Black Friday sales to now start on ... Thursday

[Venetia]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/thanksgiv ... 53491.html

Thanksgiving Shouldn't Be 'Black Thursday': Target Employees

Retailers are hoping to get holiday-shoppers into their stores right after they finish their Thanksgiving turkey, but some store employees are pushing back.

Target (TGT), Toys R Us, Wal-Mart (WMT), Sears (SHLD) and Gap (GPS) are among the retailers that will throw open their doors to deal-hungry consumers on Thanksgiving Day.

Target is planning to open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, while Wal-Mart and Toys R Us will be open at 8 p.m.

Joe Feldman, an analyst at Telsey Advisory Group, said the earlier opening opening should help retailers grab market share.
"It certainly extends the holiday season a little bit longer and it is really about getting that sale before your competitor does," he said. "It may not mean incrementally more sales but it could definitely capture more for retailers that are open."

Not all employees are thrilled about having to come to work on the holiday.

Casey St. Clair, a Target employee in California, has started an online petition asking the retail giant to save Thanksgiving from Black Friday creep. The petition had reached 178,000 signatures as of Tuesday.

She told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Monday "In the almost six years since I've been there, I've seen the opening creep back every year." St. Clair said on Thanksgiving, "retail is not a necessary service that needs to be open."

Jennifer Ann, another Target employee, also has a petition calling on Target to save Thanksgiving for employees. “Family has always been important to me and Thanksgiving is all about family,” she wrote. “I love seeing family that we haven't seen in years and spending time with each other on the only day when we can all get together. Last year, it became clear to me that for some large retailers, this holiday isn't about family or being grateful at all.”

In a statement, Target said its "opening time was carefully evaluated with the expectations of our guests and the needs of our business and team in mind."
While opening on Thanksgiving may be giving the customer what he or she wants, retail analyst Stacey Widlitz warned that deals will be staggered throughout the day and some shoppers may come away disappointed.

Nonetheless, "Black Friday sales are 10 percent of holiday sales," Widlitz noted. "So, if you're the first out there, you'll gain market share."

A friend that works at Target told me about this. She has to go into work at 8pm, leave at 1:30am, then go back in the next morning, for some of the most grueling work a retail employee'll ever see. What in the actual fuck.

Are you as outraged about this as I am?? (And, to you non-American people: Just try to imagine how outraged you'd be if this happened to you on a day like, say for example, Christmas, where you were demanded to work ON Christmas, RIGHT AFTER you opened presents, or risk losing your job/sole source of income?)

So, here are some questions to you:

- Do you feel bad for the employees?

- Would you (or, are you) actually go out to shop for deals RIGHT AFTER eating a gigantic meal on a holiday you're supposed to share with family?

- Does hearing about this affect your opinion on these retailers (or on Americans in general, if you're foreign)?

- How do you feel about eschewing cultural & personal traditions & standards for capitalist gains?

 

[Meness]

"Start a riot NOW!!!"

oh sorry was listening to my silly music

Yes I do feel bad. It's stupid and nonsensical imo

Sadly, probably yeah, I flow with the need most of the time.

I'm foreign and I've never thought too much on this and the significance of it all. However, I tried putting myself in your shoes, and my opinion hasn't change. My opinion has been created.

It's Armageddon, I swear. The general people are losing at everything. Even when we think we're winning....

 

[united washcloth express]

I work 7PM to 4AM because Walmart hates families.


It's what Sam Walton would have wanted, with his constant store closing during holidays.

 

[Ellie]

My city doesn't actually have anything at all in it. For a city of 300,000 people our shopping selection is abyssmal. We have a giant shopping mall that is a shadow of it's former self with department stores that are now pound shops and discount stores using only one floor and so on. We're connected to Birmingham in a conurbation of 2.3 million, but Birmingham itself is Black Fridayish every day of the week, so that's a big no.

So, my shopping will all be done online.

Fuck even HMV has turned half of it's store over to electronics like iPads, and their tiny store is literally the only new CD/DVD store in the city.

As for Black Friday, why the hell would anybody do their shopping on a day the shops tell you to? "Sales" aren't going to work like that. Just do your shopping when you want to and it will be quieter, with a better selection. Any sales in stores will be cheaper online anyway, you go to a store to feel a product, not to get it cheap. Black Friday is an utterly pointless concept.

 

[Ellie]

- Does hearing about this affect your opinion on these retailers (or on Americans in general, if you're foreign)?

It does make out Americans to be somewhat sheep. We aren't told what day to shop here like that.

Although we are no better when the NEXT sale comes out in January, which is very much Black Friday if not worse, and far worse whenever a new IKEA opens.

 

[onzephyr]

TL;DR: Bold text
It definitely has an odious feel to it. Truth is all box stores will continue to push the idea of "black Friday" back as far as they can. It's in their best interest and needed to turn a profit. Roughly 10% of their annul sales will come from that weekend. That's a hell of a reason to open before your competitor. Unless they see a change in consumer behavior or find a better more profitable alternative it won't change.
Compounded by the fact online stores don't have to play by these rules and are destroying brick and mortar sales anyways.
I've been receiving Black Friday sales emails for online stores since before Halloween. It's just as irrational but seems less offensive.

I wonder is your friend getting Holiday pay for her shift?
It's been a while since I've worked retail but I did my fair share from the ages of 15-22 or so. I can sympathize with the low handed, disrespectful stuff that comes at retail employees from the people who sign their checks and those buying the goods. The ever present fear of losing your job or not making it to the next paycheck does not help.

To that end all I can suggest is each and every employee and potential customer do is exercise their free will.
I tend not to play nice with those using tricks like a false sense of scarcity. So no Black Friday / Thursday for me.
If you do like black Fridays. The anticipation, the rush of buying things. Good for you and good for the stores. Everyone gets to make their own choice, That choice is what's important.

 

[bacon]

is it really that surprising? Its a pretty awful situation but this is a pretty typical big business move.

Wyatt I dont think you understand the scale of black friday. Black Friday is crazy. I went one time because i wanted to see what the hubbub was about and it was pretty traumatizing. It is basically a bunch of people pushing, shoving, and being rude to eachother just to get the best price. People get killed. People get runover by other people. People steal things from your cart. People take things that you are carrying or reach into your bag that you are holding and try and steal whatever they can get their hands on. And there are tons of people. It's a mad house. The reason why its attractive is that you can get things for crazy low prices. Its not just some sale, its the sale of the year and the only way you are going to get anything is if you are aggressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DigiWS1YhxI

 

[united washcloth express]

My Thanksgiving has been hijacked twice in a row now

 

[united washcloth express]

Wait, no. Three times.

 

[Ellie]

Wyatt I dont think you understand the scale of black friday. Black Friday is crazy. I went one time because i wanted to see what the hubbub was about and it was pretty traumatizing. It is basically a bunch of people pushing, shoving, and being rude to eachother just to get the best price. People get killed. People get runover by other people. People steal things from your cart. People take things that you are carrying or reach into your bag that you are holding and try and steal whatever they can get their hands on. And there are tons of people. It's a mad house. The reason why its attractive is that you can get things for crazy low prices. Its not just some sale, its the sale of the year and the only way you are going to get anything is if you are aggressive.

Yeah the only thing we really have on that par is the NEXT sale and IKEA openings. People get killed there too, it's brutal.

 

[bacon]

Haha blackfriday is basically an Ikea opening at every store every year x;

 

[dadevvtsvre]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1zGjbFU1uE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNnM24FVVAQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCoR2hcseIw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-saZ34qI2U

Excuse me for a second, I'm going to go throw up.

How have we gotten to the point, as a culture, where this is excusable? I'm literally sick to my stomach.

Greed at its finest. Consumerism is disgusting.

 

[united washcloth express]

Our CoManager almost dies every year from riling the crowd.

Last year, an associate had to drag him out from under people's feet as they trampled him in electronics for some appliances they killed each other over, and some Wii games they promptly decided were worthless and left.

 

[Venetia]

Ughghghghghgh oh god Dadev that is the stuff of my nightmares


You make everyone barefoot, then toss some lotus seed pods and surinam toads in the mix and BOOM: All of my worst fears, ever, in the same room. It'd be like Silent Hill up in there for me


(I'm deathly afraid of crowds, feet, and clusters of holes)

 

[Jason]

Those videos don't seem too bad...

 

[Glitchfinder]

Those videos don't seem too bad...

Did you click play?

 

[united washcloth express]

This one is for Devvy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOVD-m8urJU

 

[united washcloth express]

Watch a pregnant woman be trampled for electronics and cooking-ware

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEb18fkA-bU

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

 

[onzephyr]

Ughghghghghgh oh god Dadev that is the stuff of my nightmares
You make everyone barefoot, then toss some lotus seed pods and surinam toads in the mix and BOOM: All of my worst fears, ever, in the same room. It'd be like Silent Hill up in there for me
(I'm deathly afraid of crowds, feet, and clusters of holes)

I share your repulsion for clusters of holes. Lotus seed pods and Surinam toads make my skin crawl.
I also get the same effect from unexpected organic fibrous shreds. Some fungus(like this gallery)or even worse things like this, are giant piles of Nope.

EDIT: Almost forgot about Belostomatidea

 

[Jason]

Those videos don't seem too bad...

Did you click play?

No, I just sat and stared at them...

Dumbass...