<p>I think it is awful that stores are opening earlier and earlier each year. Sure there are some professions that work on holidays, but retail workers for years, could always count on spending Thanksgiving with family in the past. I see Macys is opening earlier this year. Soon major retailers will be open on Thanksgiving morning,and that is a shame.</p>
<p>I think it’s nice for grocery stores to be open in the morning for us scatterbrains who always forget something, but I’m happy for everyone else to be closed.</p>
<p>When I lived in southern California (in the eighties) Nordstrom was not only closed on Thanksgiving; they didn’t put up their Christmas decorations until after that holiday. (Actually, they did the work on Thanksgiving, when the store was closed. When I said to an employee that it was too bad they had to work on the holiday the employee said it was actually a festive, fun time.) I don’t know if they still hold off on the decorating. The Christmas stuff is already up in a lot of stores around here. :(</p>
<p>My store will be closed on Thanksgiving. We will be open normal hours on Black Friday, but we will offer no Black Friday deals unless we just want to be silly and offer special pricing on black bunnies, guinea pigs or black headed caiques (a parrot). However, we’ll be pulling out all the stops for SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY the next day!</p>
<p>@mathmom I agree about gas stations and convenience stores, traditionally they have always been open for at least part of Thanksgiving day. Its just this constant creep of the dept stores, that burns me up. Thanksgiving should be a time for folks to spend with family, and unfortunately when Macys opens on Thanksgiving they want all hands on deck, so no vacation allowed.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids I am all for the online deals</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know why people care one way or the other. Remember, there are also retail workers who would be thankful to make time-and-a-half that day and don’t mind working at all, so whatever. Bottom line: If they have customers they will be open. If not they will close And, unless I’m a customer I can’t really find a reason to have any opinion about whether any store is open or closed on any particular day.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, most retailers dont give their employees an option. I worked at Macys pt, really just for the discount a few years back. Fortunately I was in signing(the folks that label the racks), so I had to come in late the day before thanksgving. NO ONE was allowed vacation, and everyone had to be there on thanksgiving, that of course was when they were opening very late in the evening on Thanksgiving. </p>
<p>Its not fair in my opinion. Trust me, the execs are at home enjoying their families, and the worker bees are toiling away.</p>
<p>And do most retailers pay extra on holidays? I wouldn’t assume they do. I worked at 4 different hotels when I was younger. Only one offered holiday pay. </p>
<p>I just think it’s sad that people actually don’t have something better, more relaxing, or more meaningful to do on Thanksgiving than go shopping. And the whole appeal of “Black Friday” just totally escapes me. A huge array of consumer goods is super cheap and in endless supply online. Why bother fighting the crowds for stuff that isn’t even scarce? It is just pointless masochism IMHO. </p>
<p>I think something is lost when we don’t have true holidays in this country, where there isn’t one single day out of the year when the lowest paid, least powerful employees don’t face pressure to work. Thanksgiving is non-sectarian and universal. It’s as good a holiday as any to hold onto.</p>
<p>As it is, Americans are noted as one of the worst countries for offering their employees vacation time, employees are not great at taking the vacations they are allowed to (often because they don’t want to seem less dedicated than others), and are even worse at staying disconnected from their jobs if they somehow do convince themselves to actually take time off.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with working hard, but everyone benefits from taking a break.</p>
<p>We don’t shop at stores that stay open on Thanksgiving. as in, I don’t do what little holiday shopping we have at those locations, period. I’ve worked at Major Retailers where no one is allowed a vacation day between Nov 5 and January 14. There’s no overtime to be “glad” about and if there were it wouldn’t be a significant amount of money, anyway. ( sub-minimum wage x 1.5 = still crappy) If you are shopping on Thanksgiving, you are creating the demand that puts staff in the store next year. You can wait a day. You can plan better. </p>
<p>As a nurse, I worked 10 Thanksgivings in a row. I worked that day, New Year’s Eve, New Years Day, Easter, and July 4 so that I could be off on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It always hurt inside to be away from family on that day, but I get that people are sick 24/7, 365 days a year, so nursing staff is essential. Retail staff not so much. I will NOT be out shopping on Thanksgiving. I’ll be too full and comfy in my stretch pants, lol.</p>
<p>thanksgiving and fourth of july should be closed. These are national secular holidays and the world will not end if the country stops for 24 hours a couple of days a year. I love nordstrom. I do not shop at stores that are open on thanksgiving. Not only are employees forced to work, the conditions under which they are forced to work on what should be a holiday, is unbelievably awful. </p>
<p>Small Business Saturday is popular in my town. The locally owned retailers are generally in the old downtown and there is a good turnout to support them on Saturday. I realize that, to some extent, I was fortunate to never have to chase after the best price on a requested toy for my kids. I can imagine wanting to make a kid’s wishes come true on a very tight budget. </p>
<p>I am in the medical field and have worked every holiday. I don’t shop on thanksgiving or the day after either. I know that a lot of families go to the movies on thanksgiving, what are your feelings about movie theaters being open on holidays? Just wondering, I don’t go to the movies either. </p>