Story and photos by Jason Volnick

Marvin Robinson, 50, has been a salesman in the second floor men’s department at Macy’s flagship department store on Herald Square for less than a year. But after Black Friday, he feels like a seasoned veteran.

Soon after the store opened at midnight, the men’s department, like most of the rest of the store, looked like a tornado had ripped through it, with shoppers in search of bargains tearing through the folded clothes, many of which ended up cluttering the aisles.

With almost 30 years of experience in retail — most recently at NJB, a women’s boutique in the Village — Robinson was eager to help customers cash in on the promotions offered by Macy’s. Robinson, who gets an eight percent commission on all sales, opened several new Macy’s credit card accounts for shoppers who could take advantage of the 15 percent discount off of all purchases paid for with the new cards. When Robinson had to turn down the request of two Chinese customers who wanted to open a credit card account because they lacked a U.S. address, he offered them the next best thing by directing them to customer service to get an out-of-town resident’s discount of 15 percent.

Robinson also rang up several so-called pre-sales, in which customers took advantage of a 25 percent discount on purchases made on Wednesday. Robinson was able to give an additional 15 percent off for certain sale items in the Kenneth Cole section. Shoppers seemed to respond to his charm and easy-going personality.

At times, though, Robinson had to deliver the unwelcome news that shoppers could only use one coupon per purchase. Many customers tried to use three and four discount coupons that they received in the mail from Macy’s.

“It’s by the clock; Macy’s has been doing this a long time and they know what works,” said an exhausted, but happy, Robinson. By the end of his shift, Robinson had done quite well, racking up $5,000 in sales and $3,000 in pre-sales.