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'This is Target!' Manager gives Black Friday workers a pep talk worthy of Sparta

Black Friday is a tough day for all involved, from the folks who wait outside for bargains to the employees inside who face frantic consumers rushing after those great deals.But perhaps the day after Thanksgiving this year was a little easier for Target employees in Westminster, Maryland, thanks to one electronics department worker who got up on a checkout counter and delivered what had to be the

Black Friday is a tough day for all involved, from the folks who wait outside for bargains to the employees inside who face frantic consumers rushing after those great deals.

But perhaps the day after Thanksgiving this year was a little easier for Target employees in Westminster, Maryland, thanks to one electronics department worker who got up on a checkout counter and delivered what had to be the most rousing pre-Black Friday speech ever.

"They come here with bargains in their heads, and fire in their eyes!" Scott Simms exhorted his unseen employees in a video on YouTube that's gone viral. "We're more than just a store: This is a team! This is a family! This is Target!"

Gerard Butler, who declared something similar ("This is Sparta!") in "300" would be proud. And Alex, the Target employee who garnered millions of Twitter followers after his swoony photo was posted on the Internet in November (and who may have been a marketing ploy), may have some competition.

And for the cynical out there who tend to suspect there's something more behind this sort of viral clip, take heart: A Target rep denied this was a marketing scheme and told TODAY.com, "One of our favorite parts of the holiday is watching our entire Target team bring the season to life in their own way. We want them to have fun, because we know when our team is having fun, so are our guests. Our team member Scott is one of countless team members who help make Target uniquely Target. We have long said that Thanksgiving weekend is to retail what a championship game is to sports. Scott is clearly quite a team player." 

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