Brooklyn Morning – Monday After Black Friday at The Atlantic Center

by Cambrey Thomas

The early Monday morning post-Black Friday at the Target on Atlantic Avenue was sleepy. The store opened at 8 a.m., but by 10 a.m. things still had not picked up. Half a dozen women stood in line for returns. One complained loudly that the cashier should have looked in the box before selling it to her. Although the store has 26 cash registers, only numbers 8 through 15 were open. For the most part, red-shirted employees sat along the wall in the food court over looking Flatbush Avenue. They ate cereal and charged their cell phones.

A few shoppers sat in the food court to review their receipts. Nearby, the store security guard sat talking to one of the in-store baristas. “I only did it for the money and the time,” he said. “I didn”t think I”d be here this long.” She looked up from her Blackberry.

The barista said that on Black Friday one of the featured door-buster sales was for flat screen TVs priced half-off, at $300. She said there were 350 of them and they sold out with an hour after the store opened, at 4 a.m.

Soon, more customers filtered in and most of the employees moved out of the food court. The group that was left clustered together, laughing and pointing price-check guns at each other.

At 11 the store suddenly got loud with chatter and the beep of items being scanned. More employees disappeared from the food court and soon, registers 6 through 18 lit up. A few more customers walked in with returns and the last of employees left the food court to stock the shelves with holiday-themed baking mixes.