Black Friday, or Day after Thanksgiving sales for all those who may be new to the retail winter wonder land, has been growing and evolving over the past few decades as retailers try to gain the upper hand and win as many customers as they can. Recently the game changer has been how early stores can open. See more on the midnight openings here.
This year, several stores are attempting to have a start time in the first hour (midnight), on the 25th. For many of those guerilla shoppers out there this is perfect. However, for some of the retail associates it isn’t exactly the bargain they’re looking for.
Sales Associates’ Issue with Black Friday
Anyone who has worked retail knows that there are some truths to life: death, taxes, and having to work the day after Thanksgiving. This means that there is less time with family during the Thanksgiving holiday week, an inability to travel to see family across states, and waking up early just as your turkey finally settles in your stomach and going into work. With the midnight openings this means that some employees will have to possibly cut short their plans as they will need to check into work on Thanksgiving Day, about an hour or two before midnight.
Employee discontent turns to petitions
One employee felt so strongly against having to cut short his well earned holiday rest that he decided to start a petition. Anthony Hardwick, part time Target employee in Omaha, started a petition to get Target to change their opening times back to 6am. The petition was started on change.org- which has been an attributing factor to changes such as stopping Bank of America’s plan to charge a monthly fee for debit cards.
So far the petition has garnered 190,000 signatures and is due to be turned into Target headquarters this Monday afternoon- more at Fox 9
What to expect
The petition is most likely going to be turned down since the decision to open falls to customer demand, per a statement from Target’s corporate staff. It also is clear that a change in start time back to the traditional 6am open would put Target behind Wal-Mart, Sears, and Macy’s who are set to be open on Thanksgiving day. Since Black Friday quite simply is one of the most important selling days of the year, often putting stores back into the “black” financially. It is unlikely that Target will hold back on competing for Black Friday shoppers.
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