I can feel the retail pain, too.
Back in the day, when The
Disney Store was actually decent (meaning
that I could add heartily to my wardrobe from that store), I helped open
a new store in a suburb north of Chicago in October, 1995.
Now, if any of you can recall, that was the year of the Lightyear Fiasco.
Hopefully many of you can remember the line Tour Guide Barbie recites
in "Toy Story 2", where short-sighting manufacturers didn't make enough
Buzz Lightyears to keep up with demand. We had a nice stack of them
before Thanksgiving, but on Black Friday, they were all GONE.
Believe me when I tell you that being a Disney Store cast member was
not fun during that holiday season.

(And yes, I hated wearing the
cheerleader sweater with walking shorts. Bleh.)
I recall fondly having a total of 71 hours worked the week of Christmas.
40 hours at my full-time job, and 31 hours at TDS. I ran on fumes.
