Rick is retail worker who recently had to work twelve-hour shifts on both Thanksgiving as well as Black Friday. Here are some thoughts he had to share about working the holiday, as well as the busiest shopping day of the year.

Were you scared or intimidated by all of the customers or the hype leading up to this weekend?

No, because we set up a plan about how all of the customers were coming in, and we organized the building to accommodate all of the guests. It ended up going really smoothly.

Were there any instances of crazy customers?

No, everyone was on their best behavior! (Laughs.) There were a lot of DVDs and video games stolen, though. People would cut open the security cases while in line and took the CDs out, hid them, and then took the empty CD cases and stuck them behind other items in line. A lot of Xbox games were stolen this way.

Do you think it’s right that you had to work on Thanksgiving? How did your family take it?

Not really. Everyone should be home enjoying their families instead of standing outside the store for eight hours to get bargain deals that will be available all day long. If people would plan accordingly, it wouldn’t be such a mad mess to just buy a TV $100 cheaper than it normally is. My family took it fairly well, though they wish that I’d brought some leftovers home from our work dinner!

What would you suggest to customers in order to make the most of these crazy shopping days? How do you make sure you get the deals before they run out?

Use stores that have rain checks so if they run out, you can get a rain check slip and get it at the store price when it comes back in—which should be soon, during the holidays. My store offers good deals that allow you to get a gift card on certain items, too, which is a good strategy to use. You can get two gifts for the prices of one when you make a purchase and cross off another person from your list.

What were your best sellers this weekend?

Flat panel TVs, Xbox 360s, iPads, and iPods.

What do you think of the woman who maced people during her shopping spree at Wal-Mart? Could that ever happen at your store?

That woman should have to be fined and pay restitution to all people affected. Could it happen at my store? Nope. We have on-duty security guards who check people before coming into the building during holiday shopping and we let them enter in groups. If you get caught getting violent or doing something like that, you are kicked off the premises forever.