What It’s Like to Be a Store Manager During the Holidays

Joe Cardamone is a 36-year veteran of JCPenney. Currently the manager of the Manhattan JCPenney, Cardamone has his work cut out for him at this point in the holiday shopping season. It’s crunch time, and Cardamone’s goal is relatively simple: Make it easy for customers to leave with a bag in their hands. Reaching that goal is not quite so simple when you are dealing with 15,000 to 20,000 customers in one day on the last shopping weekend before Christmas. Adding to the pressure is the Macy’s just blocks away. Cardamone does everything from personally directing customers to merchandise to keeping lines moving at a (relatively) brisk pace. On what was to be a marathon workday for Cardamone–starting at 4:30 a.m., the Associated Press shadowed the store manager in the trenches.

Photo courtesy of bensonkua.