Black Friday workers share 14 of the most outrageous things they’ve seen on the job

These stories are cringe-worthy.Reuters/Luke MacGregor

• Black Friday can bring out the worst in some people.
• Retail workers Business Insider surveyed shared some of their most cringe-worthy stories.

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If you ask the people who work in retail, Black Friday is rarely described in the most flattering of ways.

“Black Friday is like hunger games,” one retail worker told Business Insider. “The tributes are released, and everyone thinks they are extra special, so they should be allowed to just open pallets and take whatever they want well before the sale.”

“Being retired now, Black Friday is a nightmare of the past,” a former retail worker told Business Insider. “In my many years in retail, each one seemed to get worse.”

This isn’t to say all Black Friday shoppers are horrible people. As one retail worker told Business Insider, “For the most part, people have always been very nice and patient. They can see it’s busy and I’m doing my best to get everybody taken care of.” They said it’s usually the customers who are never satisfied — “we can spot them a mile away” — that are more likely to make a scene.

In honor of the “wild and hectic” day when everyone is “tired and cranky” — their words — Business Insider asked more than 40 Black Friday workers to share some of the most outrageous things they’ve seen working Black Friday.

Be warned: while these accounts cannot be independently verified, some of them may shatter your faith in humanity.