Open on Thanksgiving for your shopping convenience?

[Chuckanut]

What do you think of some stores opening late on Thanksgiving Day to get an early start on Black Friday sales? How would you feel if you had to leave the Thanksgiving festivities early to go work at the Megacorp Store?

 

[REWahoo]

Many business pay workers double-time for working on holidays. IF that were the case and IF working on Thanksgiving was voluntary, I see no problem with it.

 

[MichaelB]

Shopping is a spectator sport, a social happening and a family event in the US. We do it better than anywhere else in the world. This is just an example of how we push the envelop and continue to strive for greater levels of shopping achievement.

 

[REWahoo]

I understand one of the main reasons some stores moved up Black Friday (to Dark Gray Thursday Night?) was to appeal to a younger demographic. They believed it would be much easier to attract under 25 shoppers at midnight than at five AM, and I hear they were successful.

 

[MichaelB]

I thought people under 25 e-shopped and didn't go to stores, but I don't know anyone that age that has money. Black friday is about getting people into the stores and it seemed to have worked. Here is an interesting link Mapping Black Friday insanity on Twitter (infographic) | VentureBeat

 

[ziggy29]

Many business pay workers double-time for working on holidays. IF that were the case and IF working on Thanksgiving was voluntary, I see no problem with it.

That's a lot of "ifs", but given how much employers have been able to get away with in recent years because people are desperate for work, I doubt this is the case much any more.

 

[REWahoo]

I thought people under 25 e-shopped and didn't go to stores...

Most of the doorbusters weren't available online.

...I don't know anyone that age that has money.

Judging by the groups I saw 'camping' outside Best Buy, having no money doesn't appear to be an obstacle. Maybe they were the same bunch that 'borrowed' my credit card last week...

 

[W2R]

What do you think of some stores opening late on Thanksgiving Day to get an early start on Black Friday sales? How would you feel if you had to leave the Thanksgiving festivities early to go work at the Megacorp Store?

I'd love having a built-in excuse to get out of the obligatory stuff-your-face Thanksgiving dinner, personally. I realize that most people wouldn't feel that way and I do sympathize with those who have to work on holidays but don't want to.

When I was a single person working my way through college, I LOVED coming in on holidays. I earned OT, I admit. But what I really loved was that management was gone!!! I had the whole place to myself so I could get more done. (Granted, that is not at all the case for the Black Friday workers). Anyway, I got lots of kudos from management for getting so much done, but it was easy with nobody there. And then I got the thanks of my co-workers, too. Since we only needed one person there on holidays, the other 20-30 got the day off. I also worked in the evenings but usually there were others there at that time.

Also, I loved working on holidays because it touched my heart that others wanted to be with their little kids on Christmas morning and so on. I didn't have that, and felt lonely with no family get-together to go to, but going to work and staying busy there got rid of my loneliness. So, I always volunteered.

I think that if I were a single person working at Best Buy, I'd probably love going in on Black Friday (as long as security made sure the crowds were under control). What excitement! What fun! What an Event!! But if I was married with little kids, I'd probably just endure it. I'd arrange to have the family's Thanksgiving celebration earlier or later, when I was home. I admit that if I had to leave early, I probably wouldn't miss having to sit through a zillion football games surrounded by leftover food. Not my idea of fun.

 

[MichaelB]

W2R, that is a great perspective. It brings back many pleasant memories of when I was young, anxious to work and jumped at any opportunity to earn a paycheck or make extra $$. I didn't always get overtime pay but never missed an opportunity when it was available.

 

[pb4uski]

What do you think of some stores opening late on Thanksgiving Day to get an early start on Black Friday sales? How would you feel if you had to leave the Thanksgiving festivities early to go work at the Megacorp Store?

I'm not keen on stores opening Thanksgiving Day but I respect their right to do so if they wish.

On the second question, I would be thankful that I had a job. When I accepted a job in retail I would know that comes with the territory.

If someone doesn't like it they can always resign.

I'm sick of the whiners.

 

[HFWR]

Lots of folks work on Thanksgiving, on the weekend graveyard shift, or in the desert in a hostile foreign country...

Doesn't mean it doesn't suck...

Edit: At a former employer, our department only had a day and an evening shift, so nights and weekends were often unmanned. I use to volunteer for "watch" on holiday, night shift; was good for double-time-and-a-half, plus shift premium.

 

[Gumby]

Overtime (lots and lots of it) is what enabled me to save enough to pay for law school.

 

[FreeAtLast]

I made a Thanksgiving dinner and one of my guests was going to stop at Walmart on his way home. He left with all the other guests. Now if that guest were to have left early to snag a deal then I would have been upset.

 

[Dreamer]

I don't care for it. I think that they are taking Thanksgiving away from us. I think the opening hours on Thanksgiving will keep getting earlier and earlier, until stores are open all day, business as usual. As soon as that happens, I think that it will just be a matter of time, before it starts on Christmas too.

I realize that there are lots of places that have to have people working there 24-7. To me that is a different story. However, retail stores, are not those kinds of places IMHO. I doubt that workers at Wal-Mart, Target or K-Mart were volunteers or being paid overtime. I could be wrong and hope that I am. I also don't think that the majority of those workers could really afford to quit their jobs, if they were told that they had to work on Thanksgiving. I am sure that I would be one of the whiners if I were in that situation.