<p>^^ I don’t disagree that it’s a lousy position to be in. Hopefully some of the retailers, at least the larger ones, will provide an extra incentive for their employees by paying them some sort of ‘holiday pay’ and will be as flexible as possible with schedules since there truly are some people who would be happy to work for time and a half or double time if offered while others wouldn’t be. It doesn’t help the store or the shoppers if most of the employees are unhappy to be there and the retailer will face further issues of having their better employees leave for other jobs where they won’t be scheduled to work holidays.</p>
<p>FWIW, my son’s employer does pay 1.5 x the hourly wage for working holidays, and offers lots of nice incentives for their employees all year long in addition to other extra holiday incentives. It is too bad that more employers don’t do the same thing. Without good hard working employees an establishment could not function at all.</p>
<p>I don’t support retail on Thanksgiving at all. I give thanks for the people that really have to work - firefighters, police, nursing home workers, hospital personnel and the like. I don’t support the midnight openings for stores. I didn’t care for the 5 AM openings for stores. I think it’s all rather silly.</p>
<p>I’m not a “shopper” at the best of times. I have no interest in the “black Friday” thing. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I love the traditional dinner, the Macy’s parade, being with family/friends and being thankful. I would not give that up for shopping.</p>
<p>" The idea of Thanksgiving as the Great Family Holiday is just a concept. For some people, tomorrow is just a day off from work – or perhaps not, depending on their job. "</p>
<p>That is sad to hear…to me it is one of the few family holidays there is
I have only two in the entire year that my husband doesn’t work</p>
<p>I love it because it’s about spending time with family and eating , not gifts
One of my daughters has to work part of the day , but won’t miss dinner
I am happy that she had the opportunity to work , though grateful it wasn’t for retail</p>
<p>That is sad to hear…to me it is one of the few family holidays there is
I have only two in the entire year that my husband doesn’t work</p>
<p>Does your H work at Boeing?</p>
<p>Thanksgiving is a holiday that Americans celebrate regardless of age/religion/race.
Kind of like 4th of July but with even more tradition behind it.</p>
<p>The emphasis on Black Friday takes away from the meaning of Thanksgiving- because Thanksgiving is about being grateful for what you have & remembering those who aren’t there. Not about how advertising can make you do crazy things like get up before 5am on a cold November day when you don’t have to work!</p>
<p>One major retailer is opening at 9pm Thanksgiving, and another at 10pm. The sad thing is, these will probably be wildly successful for the stores, meaning that next year some other major retailer will want to beat them to the punch by opening at 8pm, or 6pm. It’s only a matter of time before stores are open all Thanksgiving Day.</p>
<p>Although I think the whole Black Friday shopping phenomenon is a little crazy, retail workers are not the only people who are working today. It seems that it’s just shopping that gets the complaints every year. How about the people running the parade that I imagine a lot of you are watching or the people working in restaurants or at football games or at Broadway shows tonight or at movie theatres, etc.? ;)</p>
<p>Last night as H and I were toddling off to bed he asks “Honey you want to go shopping”…and then we burst into laughter.</p>
<p>I hate to see this possible trend of stores being open on Thursday (Thanksgiving day). I understand that some do have to work ( my daughter is an EMT and often has to work a holiday and my husband volunteers as an EMT and is working today - but he gets to be home when not on a call). But no one has to shop. </p>
<p>Stores are open every other day this month. Shopping can be curtailed one day.</p>
<p>
I agree that’s likely to happen and is essentially what’s been happening over the last several years with them all trying to beat the others to the punch but they ‘ran out of Friday’ and pushed back into Thursday.</p>
<p>Our local CVS is open until 10pm. Stopped by on my way home from the gym (open 7am-2pm) and picked up all the ‘free’ Bonus Buys items that make good stocking stuffers for my family. The staff seemed upbeat and were working split shifts. It really doesn’t bother me. I’m not sure why, but this local story bugged me:</p>
<p>[About</a> half of Lakewood bus drivers will work on Thanksgiving | NJ.com](<a href=“http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/about_half_of_lakewood_bus_dri.html]About”>About half of Lakewood bus drivers will work on Thanksgiving - nj.com)</p>
<p>Good editorial in the New York Times. My suggestion is do not support, shop or recommond shopping on Thanksgiving or early in the morning on Friday.</p>
<p>Also, suggest to store managers that they should not open until a reasonable hour on Friday morning.</p>
<p>Lastly, do not use the term Black Friday on blogs or in discussions.</p>
<p>IndyPat</p>
<p>Nj I also hit the cvs. picked up a bunch of the freebies for stocking stuffers. the best part is that the extra bucks expire 12/24 perfect for our family. DH and DS always shop at the last minute when only cvs is open so all my Christmas gifts generally come from cvs. It’s the thought that counts…</p>
<p>The term ‘Black Friday’ has been around for nearly 50 years. It signifies when retailers traditionally went into the ‘black’ (profits) instead of the ‘red’ (loss). </p>
<p>When we lived in the MidWest in the 80s, I remember several bigbox retailers being opened on Thanksgiving. Since we had no family in the area, we wandered in. </p>
<p>No one makes you shop at crazy hours, but if that’s your thing, go for it.</p>
<p>Our engineering team includes members from around the world and I have requests in my work queue and emails indicating that other local team members are working. Most of this stuff is a fairly small amount of work but I think that most team members check work email a few times a day, even on non-workdays.</p>
<p>We don’t observe Christmas so there’s no pressure to buy stuff. It seems that you buy just about anything you want at any time of the day or night and I don’t like crowds, lines and pressure.</p>
<p>I work for a European company and got a call at 9am today about a crisis. I was not planning to check the Blackberry all day, but when most everyone you work with considers it a normal day, you have to roll with it.</p>
<p>Local news station is reporting on BF madness. A local Macy’s will be opening at midnight tonight. So much for “miracle on 34th Street” :rolleyes:. Kudos to a toy store that will open at 9 am tomorrow. There is already a line of tents next to the local Best Buy. Occupy Alderwood, anyone? The condidtions are not ideal for camping: gusty winds and pouring rain, 40 degrees. There is no free TV in the world that will drag me out on the road in this weather. I woud not lift my rear off the couch even if they were giving out free Prada bags. I’m just too old for this madness.</p>
<p>I shopped today: I had a 25% off Thanksgiving-day-only coupon for a local sporting goods store. DS moved to a harsher climate for college and needed a much warmer jacket to take back to school with him. </p>
<p>So I did it. Shopped on Tgiving Day. Took me about 25 minutes. Felt weird about it, like I got suckered in (with a discount) to do something I disapprove of, for all the reasons you listed above. This was my first - and I decided my last - shopping on this holiday. Saving 50 bucks isn’t worth it to me to sully what I think should be a day of family, food, reflection - and noncommercialism. For everyone, including retail workers, whose job isn’t critical to the smooth running of our society. As all of you said, enough is enough.</p>
<p>It’s a little after 6 am. The last two days have been hectic and exhausting – shopping, prepping and cooking; hosting a house full of guests; ferrying around two aging parents, both with walkers. The last Thanksgiving dish got washed at 11 pm, after which I turned in with a huge sigh of relief to rest my aching bones. Now I’m up, alone, with a sleeping kitty in my lap and a hot cup of coffee, relishing the dark, quiet house. </p>
<p>I can’t even imagine the story ending: “The last Thanksgiving dish got washed at 11 pm, after which I bundled up and headed out to stand in line in the cold, push and shove with thousands of other shoppers, stand in long lines, arrive back home at dawn’s light, and sleep all day.”</p>