Students with jobs in retail have mixed reactions towards the holiday season.

During the holidays times can be stressful for anyone. With the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping for Christmas dinner and the perfect present for a loved one tempers run short and stress runs high.

This is especially true for students who go to school and study and then work retail hours on top of it all.

Retail hours can be long and crazy. Places like gas stations and grocery stores are open 24/7, 365 days of the year. Which means they’re even open on holidays.

In a lot of cases, retail managers will look to their part time students to work the times around the holidays because they know they’re on Thanksgiving or winter break.

And while students like senior Allison Rath, don’t mind picking up extra hours and making more money,
students like senior Angelina Ramirez dread the business of the holidays at work.

Rath is a sales associate at Murdoch’s Ranch and Home supply. “Around black Friday, and honestly the whole Christmas season, the store is pretty busy and there’s a lot to do but I don’t mind because there’s always extra hours to pick up and always something to do.” Rath said.

Ramirez is a sales associate is Justice for Girls. “I dread Black Friday and the week of sales after because customers get upset about how busy the store is or when we don’t have something they want.” Ramirez explained.

For some working in retail, the holidays means extra hours and more money. For others it means dreading the long days and stressed out customers. Either way, West students are taking part in the joys of retail during holiday season.