Most retail workers go through a rough day Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest holiday shopping day of the year). There are hoards of people, long lines, people with short tempers, and the clean-up job is astronomical.

Many of those workers are right back at their stations on Saturday, tired and sometimes resentful of the whole holiday shopping season. So how do we bring a little holiday cheer back into retail workers' lives? The answer could be Selfless Saturday: Be Kind To Service Workers Day.

Selfless Saturday is a day dedicated to honoring and appreciating anyone working in a service-related position. There are currently more than 150 million people working in jobs that provide customer service who need a little extra gratitude, especially after Black Friday.

Selfless Saturday is the brainchild of Freeman Hall, a Los Angeles, Calif., based author and blogger who is well-known in the retail world. He has written three books and four e-books, and runs several popular blogs. He has more than 20 years in the service industry. He has worked in movie theaters, fast food, department stores, and most notably with high-end clothing store Nordstrom.

Hall said he has seen the best (and worst) of the retail world.

“Selfless Saturday is my response to the Black Friday takeover,” Hall said. “Corporations will never give Thanksgiving back because of profits, but we can give our thanks back to the service workers of America. Selfless Saturday is about doing something nice for the people who serve us.”

Black Friday boasts big discounts; with stores hoping eager shoppers will come looking for that great deal, and hopefully leave with lots more too. In Boothbay Harbor, the vast majority of local stores do not observe Black Friday (instead they celebrate Early Bird). One exception to this is Radio Shack in the Meadow Mall.

In areas where Black Friday is observed, it gets pushed earlier and earlier each year. Stores used to open at midnight; then it was 9 p.m. Thanksgiving Day. Then, this year, four nationwide stores have announced they will open at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day: Kmart; Sears; Toys R Us and Walmart.

Some workers love opening on Thanksgiving, since they make extra (at Target, employees earn time and a half plus bonus pay for overnight hours). Some workers are angered by opening on Thanksgiving because it prevents them from traveling and sometimes requires them to miss festivities.

Maine, along with a few other states, still has its Blue Law on the books. The law prohibits retailers with stores exceeding 5,000 square feet from being open on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. So in these states, retail workers are protected from missing a family holiday. But in other states, this is not the case.

A pledge campaign had been created at Causes.com for Selfless Saturday. Visit www.causes.com/profiles/88344004 to sign the pledge.

“One simple act of appreciative kindness can go a long way,” Hall said. “Whether it was a coffee, a candy bar, or writing a thank you on the comments form, these acts of kindness made me feel respected and appreciated amidst a sea of entitlement and rudeness.

“They made me feel that what I had done for them mattered and they were truly grateful. We need to encourage that.”

Katrina Clark can be reached at 207-633-4620 or katrinaclark@boothbayregister.com. Follow her on Twitter: @BBRegisterClark or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BBRegisterKatrinaClark.