Apollo High School

Growing up, you hear about how crazy people get around Christmas time. Stories of people camping out at Wal-Mart, running marathons through the stores, and fist-fights over children's toys. Until I started working at the mall myself, I never understood the truth of these accounts.

Being that we live in Owensboro, and there is not much to do anyway, the mall would seem like a likely place to go. For most of the year, Town Square Mall is pretty calm and uncrowded, with the exception of Labor Day Sales and some other unusual holidays. But around mid-October, it suddenly seems to be packed with holiday shoppers.
Though I don't work in any of the clothes stores, which I'm sure is just as bad, if not worse, at Ruby Tuesdays, it seems like all of the sudden every weekend night we become extremely busy.

When I say extremely, I mean we go over an hour wait. The wait itself would be bad enough, but it also appears to me that during this so-called "jolly time of year" people tend to be the rudest and crankiest. I'm sure there isn't a mall employee who hasn't been screamed at during the holiday season by some unsuspecting holiday shopper.
It would be enough to have tons of people packed into our little mall, but the fact that they like to be as rude and messy as possible kind of make s the whole experience for everyone a bad one.

Although I've only been a mall employee for about seven months, and wasn't present for the last Christmas, I'm told horror stories everyday. I've been told tales about people finding ways to unlock our front doors and be waiting for us when we haven't even opened, stories of opening the doors to a two hour wait, and some very funny stories of customers yelling and throwing hissy-fits like five year old children.

As the holiday season approaches and it starts to get crowded, even in November I'm about to pull out my hair and walk straight out the doors. For those who work in the mall, or even around the mall, I share your pain, as well as many others.
To everyone else, the next time you're out at the mall, or just holiday shopping, try to remember the frustrations of all of the people trying to give you service. Don't add to it by being rude or getting mad when having to wait in a line. It's not the workers fault, it's just the holidays. So try to remember the reason for the season, and try to make the holidays merry for everyone.