his family. Instead, Bean will be roaming the aisles, searching for wary individuals. He works for loss prevention at Wal-Mart, and his job is to catch people stealing.
“Basically I walk around on the sales floor and look for people who look suspicious,” Bean says. “I catch people stealing all day long. That’s a normal day. That’s basically what I do.”
Bean has been working for Wal-Mart for three years now and says that things tend to get hectic during the holidays.
“Normally I get one day off a week,” Bean says. “Long hours. Lots of overtime. It’s really, really busy.”
Bean thinks that things have already begun to get busy.
“Right now we’re probably making $800,000 a day, and we’re not even that close to December yet,” Bean says.
The day after Thanksgiving is, of course, Wal-Mart’s, and any other store’s, busiest day of the year. Although Wal-Mart has what Bean says are “a bunch of good sales,” he cannot wait to get it done because much of his time is spent at work.
“The day after Thanksgiving is normally a $3 million dollar day (in sales),” Bean says.
Bean must report to work an hour before store-opening that day, which is at 4 a.m., to make sure that everything runs smoothly.
“I have to be there until whenever; I don’t know when (I’ll get off),” he laughs.
Terry Naquin, freshman from Chauvin, will spend his time off from school around toys for up to 30 hours a week at KB Toys in Houma. Naquin has been working there for about two years. He stocks the shelves, prices items, tends to the register and talks to customers. He says it is nothing too arduous.
“It’s fun because of the whole environment,” Naquin says. “We’re around toys, and you can’t really be professional around toys. It’s a pretty exciting job.”
This will be Naquin’s first time to work the morning shift on the day after Thanksgiving. He says that store management tells all of their employees to be prepared for that day, especially the morning, because of the massive amount of people that will be going through the store.
“It’s crazy,” Naquin says as he shakes his head. “The people who work that morning just look out-of-it. I expect it to be a lot crazier than it would be in the afternoons.”
Naquin must work at KB Toys from 4:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Although the morning shift sounds challenging, he says that he is ready for the task.
“I’m really anxious about it,” Naquin says. “I want to see how bad or good it’s going to be. I have co-workers who worked whenever Tickle Me Elmo came out, and there was a huge thing over it.”
Naquin says he has heard stories of hardcore Christmas shoppers getting into fistfights and verbal altercations over the remaining toys. He predicts that it will not be that bad this year because of the lack of a specific popular item.
Naquin expects to be worn-out from his post Thanksgiving Day shift. He supposes that he will be home by 2 p.m. and in bed sleeping by 2:30 p.m.
“I told my girlfriend that if she wakes me up, I will yell at her,” Naquin says. “I won’t mean to, but I will.
