Just a few reasons why it is wrong and evil of you to intrude upon Thanksgiving as your new “Black Friday.”
1st of all, it is not only unloyal, but disrespectful to your employees to require them to work on their contractual and corporate agreed upon holidays. But worse, Thanksgiving is a federally mandated holiday and a religious observance that has been in effect since George Washington enacted the very first one. There are only three holidays per year, and you insist upon the theft of one of them. The intrusion of corporate retail that interferes with the religious and familial observances of an entire nation is uncalled for. Next you will probably expect everyone to give up their Christmas day off too. One day won’t make a difference. Understand this…there is already a nationwide protest against the greed of corporate America that will not end because of this. It only makes it worse.
2nd: You are not only forcing retail employees to work overtime, but because of you, police, fire, paramedics, hospitals and security personnel will also have to be increased to deal with unruly crowds and injuries caused by your ridiculous insistence that consumers must undergo a frantic search for sales of unessential goods on one day only, and that day must be extended. Because of you, they all have to work longer hours too. Taxpayer dollars are not used to hire “seasonal” police officers.
3rd: Other countries don’t have “Black Friday”, but they ALL have Christmas. Every country in the world has Christmas. And according to several business news sources, they also have profitable sales during the holiday season without the additional stress of corporations forcing them all out of their homes to shop on ONE day of the year. So what’s the point? The same number of gifts still need to be purchased by Christmas. Whether they are purchased on Thanksgiving, or Black Friday, or December 2nd or the 15th, or any other day, what difference does it make? The gift will still be purchased and if you give the consumer a good deal, it will be purchased in your very own store. Wouldn’t corporate retail be better served by offering decent prices throughout the season, instead of just on one tiring and stressful marathon day? I know your excuse is that your “stats” claim that consumers spend their entire Christmas wad of cash in the FIRST store they enter, so you think that whoever opens first wins the whole shabang. Rediculous. The consumers know merchandise is limited and not everyone can fit into the one store earlybird. Mostly because of you, there is no longer a four day Thanksgiving weekend for most of America anymore anyway, as it has been chipped away year after year. So, maybe you can be pro-active, and have your big sale on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and leave the employees to their holiday.
4th: Consumers obviously don’t understand that on these “Black Fridays” retail employees have been working 18 to 24 hour shifts, or longer, just to handle the sheer volume of people that come in. Now toss earlier start times on Thanksgiving into the mix. Is it any wonder that with all those additional work hours thrown onto their shifts they are upset? They have already put in long after hours to get the stores ready, are required to attend the family celebrations of their ALREADY SCHEDULED DAY OFF, and they don’t even have time for a nap before going to work. After the stores finally close, who cleans up the mess left behind? Throw millions of tired retail staff into cars and put them on the road, and you have a disaster on your hands. Laws have been enacted to prevent doctors from doing that very thing.
5th: Not one of those forced to work will be shopping. They won’t have time. Have these corporations ever counted the cost of that? Those sales are going to go to Amazon, the very same company your extended hours are trying to prevent. Haven’t you said you are doing this to circumvent customers from shopping online? It won’t work, because now you have alienated thousands upon thousands of consumers and those forced to work with lose out on all your brick and mortar sales. They will shop the sales online wherever they can get them, because now we all know there are no deals after your Black day. At least by shopping online, they are not risking their lives being trampled by the crowds in their frenzy to crash through your doors.
6th: Thanksgiving is a well beloved holiday. It is a time for family and friends to spend time with one another. Some of them travel great distances just to be together. They spend hard earned money on the one feast they reserve for that day. Do you honestly believe that if an American Soldier was allowed to come home for the Holiday, he or she would prefer to spend their time shopping on Thanksgiving? Do you think that if they are to remain in a foxhole, they dream of shopping? Where do you think their priorities lie? They would choose to spend that day with their loved ones, catching up with their lives, eating and relaxing far away from the madness? But, now, you have taken that from them. Their loved ones are now working.
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Tara Pollard 