What do you think of the department stores (etc...) pushing for earlier Black Friday hours?

Forums: Black Friday, Life At Work, Thanksgiving, Shopping, Working On Holiday
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Inspired by the following Urban Dictionary word submission:

Quote:

Black Thursday
Also known as Thanksgiving. The process of greedy retailers moving their formerly Black Friday sales to late Thanksgiving night to sell their useless Christmas Junk.

These greedy money tycoons are using the customers as the premise of ruining one greatest American traditions by telling us we would rather stay up late and shop on the Holiday, than get up early early and shop the next day.

Requiring employees of said institutions to miss out on family gatherings and football, to go chase some corporate fatcat's almighty bottom line
Dad: Why are you crying honey, dinner was perfect.
Mom: I am crying cause Dan missed his first Thanksgiving dinner ever, cause that stupid money-grubbing corporation turned Black Friday into Black Thursday.
by Crimson X on Nov 21, 2011

tags: thanksgiving, turkey day, christmas shopping, green friday, stupid

As well as the latest retail controversy over department stores and other retail outlets [Target, Walmart, etc...] push to force workers to work basically overnight shifts and longer to start their Black Friday sales.

I have mixed feelings toward the retailers push for opening their stores earlier and earlier each year. On the one hand, if an employee doesn't work that day (loses a day from his or her regularly scheduled work week), most retailers and employers (I bet) in the US WON'T be paying them for the holiday off. So in this very weak economy, what retail employee can truly afford a dayoff without pay??

On the other hand, even if the person is getting time and a half (I'm cynical about the existence of this mythological beast, holiday pay), and he or she doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving or any national (religious based national holiday: Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc...), the hours these retail stores are forcing their employees to work are insane.

So, a person can't refuse this forced shift, if he or she wants to keep his or her job. And if he or she celebrates this holiday, then his or her plans will be completely discombobulated due to the insane hours from this weekend long nationwide junk sale.

SO?? What do you think of the department stores (etc...)latest effor to push Black Friday sales to Thursday night (if not the entire day of Thanksgiving for some few cases)?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 8 • Views: 4,841 • Replies: 28

@tsarstepan,

No big deal. Thanksgiving isn't a religious holiday. It's just a random football day.

They turned Boxing Day into Boxing Week over the past decade here. I don't think they're selling more in a week than they would in a day - they've just spread out the selling days. It's a bit easier on everyone, since there's no one crazy shopping day.

0 Replies

Don't matter to me. I don't intend to be there.

0 Replies

@tsarstepan,

I know in Mass - they are pushing are so called blue laws.

Result - these department stores cannot have people working on Thanksgiving. This is actually pushing MA stores to open later as the earliest the employees can come is 12:00am. Since the employees have to get ready for the store to open - the actual open for business ends up being later than 12:00 am (small concession but at least some).

1 Reply

@Linkat,

I'm surprised anyone can get enforcement on any single blue law. I thought they were window dressing at worst. Good for them for holding out ... just a little bit.

0 Replies

@tsarstepan,

I'd rather them open Thursday at 7:00 PM than open at 3:00 AM and have people outside waiting around in the cold and trampling each other to get in so from the shopper point of view it's a win. I'm not sure about the employee point of view. Businesses don't have to give holiday pay and you only get time and a half for overtime. I'd favor opening 7-10pm on Thursday then not opening on Friday until a more reasonable hour like 7am so everyone gets some sleep.

1 Reply

Last place I'll be is in front of some stores on Black Friday for lots of reasons - never been a crowd lover.
I think I agree with the employees who are complaining. First of all, it's a hard time now to complain about working conditions and we can see why it is.
The whole sales the day after thing has crept up on us over the years to this kind of mobbola phenomenon and the preps for it must be pretty straining.
Far as I'm concerned, heh, make it start on Saturday morning.

Back in my hospital days/when student, I used to work thanksgiving, christmas, new years, easter, and surrounding days, whatever - second tier help as a part timer (though I racked up near full time hours). There was something quietly nice about the hospital on christmas... the people and the behavior to staff.

I can only guess the total opposite to walmart staff on black friday.

2 Replies

@engineer,

But you sir are a reasonable bloke. The question is why would you believe that the retails stores would follow such a reasonable plan such as what you written here?

But as for...

Quote:

Businesses don't have to give holiday pay

... you're misled to think that most companies (retail or otherwise) ACTUALLY pay holiday pay for those workers who don't have to work on the holiday. That kind of holiday pay benefit is as mythological a creature as a rainbow colored unicorn that's not gay.

Quote:

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations or holidays (federal or otherwise). These benefits are generally a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee (or the employee's representative).

http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/holiday.htm

0 Replies

@ossobuco,

Ossobuco? Should we start a thread on how many people will be hospitalized from mob related stampeding when the doors of these big box department stores open en masse on midnight?

I wonder how many shoppers are drunk out of their mind before going to the stores for the Black Friday sales?

2 Replies

@ossobuco,

Yes when I was in high school, I had a parttime job working in the kitchen of a nursing home. I used to volunteer to work the Thanksgiving dining shift (3 - 8) - you get paid double-time, it was quieter as everyone had a big dinner earlier so little work for us in the kitchen and when you volunteer a head of time - you get to choose which holiday and time you want to work.

Many others would try and wait it out to see if they didn't have to work on either Christmas or Thanksgiving. Being smart - I took the easiest and the time that was best for me so I wasn't asked to work Christmas and I looked better to the bosses as being one of the first to volunteer for holiday work. Bonus - I got special attention at home for Thanksgiving dinner (in don't need to help out) and having my dinner first as I had to work.

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

The good thing is they are sitting outside all night so by the time they get into the store - the drunk buzz has worn off.

0 Replies

@tsarstepan,

See my recent walmart thread.* If you look, read through it.
I was actually frightened. People were speeding at me. Criminy. It somewhat has to do with my own visual problems, but they have been ongoing, mostly the same for many decades, and I routinely have gone into lots of stores. Home Depot doesn't set me into a fear state.
The people at Walmart that day were in a speedzone with carts. It's a movie scene, I tell ya.

*http://able2know.org/topic/179111-1

3 Replies

@ossobuco,

And to top it off - just look at the people of walmart....

0 Replies

@Linkat,

The md's were their nicest of the year. Boxes of chocolates. Never ever curt..

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

Does this remind you of that day?

http://dc-cdn.virtacore.com/2010/11/shoppers8bf8.jpg

Looks like a happy crowd though

1 Reply

@Linkat,

What that photo doesn't show you are the bloody and pulped remains of 4 or 5 people still outside the entrance who DIDN'T make it into the store after the doors opened. Shocked

0 Replies

..No, not at all, but my computer is doing a crash.

Back in a bit.

0 Replies

@ossobuco,

For the past several years, it's been a staple of TV news here in NYC to talk about the injuries and yes even a few deaths from the marauding mob who shop the Black Friday sales at the likes of Walmart and other big box department stores.

Despite police presence outside the doors (I hope) I bet this year will be no different.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

So way back in the day - when I was a teenager, my mom was working at a department store just slightly above the quality of Walmart. It was during the Cabbage Patch craze. So my mom is there on the day they went on sale. She sees all these people lined up outside simply to get one of these ugly dolls. I remember her saying to me and describing the mob scence. And she said, all I could think of was what sort of crazy person waits in a mob scence outside a department store to get the first of these horrible dolls.

And then as the doors open ------ who is at the front----- my grandmother (her mom) racing with the crowds to get the first of these valuable items.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

I wonder which sale was more violent? The Tickle-me-Elmo war, the Cabbage Patch craze, or the Filene's Basement wedding dress rampage?

1 Reply

What do you think of the department stores (etc...) pushing for earlier Black Friday hours?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know