"The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has become part of our American heritage and you have a
unique opportunity to become a part of the history!" So while doing this deep dive I discovered that
there's actually a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade Fan Wiki with over a thousand pages, like that's a
dedicated fan base. So if you're American like me one of the first things to come into your
mind when you hear the word Thanksgiving is probably the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
"Pikachu! Pikachu! Pikachu!"
Hey everyone welcome back to my channel my name's Cheyenne and I'm an Asian American
adoptee and expat living in Brazil. I post new videos here every Tuesday and Friday about
race feminism and pop culture, so if you want to see those please subscribe and ring the bell.
So back to the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. For those of you who don't know the parade is thrown
every year on Thanksgiving and usually consists of floats and balloons promoting TV shows movies
and other pop culture products and phenomena. And of course the parade also promotes companies and
brands such as Macy's itself, but also Pillsbury, Build-a-Bear Workshop, Ocean Spray, and KFC. The
parade is mainly for children premiering obscenely early in the morning, pushing ads for kids toys and
movies because Christmas, and usually consisting of celebrity guest stars that the young folk are into.
The parade also boasts performances from various high school marching bands and
broadway productions as well as Native American tribes. The parade does try to embrace the true
meaning of Thanksgiving, which I guess is family and peace, but though it does try to be politically
correct, it is still, at its core, a display of American consumerism and pride. Not just with
the glamorization of brands such as this year's Olay STEM girl power float, but also with its Mount
Rushmore float, which the Macy's site says honors South Dakota's Native American heritage, when we
all know that this year there was a huge protest to tear down Mount Rushmore and what it stands for.
And you might be wondering if the parade is going to happen this year because of the pandemic, and
yes in fact it is! In an email from Macy's talking about why they were delaying the pre-registration
to volunteer for the parade due to COVID they said, "In its more than 90-year history the
parade has only ever been cancelled three times, during World War II, and we truly hope that by
Thanksgiving this cherished event will help bring joy and a sense of normalcy to millions nationwide."
Yes because a parade during a pandemic is completely normal. And you might be wondering
how I have access to all of these exclusive Macy's volunteer emails and merch, but don't worry we'll
get to it. So without further ado, let's get started! So number one - who works the parade? The parade is
worked by thousands of company employees, but also thousands of volunteers. The volunteers handling
the balloons specifically are supposedly Macy's employees, but actually most of them aren't. Though
one can gain access to register to volunteer for the Macy's day parade through a Macy's employee,
most of the people volunteering at the parade are not Macy's employees. And the reason why I know this
is because I actually had a friend who worked at Macy's for two years in one of their biggest
stores in the mid-Atlantic region. She and her family member, who didn't work at Macy's, wanted to
work the parade, but it wasn't as easy as signing a form. To get access to the volunteer form you need
a macy's.com email address and only the managers have those, and as my friend was a sales associate
she didn't. She eventually finagled her way into the system and was able to then get access to
the form and share it with her family member. The form consisted of the usual stuff like your name
and contact info, but they also wanted to know your bra cup size. On the application you also need to
put the store that you work for and my friend's store wasn't even listed as an option on the
application. It was as if Macy's employees from the store hadn't participated in the parade in decades.
And remember my friend was working at one of the biggest stores in the mid-atlantic region and we
live fairly close to the city so it wouldn't be so out of the realm of possibilities that
people would want to volunteer for the parade. And of course there was a waiver that you had to sign
that said you nor your family could sue Macy's if anything happened to you on the day of the parade.
Macy's could also expel you from the parade before or during it without giving you a reason why.
"Please know that Macy's reserves the right to disqualify any applicant and or reassign any
accepted applicant at any time including parade day." The application also came with a short video
reminding you that you're on camera so always be smiling and by no means should you talk to the
press. "Finally, if you're approached by a member of the press simply say that you are having
a great time direct him or her to the balloon captain who can answer any detailed questions
that the reporter may have." Just smile and wave and act as though you're having a great time.
At the end of the video they enforce that the parade is part of our American heritage
of loving brands and waving your right to sue. "The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade has become part of
our American heritage and you have a unique opportunity to become a part of the history!"
"If you are not required to hold a handling bone, you should be waving at the crowd
and wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving! Selfie sticks are also prohibited in the line of march.
Our spectators are there to watch the parade, and not watch you taking a selfie. And finally how
to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience as part of the greatest parade in the world!"
Most people my friend met on the parade route never worked at Macy's a day in
their life, or if they did it was so long ago that it wasn't really pertinent to bring up.
It was clear that most of the people there had a friend who worked at Macy's at one point
and they volunteered once and after that they just kept coming because after you volunteered
once, Macy's continues to email you every year to see if you want to volunteer for the parade again.
Anyway it was really obvious that these people weren't from Macy's or Macy's employees because
they were in fact from all over the country and Macy's employees need to work Thanksgiving and
Black Friday, so how is someone who is in New York, but lives in Wisconsin going to get back for their
Thanksgiving day of work? And before the parade itself there's a non-mandatory training day where
you go to a stadium to test out the balloon's weight. They also give you a free sweatshirt,
but you can only get one if they haven't run out yet. This non-mandatory training day is essentially
useless as most people are from out of town, and also because it's non-mandatory so most people
just don't go. On the application you do have to agree that you can carry a certain amount of
weight as the balloons are on average 700 pounds, but nobody ever really checks to make sure if
you're physically fit enough to carry the balloon. I guess some of the handlers are more experienced
if they've done this multiple times, but for newcomers it's really hard. And last year was one
of the windiest parade routes that they had in a while, with winds reaching up to 30 to 40 miles per
hour. And the parade route isn't short either. It's actually three miles long, even though we only see
the balloons on TV go past Macy's store on 34th street. So per balloon you have 50 to 70 untrained
volunteers finagling their way for three miles in the windy cold holding a 700 pound balloon
and it's honestly terrifying. And to make it even worse there's like 16 of these gigantic things.
According to one Macy's fun fact: "At nearly six miles long the original parade route was twice as
long as it is now. It kicked off in Harlem on 145th street and Convent Ave. and finished on 34th street
in front of Macy's herald square. If participants had finished trackers back then, they would have
hit their weekly step goal in one morning!" After you pass Macy's on Herald Square you then need
to wait and deflate the balloon with your team and then wait even more for a shuttle to take you back
to the changing area. Fun fact you don't get to keep any part of the costume and they didn't need
to know your bra cup size because the costume itself is just baggy coveralls. Anyway you do get
to keep two pins at the end and then that's it. You presumably go about your day but that's only
if you don't work for Macy's. Though it is said that Macy's employees volunteer at the parade I
don't really think that's true. I think most of the volunteers just started going one year and just
kept going and just like hanging out at the parade and visiting New York City. And if you are a Macy's
employee working the parade you probably are getting paid because sales associates at Macy's
are volunteering their time for free at the parade, and then need to go to work on Thanksgiving. My
friend woke up to be in New York at around 4 30 a.m and the parade didn't end until around noon.
And then she had to go back home and start her Thanksgiving day shift. Yes, Macy's is open on
Thanksgiving. And that's not even to mention that she also had to work Black Friday the next day,
and again she was doing this balloon stuff for free. So no sales associate in their right
mind would do the parade, Thanksgiving and Black Friday back to back. So that's why I think
most of the people working at the parade are just volunteers that are non-Macy's employees. My friend
only did the parade because it was her family member's dream to be in the parade, not because
she actually wanted to be there, unlike the other volunteers who were gladly giving up their time
because they didn't have to work at Macy'. There are around 50 to 90 people per balloon and there's
around 16 balloons. So you essentially have 1,000 unpaid workers handling these 700 pound balloons.
And that's actually an underestimate because in the training video they say that there's around 75
people per balloon. "A total of at least 75 people on each large balloon." So there's around 1,000
unpaid workers there doing a really dangerous job and Macy's doesn't need to pay them because they
have so successfully branded the parade as fun and a tradition that people don't really mind being
out in the freezing cold wielding a 700 pound balloon for fun. "...good things at Macy's. Good!
I saw her in Macy's and she told me that she'd love to do it. The nation's biggest department store - Macy's.
Oh you can find me any day at Macy's." The power of branding
and patriotism is really incredible. So number two -
that time Macy's was sued. So unsurprisingly there have been a few accidents at the Macy's day parade.
In 1957 rain had collected atop the Popeye the Sailor Man balloon and then proceeded to splash
gallons of freezing cold water on spectators. In 1997 the Cat in the Hat balloon crashed into a
lamppost injuring spectators and putting one in a coma for 24 days. They eventually successfully
sued macy's and they settled out of court in 2001. Macy's then decided to implement stricter balloon
guidelines and said that they wouldn't fly in winds over 23 miles per hour, even though they
did fly in winds over 23 miles per hour just last year. On the day of the parade in 1997
the police expressed concerns to Macy's about the balloons and the wind and Macy's said that they were
prepared to handle anything, but of course they weren't. In 2017 a parade clown collapsed due to
a heart attack and in the news they didn't disclose whether he was an employee or not.
And remember in the waiver it says that you, nor anyone connected to you, can sue Macy's if you die
or get hurt in the parade. They probably didn't disclose if he was an employee because Macy's
didn't want to have to reveal that they don't give a [ __ ] about their employees at the parade
or about anyone who gets hurt during it. So number three - working at Macy's is terrible.
So like I said in the first part Macy's balloon handlers are probably not Macy's employees, but
rather volunteers because Macy's employees need to work Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
They're already so overworked and underpaid why would they volunteer their time for free? Macy's as
a company loves to tout how much their employees love the company that they would even volunteer
for the parade, when no they don't. No one who works for Macy's as a sales associate would ever
volunteer for the parade because they have to work Thanksgiving, which not only is a federal holiday,
but also Black Friday the next day back to back. And making people work on federal holidays is
usually illegal, but they get around it by hiring seasonal help, but my friend wasn't a seasonal hire.
So they make non-seasonal employees work Black Friday and Thanksgiving by just scheduling them
on those days and holding their attendance record over their head. Attendance at Macy's is used to
fire people all the time. If you have even point zero one percent less than perfect attendance
they could fire you. And this goes for all employees no matter how long you've worked there.
My friend had co-workers who worked at Macy's as sales associates for decades, so it creates
this passive aggressiveness where you don't have to work Thanksgiving, but this could come back to
bite you in the ass later, and they could fire you for it. Macy's stores also got around the mandatory
eight hour break between shifts by just scheduling people without breaks because they just don't care.
Basically it's mandatory for all Macy's employees to work Thanksgiving and Black Friday back to back
without the mandatory eight hour break between shifts and that if you don't pick your hours
first, management will sign them for you. Macy's presumably used to give out diamond rings to
employees who have worked there for 25 years or longer, and nowadays they just let you pick out a
DVD from the bargain bin. Macy's is one of the worst companies to work for in retail because
they just so unashamedly hate and abuse their employees. During one Black Friday my friend
worked at one of the employees was hurled across the room because the customers were
trying to get to a certain product. Another time she found dirty diapers in the mattress section,
and in one of the weirdest stories she told me, was that one time she had to clean out dirty clothes
from the dressing room that had been urinated on in a form of protest. During the pandemic Macy's
furloughed their employees, which basically means that they're technically still hired
and could come back, but that they're not going to be paid for this time off. And even before
they started to fire and furlough people they had very few employees, and sometimes they had
one sales associate take care of an entire floor. We all know that retail is going downhill in favor
of online stores and Macy's online store seems to be doing fine, but what about employees that
have worked there for decades? What about newer recruits who are just trying to make ends meet?
They could care less. It's just so terrible because Macy's has ingrained itself into our American
zeitgeist as this wholesome brand, but of course they only ever care about profits and not their
on-the-ground employees or even people who get hurt in their parade - volunteers and spectators
alike. But really is there anything more American than that? So the conclusion. So that's all I have
to say about that. I'm just really lucky that I had a friend who worked at Macy's and at the parade
because as a kid I was always really interested in the parade and loved watching it and always wanted
to know more about it. And I do want to emphasize that the volunteers at the parade who don't work
for Macy's and don't need to work Thanksgiving and Black Friday do really love going to the parade
and volunteering their time, and as I said in the beginning, this year's parade is still going to
happen, but it's going to be a bit different. On the parade Wikipedia it says that the parade will be a:
"Television only special presentation over a two-day period with 75 fewer participants and
social distancing enforced. The event will not include college and high school marching bands,
those bands will be deferred to 2021, nor any participant under 18 years of age. Balloons will
be tethered to a specially rigged anchor vehicle framework of five specialty vehicles, rather than
carried by handlers, and the full parade route will not be used with all activity limited to
the Herald Square area." Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio stated that, "It will not be a live parade,
but something that will really give us that warmth and that great feeling we have on Thanksgiving day."
I'm glad that they're taking the right measures, but why can't they use these specialty rigged
anchor vehicles for the balloons like all the time? Wouldn't that cause like a lot less accidents and
legal issues? And this year the volunteers aren't going to be handling the balloons, but just
walking beside the balloons waving and stuff, and why can't again they just do that all the
time? It seems a lot safer. At the end of the day I just think it's because people really love
this parade. I mean there's a dedicated Fan Wiki to it. And you know what i get it in a sense. It's
something that you grow up with as a kid and that you're nostalgic for as an adult, so the nostalgic
cycle just continues, and it's totally fine if you like to the parade, if you enjoy the parade,
even I still enjoy the parade as an adult. So yeah either way if you like the parade or don't, let me
know what you think about it in the comments down below! And if you do celebrate thanksgiving I just
want to say a Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and your loved ones and those around you. So
thank you so much for watching and if you did like this video please give it a like, leave a
comment, share with someone, and subscribe and ring the bell to see more. And again if you're new here
I post new videos every Tuesday and Friday, so again please subscribe and ring the bell if you
want to see those. And my next video is going to be about The Circle by Dave Eggers and how it makes
no freaking sense. So yeah that's it, I hope to see you next time and thank you so much for watching, bye!