Around the fall season, people tend to overlook Thanksgiving and jump straight to the winter holidays. This national turkey day marks the beginning of one of the most principal aspects of the holiday season– sales.

According to CNBC, Black Friday is the biggest shopping weekend of the year. This day of deals allows retailers to turn their profit, statistics provided by the National Retail Federation (NRF) show that around 30% of annual retail sales occur between Black Friday and Christmas. How do students fit into this mix? From working to taking advantage of the sales, students participated in the bustling rush of Black Friday just as much as their adult counterparts.

Some students, like senior Ben Sheblak, had some unique experiences while working on Friday. During his shift at Old Navy, Sheblak experienced a chilling encounter with a crazy cat man.

“Basically, a creepy looking guy who had a black cat on his shoulder walked into the store and was hanging out by the cash,” Sheblak said. “One of my coworkers had said ‘hey, we should keep an eye out for the guy with the cat,’ and as soon as she said that, over our walkie talkies we heard the guy scream at the top of his lungs ‘god is coming.’ Then, the manager tried to escort him out, to which he told her ‘don’t touch me.’ After the guy walked out, the managers called the police just to make sure that he wouldn’t come back.”

As stated by the National Retail Federation, the retail rush during the holidays has seen a 2.5% sales increase for the past 10 years. Those working at popular clothing stores such as Old Navy or Target have noted their fast paced and busy shifts.

“The boys and girls clothes section that I was working in looked like a tornado just went through it — there were so many clothes and accessories on the ground and the tables of shirts were in a giant pile,” Target employee junior Kendall said. “Every time I would go through and fold the clothes, I would turn around for not even ten minutes and the entire table would get messed up again.”

However, those working at food chains or small businesses experienced a completely different version of Black Friday than those in retail. Senior Sean Lloyd had an uneventful day during his six hour shift at Chipotle on Friday, as most customers were enjoying a burrito while avoiding the discount frenzy.

“When it’s slow, you don’t feel pressured to get through every customer as fast as possible and you can take your time, small talk with people, and overall it’s just less stressful,” Lloyd said.

Working in a similar slump, junior Taylor Bhuiyan had a relaxed shift working at the Art Garage, painting pottery with children and their parents.

“I was thinking about how happy [I was] that my job was so laid back on such a busy day of the year like Black Friday, and I was thankful that I was scraping paint and helping people create art rather than having to work retail at the mall or something.”

All in all, students didn’t deem working Black Friday as the worst experience in the world.

“I would probably work again, but I think the only way I could get through it again is if I have good coworkers with me,” Johnson said. “In a weird way, even though keeping up with the store was extremely stressful, the overall experience was really kind of exhilarating and the social aspect where i got to bond with my coworkers over the amount of work was pretty cool.”