Every year I find myself saying: Damn, it seems that the holidays start earlier and earlier every year. Well, for many this year, that will be the reality. Thanks to the earliest start of Black Friday by retailers, many workers will find themselves helping other families enjoy a holiday tradition while they miss out on one. What used to be known as Black Friday is now becoming Black Thursday, with retailers such as Walmart, Kmart (which includes Sears) and Target looking to open their doors as early as 8pm on Thanksgiving Day. Some retailers are even considering being open all day, offering additional savings to those who may be looking to get an early jump on their holiday shopping.
Having worked in retail for a better part of my employed life, I've experienced working on Black Friday and it has to be one of the most stressful times of the year for retail employees. I've never seen, in any of the stores that I've worked in, one instance where opening earlier than the year before translated into a significant increase in sales. Sure, there have been times when we beat last years numbers, but in the grand scheme of things, the most those extra hours did was give the store a little bit of a boost. There was never an indication that those sales would not have come even if we opened at our regular time.
This year, though, there is an underlying factor that is usually played upon anyway but has more significance considering the unemployment crisis the nation is facing. Usually, retail workers who are hired as seasonal workers or those who may already be employed work extended hours. Most of these employees don't make much above minimum wage. Retailers seem to feel that if these employees want a job, they will work whatever schedule they are given. With many workers, notably Walmart employees, threatening to strike, the retailers seem to not be worried at all. There are still too many Americans that are either unemployed or underemployed. For every one worker who plans to strike and not report to work, there are five who would gladly work any hours they are given, Thanksgiving Day or not. The employers know this, so there is no real fear that a strike will effect their bottom line. The truth of the matter is, it probably won't.
I grew up not celebrating holidays, due to my family's religious convictions. But that's not to say that my family didn't take advantage of the time off my parents may have had from work and that the kids had off from school. We visited our extended family during the holidays, mainly because those were the times of the year that everyone would gather at one place, usually at my respective grandparents homes. The best part of those times was being able to spend all day with the family and not be in a rush to go home. Sure, there were times when a family member or two had to miss out because they had to work, but those individuals usually had to work early in the day and were still able to enjoy time with the family after they got off. To require that workers cut their holiday short to be at work for Midnight Madness on Black Friday was bad enough, but understandable; Black Friday is a shopping tradition that goes back further than I can remember. But to pull that into Thanksgiving, the one of probably only a handful of days that retail employees look forward to being off, is based on nothing but greed. It isn't justifiable in any way.
But there will be people who are willing to work. There will be people who cut their evenings short voluntarily to go out early to catch any deals that they possibly can on gifts that they will be buying for loved ones and even for some people that they don't even like. That is where the problem lies. Shoppers hold the power when it comes to companies who have something to sell. Since these retailers know that people will be lined up, ready to elbow their way through to the shelves to pick up those flat screen TVs, iPads and the like, they see potential dollars. They know shoppers will line up in places where the temperatures will be freezing and stand outside for hours so they can save 10% during the first hour the store is open. If the retailers even thought the buyers weren't going to be there, they would not spend the money to keep the lights on and pay the employees. How do I know this? I've been sent home on Black Friday on a number of occasions because the shopper turnout wasn't as expected.
The public outcry on this matter has been tremendous, to say the least. Many people, some who work for other retailers, have shown support for these workers who are faced with earlier Black Friday hours. Thousands of signatures have been collected for petitions. The fear that I have is that these petitions will go unnoticed, and the striking workers may strike for no beneficial outcome. Why? Because people will shop. They have the right to and for some, these earlier Black Friday hours may work best for them and their respective work schedules. So corporate America will win, as they usually do, for a few bucks that really won't matter in the end.
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