I have had to work on Thanksgiving Day for many years in retail and in the computer industry. Those that are fortunate enough to have employment in these tough economic times should be thankful for the extra hours on Thanksgiving Day and they may be receiving Holiday Pay over and above their basic salary. The economy could use this boost. The Thanksgiving celebration is able to work around the request by employers to schedule work, Thanksgiving Day is 24 hours. Have a great Thanksgiving and may God Bless everyone on Thanksgiving Day.

I am in heatlhcare and I have worked Thanksgiving for years! 9pm or 11pm….c’mon, the holiday is over by that time and your family has gone home. You have a job, right? Suck it up!

I have always worked on Thanksgiving every year… I do not see a problem with this.

I have worked on Thanksgiving before and it SUCKED! I said I wouldn’t ever have a job again that kept me away from my family on holidays. Besides hospitals, airports and business like that, I think everything else should be closed. “Be happy you have a job” is a cowardly way of taking a stand. I bet these CEO’s of these companies will be sitting on their couches with their families while everyone in their company works. Ridiculous that we are just accepting these changes that companies are making. I understand that they wouldn’t open theirs doors if the demand wasn’t there but the devaluation of family time and holidays is a real contributor to the issues that we are seeing with the younger generation today.

I am so tired of hearing “Those lucky enough to be employed in tough economic times.” That is the battle cry of greedy corporations. I worked at Best Buy where positions were stripped, hours were minimized all due to the tough economic climate, but turn around and guess what ANOTHER STORE GOES UP. Don’t buy into that BS. THEY ARE LUCKY TO HAVE US TO MAKE THEM MONEY. They should be GIVING US THE 20 gift cards for leaving time with loved ones THAT EVERYONE ELSE HAS OFF.

There is something else that isn’t being addressed. FULL TIME WORKERS given the bare minimum of hours to bolster their performance. It’s not called un-employed. It’s called UNDER EMPLOYED. Trust me, I’ve seen the tatics. So go on, have fun with your family, while low paid workers are losing time with theirs.

It’s great not being paid enough to make rent then having BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS taken away through corporations. You try enjoying your thanksgiving when you know in a few hours you have to break your back for a corp that doesn’t appreciate you. Done it for the past 10 years. You wanna talk about sucking it up?

Target is a business like that…

This is an excellent example of how regulation can help corporations, consumers, and employees alike.

If Target doesn’t open its doors at 10:00 PM, it will be at a competitive disadvantage with Wal-mart. Both corporations have to agree to stay closed that night. It’s not like people won’t then come in and shop the following day.

This is crazy. Seriously.

Why do people need to go shopping on Thanksgiving evening? I mean, those plastic toys poorly manufactured in China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh will still be there at 5 am on the day after Thanksgiving.

This literally makes me want to vomit my turkey dinner, and I haven’t even eaten it yet.

I would like to start off by saying, I worked Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years for years. I agree that it sucked. But, if I really wanted to spend time with my family for the holiday we found a way. I arrived before or after my shift or we celebrated a day early/late. With that being said, 10 PM – midnight openings DO NOT stop anyone from spending time with their families. No one’s eating their Thanksgiving dinner that late. And lets be honest, the day and that the holiday is celebrated is really what’s important; it’s the spirit of the holiday that should be. So anyone working at one of those stores will have to suck it up or find a new job.

It’s sick to make people “yes, masstah! Of course, masstah! I can dance the jig for you, mastah!” and then say they should be glad for the crumbs they’re getting. That’s what actually used to be said about the slaves as well – ‘at least someone is taking care of them. The least they can do is work hard for it.’ Ignore the harm, the demeaning nature of the attitudes, but doing this now to people, in this day and age, is shameful.

It is killing our society. Not divorce, not liberal or conservative values, not too much or too little religion, but instead the slow eroding of the people’s right to have a civic and social society. The only holidays left where almost everyone will be there are Christmas day and Easter, but I imagine those will be gone soon too. Better to have a society built on a shared tendency to watch the same TV shows, vote the same way (without time to research the records), and shop at the same stores for the same brands. None of this requires deep thought or time with others, and allows for the easy manipulation of the individuals.

It is one thing to work holidays because it’s your own store or your business and you need to do it, but another to be asked to do it to keep your job for below living wages. The decision makers will be at home or on a holiday with their families while their workers are in at 11pm on Thanksgiving. It’s sick – and sick to think it’s right to pay slave wages and ask workers to give up society to earn them.

Uh, I hate to point out that not working a holiday is not a “basic human right”, it’s a want. These evil corporations aren’t taking away their food, they’re wanting to pay them to come in and do their jobs.

And you sound seriously unhappy with your job. I suggest checking out a new one. There’s quite a bit of anger there… Unless your goal is to work yourself up to a heart attack.

I left my job at Best Buy to start my own business. Worked there for about 8 years both full and part time depending on my film jobs. And I left for the better.

Let’s just look at some of the facts.

Do they get holiday pay like most other workers? NO.

Do they get fair wages? NO.

We have to remember we are in a country that prides itself on the fair treatment of workers. This is going downhill quick and it is just getting noticed. I just want the mentality to shift from us “lucky to have a job” to corporations “lucky to have us working for them.”

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

@ Timothy Donner
What are you talking about? I worked at Best Buy also as a Full-time employee and I received holiday pay for Thanksgiving. The wages the employee is paid, was agreed to by the employee. Don’t you remember that part of the interview process where they say, “The job pays “this” amount. Are you ok with that?” And if you said yes, then you agreed it was a fair wage. Companies are not forcing people to work for that wage. If it was not a fair wage, no one would work there. There is always a choice.

So the store wants to open at midnight. Fine. What person is still “breaking bread” with their family at eleven at night? Seriously?

What’s a fair wage? If you took the job, knowing what you would be paid, and knowing that you might have to work some holidays. Then you agreed that what they were paying was fair! Jeez, you worked at Best Buy for goodness sakes! What did you expect? Why don’t you stop your stupid whining and take some responsibility for your choices! Guess what? I’m a salaried employee, I get paid the same if I work 40 hours or 60 hours. I accepted that possibility when I agreed to take the position.

“You’re lucky to have a job” is growing old!.. yes I agree, I am lucky to have a job right now, but for companies to use this as leverage to work us like slaves is deplorable. To exploit your worker’s fear of being jobless creates a horrible psychological stress. Usually the people that you hear say that are salaried employees who you normally don’t see standing shoulder to shoulder with the grunts when they are made to sacrifice time with loved ones.
Many people are willing to work OT on their own terms for the extra money we all need. But when companies REQUIRE you to do it, it becomes a different environment.

It means that the employee now has to work all night. In order to prepare for that, they have to sleep part of their Holiday. Earlier dinner I guess. But no time to spend after the meal to commiserate with family. No time to *relax.*

It’s “retail”, not a hospital or fire department or Police.

This just goes to show you how greedy these big chain stores are. If people are upset with these early openings-don’t shop. Its as simple as that!!!!

I mean it’s cool if people want to live in shells and stuff.

I’ll give you a scenario. I lived in LA and my family was in SD. Cause you know, I like to travel to see my relatives on tentpole days. When I worked at 4am, I would have to eat dinner and run out the door so I can grab some sleep. So if you think the people working at 10 are going to just put in a couple of hours and call it a day, they will be working until 2am if not later. So does that mean they sleep all of Thanksgiving?

And when did you work thanksgiving at bb? I worked there for 8 years and never had to log in a single thanksgiving or xmas.

There are always people who have to work on holidays. Doctors, nurses, police, gas station attendants, zookeepers, toll booth employees, etc. etc. I myself have at various times worked every single major holiday. It really isn’t that big a deal. If there’s a will, there’s sure to be a way to arrange a family holiday celebration a day or two early or late. The problem, as I see it, is that we’ve entered an age of entitlement,

It’s very odd there are so many people leaving replies that claim to work every Thanksgiving and have “no problem” with it. The only way a person has no problem with working Thanksgiving is, they have no family, no friends, and no life outside of work. I find it hard to believe this is the case with these posters. It’s obvious that Target management has made an effort to convince their workers that they should be “thankful” for the opportunity to work for them by posting repeatedly in comments. These posters very well could be the lonely bitter people they claim to be, but I seriously doubt it. Work to live, don’t live to work. Unionize and show Target that you call the shots, not them.

cause target just like walmart is greedy i worked at walmart till i recentlky quit we have to come in at 7pm only after leaving 7 am that morning..they dont care about employees or there personal lives just making a buck…

Midnight is not so bad, ToysRus is opening a 10PM Thanksgiving day.

My son works for K Mart. They are open every year. he always has to work and miss out on family time. They are also open late on Christmas Eve. Most years, he gets off at 11:00 pm on Christmas Eve. He has been with K Mart for 6 years. They have no respect for family. The employees are paid little more than minimum wage and get no benefits. K mart can’t allow their workers to be off
for family time? Midnight is not as bad as working all day until 10 p.m. and missing the holdiay all together. Needs to be more respect shown to employees.

Then don’t work. With your rotten attitude you won’t be missed.

I swear I’m going to shoot the next bloodsucker I hear complaining about “greedy corporations.” These malcontents are what novelist Ayn Rand called “greedy for the unearned.” When I was young I looked for every opportunity to work, whatever days were available, from driving taxi to bartending to snowplowing. I have no sympathy whaetever for these bawling rats.

Give them all a boot onto unemployment. What a bunch of lazy good for nothing a-holes.

Working in retail is hardly the same as working in healthcare. Corporate entities actually hate their employees. Retail salespeople have some of the lowest salaries and now they are counted so low that they apparently no longer need holidays, sleep, or family time.

I am sorry that you have to work on Thanksgiving for years but there is a difference between a healthcare worker which people require 24/7/365 and a retail worker, nobody has to shop on thanksgiving to survive but you may provide a service that people may require to stay alive.

To those of you who think that companies being open on Thanksgiving is horrible, stand up, and don’t shop there on Thursday or Friday. Write them and tell them your complaints and what you think, speak with your $$$. My wife works retail (at one of the stores opening on midnight this year), and she is pumped for it (even though it does mean cutting Thanksgiving Day short with family – since we have to travel 4.5 hours). I personally don’t have a problem with it. I use to work for a movie theater when minimum wage was $5.15/hr, and we were required to work Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day (well 4 out of the 5) with no holiday pay. Yet no one said boo about that. What about other employees like gas station attendants – when you run out of gas on Thanksgiving, be thankful they are open. Let’s stop whining and complaining on message boards, and if you really have a problem with it – let the company know by writing them or better yet, speak with the almighty $$$ and not shop there.

Don’t want to pee on your parade, and not your thanksgiving parade, but really you should think of it as another work day ad e thankful you are employed!

Of course if you are not happy then QUIT and let someone else have a job, I am sure that your replacement will be glad to work on thanksgiving.

Many industires are “open” on Thanksgiving-Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Police, Fire, Airport, Hotels and the list goes on. No one has a “right” to have the Holiday off! The retailers are responding to DEMAND of the consumers. If there was no DEMAND we would still have Blue laws-Closed on Sundays. You want to celebrate Thanksgiving? PLAN a day and do it!
I have a novel idea………….If you hate the low paying, entry level, minimum wage retail jobs, hate the hours, hate the work enviroment, get educated in a field you prefer, higher pay, better perks and move UP! These jobs are not designed to be careers unless you have an eye on management!
Better yet! Start your own business- you cannot be laid off or fired, you call the shots. With greater responsibility comes higher pay.

Quit your job, your whining and let someone that wants to work have your job, then you can sit at home and every day can be a Thanks Giving Day for you.

Really it will be like all your Christmases coming at once.

I am sick of you people and your whining about unemployment, my grandchildren all want jobs and you are busy whining that you have to work.

Do you have any idea how many military personnel will be working on the holidays – including Thanksgiving and Christmas???? Not just deployed, but on US bases. Some deployed soldiers will not even get a hot meal that day. They won’t get to spend time with their families at all

REALLY SICK OF CHRISTMAS STARTING BEFORE HALLOWEEN AND THANKSGIVING DAY. WHY NOT JUST LEAVE THE PAGAN TREES UP ALL YEAR LONG AND MANDATE CHRISTMAS MUSIC ON THE RADIO…FOR THE SACK OF THE ECONOMY AND ALL?

My mom wants thanksgiving off also. She’s a nurse and is gathering all her coworkers and union members to strike if they do not get off at least thanksgiving off. I think everyone in the world should have that day off to spend with their family.

I have to work 5 days a week! that sucks. i should be able to retire at 28. The taxpayers should pay for my reitrement! what the hell did i vote for Obama for then!!!!!!!!!!

Do what other people do, have your gathering on a different day or have it at different time. If you do not want to work on national holidays you should of gone to school and maybe done something more with your life. Being a checker or stocker at Target is not a career, it is supposed to be a transition job or a second income job for a family.

your 100% right

ALL YOU CRYBABIES BETTER WATCH OUT BECAUSE THERE ARE 30 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS IN THE USA RIGHT NOW WITH ONE MILLION MORE ARRIVING YEARLY AND EVERYONE OF THEM WILL WORK 365 DAYS A WEEK FOR MINIMUM WAGE WITH ZERO BENEFITS NO OVERTIME PAY OR SICK PAY NEVER A RAISE AND NEVER COMPLAIN ONE TIME ABOUT ANYTHING..SO SOON YOU JUST MAY GET WHAT YOU WISH FOR, TO STAY HOME AND RELAX, FOR EVER.

Thanksgiving is ruined, just to buy a bunch of juck from China, which
uses slave labor.

pssst – ALL CAPS makes you look rather pathetic

just sayin’

and don’t forget the cheese on my triple-stack next time

I suggest you quit your slave job and start your own company.

yeah, didn’t think so….

extra fries, please

Lemme guess – with that attitude you’ve never been Employee of the Month, eh?

whether you realize it or not, the “corp” sees your horrid attitude

Most likely explains your current job status

Hey Target, Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Best Buy, & Kohl’s –

Maybe you get away with treading your employees like serfs, but you won’t get away with treating THIS CONSUMER like a serf. I refuse to shop on Thanksgiving OR “Black Friday”. And I think I’ll shop local and online this year, specifically avoiding ~your~ web sites.

This goes to show our values. Leave your family to go buy them something on sale to show them how much you love them. Instill that great american value of needless consumerism.

#TLDR

try again

Gee Sarah, I’m sure all the sick people in the hospital would like the day off, too.

This is ~not~ the same thing.

I think it is more the symbolism of what the day is supposed to mean. It is just another way at eroding our sense of family and community and instilling consumerism as our most important value.

Whiners of the world unite! Working Thanksgiving is the worst thing ever! Evil, greedy corporations (without which we wouldn’t have jobs at all) are forcing us to work low paid jobs on a holiday that many of us (liberals, Marxists, etc.) think is racist and offensive to “Native Americans!” Without us they would have nobody to make them money (except the millions of unemployed out there desperate for work)! I promise you that if we refuse to show up, there is no chance that they could find another desperate, unemployed, unskilled worker to replace any of us…in less than five minutes! After not being educated,trained, or ambitious enough to work somewhere that has real career benefits like good pay and benefits, we have earned the right to complain about having to work a job that any trained chimp could do just as well and with less attitude!

Why, no, we do have families, friends, and a life. We don’t need a calendar to tell us “today is the day to spend with your family.”

I mean really? You get that bent because a calendar tells you to stuff your piehole with turkey? ha

Celebrate every day with your family.

I’m betting the guy who complained isn’t even a Target employee. I worked in the Target computer room on holidays starting at 7pm. Married to someone who worked at the power plant on holidays. I smell a bunch of whiny OWS bedbugs in here.

The corporations like Target , Walmart, and Kmart know that their workers will put up with horrible hours and starvation wages because there is no union to protect them. I worked I retail for years for a corporation that could not have cared less if I had a family life. Thank God for my husband, who worked days, and could always be there with our children when I had to work.

And by “quit” she means “fired”

There, I fixed it for you. No need to thank me.

I work in an emergency room and haven’t had a Thanksgiving off in 4 years. This year I work Christmas Day as well. I suppose you “holiday advocates” are going to all the hospitals to demand that workers be off to spend time with their families. Please extend your demands to police and fire departments as well. Like you said, “All Americans should be able to break bread with loved ones on Thanksgiving”

“Greedy corporations” is a stupid term. Corporations exist to make money. They offer voluntary employment. If someone doesn’t want to work for Target, they can choose to work for a different company with different hours.

Please tell us you’re adopted and her genes aren’t getting passed along to another loafer.

Maybe someone already said this, but what if our soldiers had this attitude? Getting 23 hours of Thanksgiving with the family is 23 hours more than the people keeping your family safe are getting.

Oh, snap! Wal-mart’s gonna miss your $50.

My daughter and son in law will gladly take the job of anyone who wants to quit! Gee, if all the employees quit, there will be that many more job openings. What part of modern retail do people not understand? Target: Let em go and please know you wil have parking lots full of people ready to sign up for a job!

Who the heck has Thanksgiving dinner at 11 p.m.? If I worked for Target I’d certainly rather go to work at 11 p.m. than get out of bed at 3 a.m. Anthony hardwick’s argument makes no sense.

Overly simplistic there, Ken. “Consumerism” as you put it creates the “jobs” we need.

Unfortunately, since most of the stuff is not made here, we have to consume more to have the same level of jobs. No revenue from the raw materials, assembly, printing, packaging,, etc. We now only get the port offloading, distribution, and retail revenue streams of the supply chain.

Buy more product made here with our raw materials and we’d get by “consuming” less.

Until then, well, join in or add to the unemployment.

Exactly Ken. This has noting to do with being lucky you have employment and everything to do with disrespecting our cultural traditions. There will be plenty of time on Friday for mobs to run over and kill someone as they sprint for those latest toys and electronics. Hey, by not opening until Friday a.m. these stores may actually save somebody’s life.

The issue is not corporate greed, but Senior management apathy. Will the CEO or President or any VP be working on Thanksgiving. Nope. After years in retail they may put in a token appearance, but nothing more. Then when an outlet does not do good numbers because a community does not support holiday shopping days, the local manager and employees are blamed.

Any Retail CEO or President who does not work as a stock person or cashier on those “special” days is a coward. Or most likely on vacation during the time.

Just a few Thoughts.
IO

Soon there won’t be holiday’s with the trend – next year someone is going to open earlier, eventually they’ll open ALL DAY – cause we can’t miss those sales. I work in the food industry and each year the stores are opened for more hours than the year before. Many years ago when NOTHING was opened for the holidays – what did people do?? They got by!! Seems the people making the decision to open won’t be working – will they.

midnight, starts another day, thanksgiven is over
be glade you have a job

Your grandchildren like most kids probably expect to start at CEO and be paid accordingly. There are jobs to be had if people will actually WORK.

Holidays with family is great. But it’s not like the employees are working for free. I for one enjoyed my holiday/time and a half pay. If you don’t want to work thanksgiving find a corp. that is closed on that day. many are. If you have a good work record you should not have a problem moving. Besides in retail working holidays are not uncommon.

“Corporate entities actually hate their employees,” you say? Get your head out of your oh-so-entitled bum, sister. Manages and supervisors have the worst jobs — they have to deal with clowns like you — and with shoplifters and people who wreck products and then return them while claiming innocence and victimhood. Here’s an idea — if you don’t like your job, then get the hell out of it — someone, somwhere, wants to do it.

I worked in Retail over 40 years ago. I worked Thanksgiving, Christmas etc. I had a job, did well and always gave my employer 100 %. If I did not like working for a particular company I went somewhere else. I learned to do many things so I could move around. Eventually I did not like working for others so I became the boss. Quit whining. The young folks today are spoiled rotten and expect instant gratification. Our country is decking FAST. I am glad I won’t be here much longer. God has prepared a Mansion for me in Heaven and I am at PEACE.

the world, do you even know why we have thanksgiven?
strike at a hospital, guess like mother like daughter

Great Comment

hospital staff, nurses and doctors, pilots, attendents and ground crew, police and fire, restaurants, grocery stores, NFL games, prison guards, gas stations, parking lot attendants, radio and news and media personel,,etc.,etc.,etc. Life is tough. Adjust.

Dont forget the people that keep your power on, your natural gas flowing, shift workers, etc. I have worked plenty of holidays. Deal with it. The difference between me and the Target/Wal-Mart retail workers is that I have years of training to do my job. They can be replaced by someone with a pulse and one weeks training (if that). Thats why retail workers dont have a leg to stand on. Work when asked or find a new job. Simple.

Uh, want fries with that? ~:<)

Amen!

MORON !!!

well been with them 6 years can not be all that bad
i see your complaining an not him

Maybe your son needs to get an education! Have you thought that as long as there is a line of people saying “Quit griping, I would take your job!” K-mart knows that these people are cheaply and easily replaced. If EVERYONE upped their standards and didn’t work for beans this wouldnt happen. But you can forget about that.

I am sure there are plenty of unemployed individuals who will not be eating Thanksgiving dinner at 11pm that night who will gladly take their jobs from them. How horrifyingly entitled and sad this is.

How about acting like adults and realizing its a JOB. They wouldn’t pay you for it if it were convenient and fun. If you really object to working on holidays, here’s an idea. Get an education and find a better job that won’t force you to do that.

Stupid (probably made up) comments like these make all union members look bad. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows there must be doctors and nurses in a hospital around the clock.

Yeah. This really bothers them.

I always loved working on days when the suits weren’t hovering around. Enjoy. If you are a good employee with a great work record, you will be promoted. If you’re not qualified, get qualified. This is America! The sky is the limit!

Liz, question. How often do you have a sit down Thanksgiving dinner with your family at 11pm at night? As far as anyone is concerned, if someone is not willing to do this, they can leave their job to someone who does. Lots of people looking for actual work. Not entitlements.

So don’t go shopping on Thanksgiving then. Seems pretty simple to me.

Your son is welcome to look for another job Edward.

Wow. Really? This is a genuine post? Wow. There you go people. The future of the American worker.

What a foolish posting. There is a full day of Thanksgiving available before 11pm at night. What about those people in countries that do not celebrate Thanksgiving! Oh my God, what do they do! Your concept of family and friends is purely infantile if your only way of acknowledging them is to spend 11pm on a Thursday night with them.

You’ve probably never worked a holiday in your entire life!

I bet you’d be complaining too.

So many hateful people on here, mostly republicans. Newsflash, your time will come. You will lose your job. If you are over 30, good luck. The people you hate that work retail right now are mostly in their 20s and juggling retail, college, and family. They will be the ones replacing you. You cost more to employ and you are less productive; and per recent studies; less intelligent.

To those of you that work in retail, I feel your pain. I worked in retail for a while for extra cash. They pay you what they can get away with and make you work 10 times as hard for it. You are better off working for yourself. Learn a trade, or a skill that not many people know in your area, become self employed. Or better yet look at retail as what it should be, temporary, and finish your education. Just don’t expect handouts. Nothing is free nor will it ever be. You have to earn your right to live.

Now the employees are tell management when the store should be open for business. Can you say unemployment?

Hmmmm. What if you are not Christian and do not celebrate Christmas or Easter? Your reasoning for the erosion of society is that people cannot spend 11pm on Thanksgiving night together? Ladies and gentlemen, society is falling indeed and it is because of people like Lindsay. Enjoy that Turkey dear lady while others actually do the work you are unwilling to do.

To all those who are using words like “consumerism” and “greed,” let me just explain something to you. I have worked in retail for over seven years. The hours I work are linked to the business we do. If business is not good my hours can be cut.
In other words, to all you geniuses out there, if we don’t sell stuff I do not work. You can scream “consumerism” and “greed” all you like. When you are dependent on other people reaching into their pockets for your livelihood, then you do everything you can, especially around the Christmas season which dictates much of your entire sales year. If anybody worked in retail they would know that too.
Oh, and there is nothing cowardly about saying “at least you have a job.” Cowardly is demanding you are entitled to someones wealth when you refuse to do anything to help yourself.

TD, if you want the perks of a CEO earn it. Otherwise keep doing what you do and quit whining about people who make more of themselves. Coming in 8 hours to justify getting a paycheck is not earning you anything but that paycheck. Take the risk, work what it takes to get ahead, get educated and for crying out loud grow up. You earn your place in life.

God forbid a company require you to do something. Oh America, you are missed.

Yes, please have them go work for Target and see just how much they hate it just like everyone else. You probably haven’t worked for a “modern retailer” if you will let your daughter or son in law work for one. Maybe it’s good for a temporary part time gig through college but it’s a soul draining experience where you deal with ungrateful, self entitled, bigots that are nothing more than a spin on the liberal entitlement diehards that don’t want to work for their share of the pie.

Instead of having your children waste their time with companies that don’t care about them, why not have them focus on finishing a degree or working for a temp agency, maybe learning a few trade skills or picking up some professional certifications. You know, doing something useful that pays more in the long run?

Believe me, nobody wants to work at Target much less Walmart . Why don’t you go see what’s so great about working there since you know so much?

It’s too bad we can’t make the border with Mexico a DMZ with guard towers and marksman. Other countries take a tough stance on border control and no one cares. We even threaten to deport and the whole world is complaining. Our government under either party does nothing or doesn’t do enough. Sickening.

Lindsey, you obviously didn’t come from a family farm. Work needs to get done and the calendar date makes no difference.

It’s OK to keep them closed on Thanksgiving but don’t ask to close them on Christmas. That would be honoring a Christian tradition and we can’t have any of that.

We’ve been through this so many times in human history. Revolution takes over and back to square one where there are rich people and poor people. At least you have the chance to be rich here where there are not so many opportunities in many other places around the world.

My daughter started with Target as an intern during college and now earns over 6 figures after working 60+ hours a week to earn her position, she has no problem working for Target.

As an employee of one of the above-mentioned retailers, I always found it more absurd that I had to be at work at 3am when that simply meant I wouldn’t be getting sleep anyway. At least opening at midnight I get a four hour jump on my shift and get back to my home at 10am instead of 2pm.

IndianOutlaw, you have no idea what Sr. Management is like obviously. VP’s will be working, the CEO’s will be getting updated probably hourly on the trending, and will be doing just what they do everyday, make decisions. How anyone would think on the biggest shopping day of the year when so much of the profitability of the organization rests on the Christmas holidays it’s not all hands on deck is ignorant of how the real world works other than their 8 hour work for my paycheck job.

Probably not, us Republicans are the ones employing your sorry ass.

If it helps I’m in the financially strapped twentysomething demographic and I assure you I harbor far more hate and rage than the “republicans” you speak of. I await the coming fires of purgation with the sort of glee that can only be felt by emotional burnouts whose tenuous connection to society manifests chiefly through Internet drama. Being a bitter, nihilist engineer will do that to you; don’t recommend it honestly.

You sort of answer your own question of why a lot of people are angry, though. Lots of people *do* want handouts, and since there’s no shortage of weasel slimeball policitians willing to provide for a cut of the action those of us who actually do stuff are being told we have to subsidize sloth in addition to our own problems. And we grow very, very tired of it. Sure some of it’s just rich hoohoos who don’t want to face reality but issues like this speak to growing societal dissonance. I recently moved away from California because there’s just no jobs there anymore, and the primary reason for that is the locals have enacted so many stupid regulations and labor entitlements there’s just no point in doing business there anymore when nearby states, Mexico, and China are more than happy to do more for much less. They’re doing it Greek style, no question, and they’re probably going to take the rest of the US down with them because that sort of arrangement just isn’t sustainable.

Hey! No applying common sense in a business model here Sir/Ma’am.

Retailers opening their doors early on the biggest shopping day of the year is crazy – who thought of that? Employees complaining about having to work it – that is kind of like a dairy farmer complaining about having to milk the cows every morning. Glad someone here has the courage to admit we live in a capitalist society.

BTW – Consumerism and Greed are code for, “I want that but can’t afford it, give me what you earned.”

Cows are demanding and thankless – I would never work for them.

Hey, if you don’t want to work on Thanksgiving step aside; there are at least 500 other folks who would love to have your job…

Black Friday’s contribution to the CEO’s bonuses over 40k electronic signatures?

Hmmm

I worked for target on the graveyard shift until management did away with the shift. They made us fill out an availability form for our new shift. 3am is when our new shifts begin. Why is’nt target honoring the schedule they made us change.

You would think these companies would learn from WalMarts’ ‘Happy Hollidays’ experiment…Employees are now free to say ‘Merry Christmas’ as they found that americans love the tradition. Thanksgiving will be no different. I for one never shop at stores that won’t allow the ‘Merry Christmas’ greeting and I won’t be shopping at stores that are open on Thanksgiving day either. Everyone forgets that they can vote…You vote with your dollars. If you approve of their policies, go there and spend all you want. If you don’t, then stay away.

How many people are eating thanksgiving dinner at midnight?

It normally takes me and hour and a half to get ready for work. I usually eat dinner by 7:30.

Oh, and technically, Thanksgiving ends at midnight.

Lazy f***ers.

Target has the right to operate their stores during any hours they choose. The employees are working there at the pleasure of Target. Frankly, most retailers have crossed the Rubicon so why start at Midnight? Go ahead and operate on a regular schedule on Thanksgiving Day – really get the jump on the competition. Hey, McDonalds is open 24 hours on T-Day. Man-up, Target. Open at 8:00 A.M. Trust me. Consumers will be lined up at the door.

The real travesty is if “right in the middle ” of Thanksgiving dinner is at 10 pm. before he has to leave for his 11 p.m. shift. What of doctors and nurses did the same whining ? Who would step in and care for them? I worked as a server at a restaurant for many years, and I worked many Thanksgiving days…ALL DAY. But I was proud to earn my own income, pay my own bills and put myself through school. Quit the whining and find another job if you are not happy with the terms of the one you currently have. You have choices because this is still America!

One of my first jobs was at a video store. I had to work Christmas and Thanksgiving. My family brought me dinner to the store while I worked a 2 – midnight shift. I had to pay my rent while in college, so I couldn’t complain. The next job I had gave me those holidays off but I had to work most weekends. Again, I had to make my rent payments. I would like to see Target cut the hours of all these bums. You don’t want to work on one of the busiest work days in your industry? You think work is 2 pm on a tuesday? 40,000 losers. Go occupy something. And for you losers complaining about the CEO, I he will be checking email and following sales figures because he’s a winner. He started at Target in 1979 as a merchandiser. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t put in a few holidays.

Wow. The amount of trash talking in favor of corporate greed is sickening. Did any of you jerks stop and think that there are more and more Americans who don’t have mommy and daddy buying them college degrees? Some people work in retail because they have little to no other option. It is easy to get stuck in a retail job with the odd hours they make you work. When I was in retail they had this neat trick of scheduling 40 hours over 6 days leaving almost no time to go job hunting. America is supposed to be so great but really it is about greed and hate for your fellow man. Retail workers trying to stand up for their rights does not warrant the hateful attitude from some of the smug posters on here. It is just too bad we are bred to be cowards here or more people would stand up for worker’s rights.

When customers don’t show up to shop on Thanksgiving is when we in retail employment will finally get this American Family holiday off so if you customers agree with allowing the imployees in retail to enjoy the holidays with our families, that is when you as customers should support us by NOT SHOWING UP TO SHOP ….

OK, then how about we get Christmas eve with our families

You do not have to “earn your right to live,” you must earn the standard of living you desire. If you desire less, find a job that will provide less, if you desire more, work for more.

Most European retail stores close on Sundays. Every Sunday. Spending time with loved ones strengthens family bonds which ultimately strengthens the community and society. It’s a shame the US has forgotten this. Thanksgiving is part of our cultural heritage. It’s a day to spend breaking bread with loved ones. Sure, you can spend other days with your family but recognizing holidays and traditions are extremely important. It’s part of what makes us a country. To act otherwise is just silly. Those of you claiming these workers are “whiners” are also the first to comment on how kids today run amok with no values. How can parents teach values and traditions when they have to work ridiculously long hours including holidays just to put food on the table?

Yeah I know it’s tough not sticking to the scheduled celebrations that they grant you. Yeah it’s really rough missing out on your Football and TV programs. Yeah “Walk it off the world is going directly into the toilet you freaks.” What you should be doing is trying to work out why you work in some insane system that treats you like trash all year round!!!! What is wrong with you people. These powers that be have us on a short leash and they want a choker chain next. http://theunitedstance.com/ figure it out.

I detest most people and all things pop culture. My main enjoyment for the thanksgiving holiday is reading about the death toll when the fat hordes crush each other to death over a plasma tv made in china

Reap what you sow! Oh the irony. Why do capitalistic american pigs even celebrate thanksgiving or xmas anymore? I thought the days of the overextended impulse shopper were gone. I guess they didn’t get the memo.

If you go out on thanksgiving night to shop, you are the problem.

Target, its about as fake american as you can get. All that stuff is from CHINA. Where’s the part where they care about you? Nowhere. Their employees? They don’t care about them. target is a joke. Don’t shop there. Buy from local businesses this year and help your communities thrive

If its a mission critical job then I can understand that but Target does not have to be open on a major holiday.

Thank you! Oh, and it is sir BTW!

I’ve worked at Target just over 3 years and still work there. Never had a problem. You know what Target does on holidays such as Thanksgiving? They pay you extra. because they know it sucks.

Doing the overnight before black Friday? Extra money.

Coming in early this year due to expanded hours because shoppers drive the sales and times we open? Extra pay.

It’s retail. Get over it. We still get to see our families, eat our dinners, etc. The only difference is we go to bed a little earlier. Big whoop.

Once I heard we were opening early guess what I did? I went to my manager and asked him if I could work a split shift Friday. I WANTED to open, get a few hours off, then close. I bust my ass 40 hours a week and any chance at extra pay is going to be taken.

Though not surprised to see Detroit is having trouble with workers. First the auto unions, then the teachers unions, now your retail unions. You know the reason work there sucks? I’ll give you a hint, it’s who you pay your dues to.

Yeah, why don’t you tell that to all the retailers who depend on those evil capitalist American pigs for their survival? Read my previous post and you will see what I mean.

Stupid, when I worked for Sears, I tried to work as many holidays as possible. I loved getting paid the double time, and if I could work for more than 8 hours in a day, I loved the time and a half. What I hated were those stupid entitled consumers that felt the world owed them something. That would come through and leave a mess and complain about the smallest thing in the world. But you know what, I still worked, I made my money, I went home, I spent it on what I wanted. For every person that doesn’t want to work a holiday, there’s probably someone in the same company that will work that holiday. I know because I did it for many people. But then I finished my degree and moved on up in the world, to a job that gives me thanksgiving off since I don’t work in retail anymore. In retail, you expect these things, not because the company wants to put you in slave labor, but because people are always ready to buy new things… It’s not about the company, it’s about your customers, and customer service sometimes means sacrificing things.

Same way with Sears, same way with most retail stores. You know what I bet these Target workers that are complaining will do with their time off? Go find the stores that are open and shop… Hypocrisy at it’s greatest, thank goodness for American’s sense of entitlement

Oh FYI, I think those entitled customers are in line with the ones that call Target slave drivers. …. 100 bucks says they’re all out shopping on their days off.

This is all George W Bush’s fault. Somewhere during his 8 year reign he pulled the strings to make Target take away the worker’s rights like this. i think he should be taken into the Hague for hate crimes against the working class. I know that when the Honorable Obama becomes reelected next year, all will be equalized into the worker’s paradise the khaki clad, red shirted employees o so dream of……is the Kool aid ready yet?

So complain to the people that shop on a holiday, they’re the ones that make it so Target can stay open on a Holiday. If there were no demand for it, Target wouldn’t do it. Oh but I bet that would be those target workers, they want to shop just like everyone else in the town… Too bad it’s retail, it’s what you got yourself into when you signed the paperwork.

I cannot wait until you bourgeois pigs hang by the ropes you make! Your hate speech has been reported to der Kommisar.

Do you think people even know what Thanksgiving stands for anymore? Or any holiday for that matter? It’s just a day off to relax and drink or do whatever it is people do on their days off. The meaning of the holidays was lost years ago.

I am ready for the kool aid, can you at least add some alcohol to it so it goes down more smoothly?

Your hate speech has been noted. Please pack some nice warm clothing and be ready to report to the Gulag. capitalistic pigs like you make good ditch diggers. VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Denise we cannot wait hate filled capitalists like you will no longer dole out healthcare. You can retract your comments or you can say hello to the gulags from whence ye shall dig latrines and rub the feet of the party bosses.

Retailers are greedy. They do not care about the workers. I remember when this country honored family and God. (gee…remember Him?)
All workers stand up and fight this nightmare.
This country needs to:
1. Honor God.
2. Honor Family
3. Repent.
If we do this, God will truly bless us. If not…then we might not be around.

This holiday is capitalist hegemony. It should be stopped. Only the blessed May Day shall be our day off.

As long as it is party approved vodka made by the blessed hands of those in our free worker’s republic. Maybe you can join the party and in a few years we make you Kommisar?

Umm, when I was retail, I wasn’t working 7 days a week. In fact most jobs don’t make you work 7 days a week, I think there’s some laws about that. No over 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week without some sort of overtime (depending on state). So most people in most industries work 8 hours days 5 days a week, max 40 hours a week… That gives quite a bit of time still to spend with your family. If you cared about your family, you wouldn’t just spend time with them on Thanksgiving. Don’t unionize that only shows target you give your power to other people. If you’re a good employee, you can talk to your managers and negotiate better terms (salary, time off, etc). And if they don’t bite and you’re actually a good employee, you can take your experience elsewhere and easily get a job… That assumes your a good employee though.

I know right, we’re doomed.

Does your son still live at home and let you make his decisions for him? No respect for individuality. Or maybe your son just doesn’t want to come home on holidays. If he’s been there 6 years he should have learned by now that you can actually swap shifts with people, and if you ask for the time off in advance, they will generally give it… Time to reflect edward.

Nah, then they’ll just sit on unemployment for years at a time while it keeps getting extended… I say ship them to a third world country, then they can really know what slave driving and poverty are like.

Wow, making you work on your company’s schedule constitutes slavery? How about they start breaking out whips and chains, and take away of the paycheck, then we can start discussing slavery.

You should be lucky you have a job because it sounds like you don’t want to have to work for your paycheck, grow up. If you want to work the hours you want, and get the OT on your own terms, then get off your butt and start your own business. Until then keep in mind you are the employee, they will schedule you around their needs, not yours.

F’n crybabies should be glad they even have a job.

Nobody made them sign their name. They enlisted on their own freewill.

Thank you – its nice to see there is still some common sense in this world.

Do you know what happens on Turkey day in the US? It’s a day for families to get together and argue and bring up drama. I really don’t know many families that have a peaceful drama free relaxing thanksgiving. So yeah, it probably doesn’t build family values, because if family values were important, they wouldn’t wait till Thanksgiving to worry about them

Then tell your son to quit and let someone else have that job.

[...] (First column, 12th story, link) [...]

The retail world needs more people like you. People willing to bust their ass. Unlike the rest of the crybabies who probably ignore family on holidays anyways

As the target employees chose of their own free will to work for target..

Umm, right they hate their workers. Damn them and their slavery. I mean really, only one TV, one computer, and internet at my home, what horrible slavery, I should have 2 or 3 of each, and a Bugatti on top of that? Down with those facist corporations for expecting people to actually work for a living and do a good job at it. Damn them for expecting people to go out of their way once in awhile.

The workers have more brains than the fools that run Target. Money grubbers!!! Time for ALL businesses to be shut down! Thanksgiving is a day for GIVING THANKS and being with family. NOT the exchange of bucks! Pretty soon, there will be no Thanksgiving the way this wacked out country is going. Sick. GOOD FOR YOU, TARGET EMPLOYEES.
BOYCOTT TARGET!!!!

That is just downright stupid. By keeping stores open on Thanksgiving, you basically negate the holiday. Is nothing sacred in this country, anymore? It is all about the dollar. SICK>

I never particularly enjoyed working on Thanksgiving, but that’s retail. How many of the complainers go to the store for ice or for seasoning or some other forgotten item on Thanksgiving. Greed is such an overused word.

Nightmare? I think that’s a little strong. I agree with all those things, but they are not necessarily connected with this issue.

I spent 20 years in the miilitary and every year spent at least 1 holiday away from my familiy and I never complained or got free gift cards. If you don’t like the practices of the company you work for then QUIT. Stop complaining and do something about it.

Not every Target employee is scheduled to work Thanksgiving night, and there are many who want that shift to get the overtime (some of them have to be at work by 8 pm if the store opens at midnight). It is not difficult to trade shifts.

I see a trend here. Target….Best Buy…..May I ask your education Level? As someone stated above I am also salaried and get paid the same when they call me in on my days off. May want to look somewhere other than retail. Just food for thought.

I am seeing alot of Me’s and I’s which usually implies selfishness. Don’t like the job then QUIT.

Wow. I have been deployed 4 times and spent most of those holidays away from my familiy. There are many Soldier fighting for your right to post this garbage online. Bottom Line don’t like your Job QUIT. I would venture to say that those that are complaining do nothave a degree and Retail is all that they are qualified for.

As a registered nurse of 38 years, I have had to work every other holiday every one of those 38 years, sometimes for 16 hours because someone didn’t show up for work so they could take their scheduled holiday off and let those of us who did show up pick up the slack for them. And some Thanksgivings and Christmases I had to cook the holiday meal then go to work so my family could have a meal then go to work dead tired. So I do sympathize with the Target workers, but like others have said, stop whining and thank God that you have a job, when so many people are out of work. There are more important things than food, and Thanksgiving is supposed to be about more than food.

Hey if worker don’t want to work they don’t have to. Plenty of people out their willing to take their jobs.

So true. If their wasn’t a demand for retail establishments to be open, they wouldn’t bother to turn the lights on and be open. The real greed comes from people with the mentality that a business-any business-only exists to “give” their employees a paycheck, like it’s a birthright. Since the beginning of time, business establishments have existed as a means of the business owner earning a living, thereby creating a need for employees, thereby creating a way for people who work for a business to earn a living. Simple right, but not to people who feel they are entitled to a fancy house, nice car, a good job, employer paid retirement, etc. just because they were fortunate enough to be born in this country.

The really bad part about all this Black Friday garbage is the stores DO NOT have the items in stock to sell from their sales brochures.
I actually checked online the items and if they were available. Then I called the store and there were none in stock.
Walmart, as an example, did not have a “sales” TV in stock at any of the 4 stores near me and did not expect any in.
Hence, this early opening is just to get people in the stores, not to sell them what they came for.
I got sucked into this trap last year. Never again.
Those having to come in early not only loose time with family, they’re going to have to put up with disappointed customers as well.
Do yourself a favor folks, check to make sure the item is there before standing in line for nothing. Won’t be long before the GIANTS figure out it’s not worth it.
Happy Holidays
Bob

Why is it you can’t lay away a Black Friday item? Answer? They don’t have it.
But they still want you coming in.

Solution: Let all the “Occupy whatever” slobs give a reprieve to the retail whiners. What a strange time we live in- Groups protesting because of no work, while other groups looking to get out of work. Bizarre!

I wonder how many of those looking to take off on Thanksgiving have plans to go out to shop, eat, movies, whatever. “I don’t care who else is working, I just don’t wanna work!”

it is ridiculous that they are even open on thanksgiving..
stupid really… let employees be with family on thanksgiving and then open the stores the next day… really

What’s the problem with our youth today?…when I started working in the ’70s, I was making $300/month, going to school, and working 8-10 per day, 6 to 7 per week. It is shameful to here of folks complaining about having to work to earn their way. We were all born into this world naked and the only rights we have are the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness <—these are our only entitlements. Everything other than those rights are privileges that must be earned. It has to be earned not entitled. Just as this, OWS is a leftist facade. America was built upon hard working people fighting for freedom. These folks better be careful…they could become slaves as many are in other countries…Be thankful for all that has been gifted to us.

This guy bob is a con artist and liar.

I don’t know if he is lying in a pathetic attempt to keep lines down at the Wal Mart he is waiting for his TV at or because he supports OWS losers.

Do you know why these practices continue? Because you let them.

If nobody wanted those jobs, they’d have to change the way they do business. But nope – you empower them and just whine about it.

You’re the problem, not the solution.

I’ve not only have a problem with a business being open on a holiday, but people shopping on such a day…

lets see who work holidays.Police,firemen,hospitals,grocery, local news, stores,gas stations,military,,airlines,utility works if needed,over the road truck drivers,rail roads and lot and lots more.get my point.Oh yea I work part time at a grocery store work lots of holidays and I’m retired from a job were I had lots of holidays off.The world changed .Happy holidays.

[...] The CBS TV station in Detroit has a story going which could shake retailers to their core:  Retail workers want to get Thanksgiving off… [...]

$20 says these idiots don’t even know what Thanksgiving even means….

No one is forcing you to work at Best Buy if you don’t like the company and its policies then leave. I am sick and tired of people complaining about their job conditions. This is a free country and you have a choice. Stop complaining

These same “government church of liberalism public school” students/people have been taught that WE as a nation are just HORRIBLE! We did HORRIBLE things on THANKSGIVING! So, I say why do these atheists/agnostics and others want to celebrate THANKSGIVING! That’s right-just another PARTAY! FOGEDDABOUT THE REAL MEANING-right??? Working in the medical profession youworked your FAIR share of the holidays. And, if you were single and had no children they expected that you work over a mother with children. The HYPOCRISY is alive&well! I say BIG DEAL-don’t work or call in and HOPE you lose your job.

Wow, its the corporations fault they are opening at whatever hour?The corporations are greedy for this?Ruining holidays of the employees..wow.Of course it the corporations…cannot be the the shoppers are lining up to be there could it? If people were not lining up to shop the stores wouldn’t open.No one is complaining about the shopper’s families holidays being ruined since they are lining up to shop.

The other question is would all of the whiners be complaining if all of these retailers were unionized?How many of the complainers are union thugs who want walmart et al to be unionized?I am sure they are concerned for the well being of these poor workers…NOT…they want more UNION HACK members.

Of course its okay for EMS, fire, medical, military, and law enforcement to work; those are different.When it comes to being away from your family it is no different,Those who parrot this line apparently have not served in one of these positions and feel it is okay they are “servants”.

[...] Retail Workers Fight Back, Want Stores Closed On Thanksgiving [CBS] [...]

There should be times when people / business shut down and enjoy loved ones and friends. Thanksgiving seems like a time for something like that. I’m disheartened by the comments here that seem to be saying “too bad buddy and suck it up” etc. Retail stores do not need to be open on such a day. Health and Safety issues operating yes, but retail not needed.

Our family unit is breaking down. Family is the nucleolus of society. Is it any wonder society is breaking down and becoming more self-centered and crass? I can’t believe at how hard many of you are hammering away at people who are asking for a “special” day to spend time with family. Throw in a couple of crazy deals and you are all ready to trample the next guy on line to the items, like you are dying of hunger. Take a real good look at yourselves! It’s really sickening.

Go ahead now and hammer at me for what I’ve stated; it’s what you do best and somehow it makes you feel better than the next guy. Is that all you have to offer this world?

Then go to college and get a real job.

Boycott Target and make it hurt…it won’t happen again…

This all goes back to political correctness which our schools, politicians, law enforcement, Hollywood, corporrations adore. We have devalue our traditional values, removed God, faith and religion from public square and replaced it with gender-neutral secularism.
This is the end result of political correctness.

I THINK THE STORES SHOULD BE OPEN ALL DAY ON THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS AND SHOULD PROVIDE FREE DINNER TO ALL THE SHOPPERS!!

Usually the items sell out to the people that stand in line overnight. False advertising doesn’t help companies do well, and I think might have some legal repercussions, so you might want to just wake up earlier so you can be there first…. The early bird catches the worm. They stock what they can, but it’s only a few, so they can stock the same thing to all stores nationwide.

So you’re saying you only work so that you can have healthcare coverage? You sound like a winner.

If you don’t want to work on Thanksgiving, find a job that doesn’t work on Thanksgiving. You agree to work weekends and holidays when you take a retail position. Free country, nobody’s FORCING you to work there.

If you want to end Black Friday, people, stay home on Black Friday. Only a boycott of ALL SHOPPING will stop it. The problem is, that will never happen, so entitled swine will try and FORCE the outcome they want against the system and the majority.

I agree 100%

It’s open on thanksgiving, because people shop on thanksgiving. The demand is high enough, that they keep it open.

…Oh, and I think you’ve saved enough money now to move out of our basement Timmy.

“Business?! Mankind was my business!…You will be visited by three Spirits.”

Nah. Retail has been staying open on Thanksgiving for years. I know, I go out and consume on Thanksgiving day, because frankly it’s a day off where I can get things done that I can’t get done during my normal days off. My normal days off I rest, so on thanksgiving, a few hours with family which is no different than every other day of the week, except I get to eat turkey, and then a few hours of shopping, I don’t have to worry about the larger crowd on Friday, and I get some of the same deals. Oh and then as I’ve stated many times before, I did work retail, it’s not that hard to find someone that will work your shift on a holiday, there plenty of people willing to make the extra buck on holiday pay.

But hey, if it makes you feel better belittling me by saying I don’t have much to offer to the world but some long comments, that’s ok, you can feel better than the next guy too..

bah humbug

“…the petition supporting retail workers’ rights to Thanksgiving Day off…”

The list of “rights” just keeps on growing. As much as I feel for them for having to work on Thanksgiving Day, they don’t have a “right” to take it off. They do have the right to find another job, though.

Frank–so far I have seen you on this board twice…you ordered CHEESE on your triple stack in one comment and extra fries in at least one more.

I know where you spend your Thanksgiving…alone taking up a whole booth at McDonalds before which you’ll be proud to be the first in line Wednesday for that $200 laptop.
You’re not funny. Shut up you idiot.

Don’t wanna work Thanksgiving? Then Don’t work there. Otherwise..STFU.

Thanks for your service and your family’s sacrifice.

These retailers should be required to pay holiday pay plus double time for working on a holdiay to all employees including part-timers!

So everyone’s argument is essentially, “Let them eat cake.” That always works well…

The idea of, “You have a job, don’t complain,” or “back in my day,” or “just quit your job,” while nice as a conservative platitude, doesn’t work in reality. Here’s the issue: The ‘free market’ is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t exist. When corporations control the workforce they can treat humans as less than humans. So you argue, “Go start a business,” but I can’t because the corporation has the ear of the local legislature to slap so many regulations on me that I can’t start a viable business. “Get another job!” I would, but I can only get one at a corporation, which has the same rules as the current corporation. I’m simply going from one master to another. “Back in my day…” you had a strong economy, less people to compete with, and lower expenses. You say go to college and get an education, but for many of us mommy and daddy couldn’t pay for our college, and getting loans is too risky considering the current economic climate.

At the end of the day, what everyone needs to realize is that human beings have innate rights that are to be recognized not just by the government, but by companies as well. While there certainly is a trade-off between the employees and the corporation’s right to make a profit, forcing people to leave their families – which is the basis of our society (how can conservatives talk about family values when they support anti-family business practices?) – goes beyond what is acceptable between the employer-employee ethic.

Of course, my post won’t change anything because most people – both liberal and conservative – would rather quote bumper stickers than actually think on this issue.

It sux but work is work. Life is full of disappointments. Suck it up and go to work. Be a role model for your kids.

It takes a greedy money-grubber to force staff to work on Thanksgiving Day. If I recall correctly, Target is owned by a FRENCH company that has no interest in our Thanksgiving. It takes a blithering IDIOT to shop at WalMart at 10:00pm on Thanksgiving Day.

Well, I have a job that I love, and I am NOT LUCKY simply because I worked very hard to get it. My employer IS LUCKY to have me because I work hard and do extremely well at what I do. I would quit if I they pulled this kind of attitude on me.

Having said that, I don’t see the CEO’s having to come in on Thanksgiving. They sit home with their families giving thanks that they have people who were forced to come in on Holiday to help them earn that extra million dollar bonus. Doesn’t anyone respect time with one’s family anymore? Respect works both ways. No wonder this country is going to hell.

I refuse to shop on Holidays in the store. If everyone did that they would get the message. But plenty of people need to buy useless junk for the Holidays that by the end of the year ends up in yard sales anyway.

Having time with your family is a basic human right. Families are the basis for society – without them, you lose the entire purpose for society.

What was this myth about “conservative family values?”

And when they’re done agreeing what time they will open, they can start agreeing on how much they’ll charge for their products.

You should express those opinions to your CEO. CEOs love hearing about how people without education or perspective would run the companies they’ve built.

[...] (First column, 11th story, link) [...]

It’s time for employee of Target to get real. They need to feel lucky and “THANKFUL “that they have a job.This is what HOPE and CHANGE is all about ( you all feel better now?). Other institutions like Hospital are open 24 hours a day 7 days a week .they need workers to be there and that include doctors not just low paying workers. it is accepted . Take it or leave it. It’s time to get a grip of reality.

DO NOT GO SHOPPING AND ASK THIS ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES TO DO THE SAME. ONLY THEM THE GREEDY GORPORATE BOSSES WILL NOT HAVE ANY REASON TO PAY EMPLOYEES THEIR WAGES IF THERE IS NO SALE GOING ON. THIS IS ALL OUR FAULT BECAUSE WE GO IN STAND IN THE LINE ALL NIGHT LONG JUST TO GET “SOMETHING”, IF ANY. THERE ARE ALWAYS OTHERE 364 DAYS TO SHOP BESIDES THE BLACK FRIDAY. LETS MAKE THE THANKSGIVING THE REAL HOLIDAY AND TURN “BLACK” FRIDAY INTO THE REAGULAR FRIDAY.

Going to work at 11 pm is the “middle of Thanksgiving dinner?” What time do you eat?

The fact is that retail workers have their jobs because the companies are greedy capitalists. The companies have to make the money to pay the workers’ salaries. If they feel that their stores need to be open at any given time to make money, then that’s what they need to do.

I worked in service industries that had to be available 24/7. We didn’t have the option of closing for holidays. I worked at least a few hours every holiday because it had to be done and the company made it worth my while to work.

Everyone else has off?

Soldiers? Cops? Firefighters? Healthcare workers? Newspaper workers? Convenience store clerks? Cab drivers? Airport workers? etc. etc.

There are many people working across a great spectrum of jobs. Suck it up. Get a degree in something useful and value-ad yourself. You aren’t making anyone money. You’re unskilled labor. You are easily replaced because it takes like 5 minutes to train your replacement. When it takes 6-8 years and $100,000 + to train your replacement, you’ll have some leverage. Until then, get working…or you WILL be replaced by someone more willing.

I know right? Like when you need medicine for a baby with a fever.

I will never shop at target again!!!!!

Don’t know which “Target workers” are complaining. Target is paying time-and-a-half and our local store cannot give out enough hours to satisfy the number of people who want to work that day. If someone doesn’t want to work, it’s no big deal. There are four people waiting in line for those hours and no retribution or anything like that for employees who want to spend the day with their families instead.

I stopped reading the article after I saw it said Target is requiring them to report to work at 11pm on Thanksgiving…who is eating Thanksgiving dinner at 11pm? They don’t have an argument in my opinion. You get to have your holiday and work with little interference. Stop whinning!!!!

Ever since Pres. Clinton push through “free-trade” NAFTA 53,000 American factories have relocated to China all but destroyibg the middle class leaving poor paying service jobs. ie part time, no health benefits. Targets imports most products from Far East and we pay full price. Cheap peasant wages over seas and at home. 55 million on food stamps, 26 million unemployed Obama economics….

I would like to see a few CEOs get their jobs outsourced to India. That goes for their little bean counters too.

this is BS – there is plenty of time to shop in this country – they used to close stores on Sunday – now you can shop at 3 a.m. on Sunday – stop this nonsense

It never used to be retail. I worked many a Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter in a HOSPITAL….totally different. NOT retail….just NECESSARY. Retail is money grubbing and NOT necessary.

BOYCOTT TARGET!!!!

American corporations abuse pesant workforce overseas and at home to max their profits.

Ahh its so good to see a sympathetic soul who will be working along side me making their minimum wage on a holiday evening. Brad my son, I know you’re looking forward to it as much as I. Who needs to spend time with family when you can pick up an extra $20 in cold hard cash? I will choose the almighty dollar every time. When it comes time for me to die, let it be known that I was a company man and could always be bought!!

(BTW, Brad my son, what you’re doing is spelled ‘whining’.)

My wife is a nurse that works many family holidays. She knew that when she took the job. If you don’t like the terms of your employment, the door swings both ways. Don’t let it hit you on the fanny on your way out.

I wonder if the CEO’s and other top officers of these companies are working on Thankgiving?

And when you lose your job you’ll have lots of time to see your friends and family, idiots.

He started a petition for being required to come into work at 11p on Thanksgiving night? WOW. Absolutely idiotic …..what happens at 11p on Thanksgiving night that keeps you from being able to goto work? I can understand if they said ‘come to work at 12 noon’ but I’ve had to work on Thanksgiving plenty when I was younger and working in a grocery store, but we also closed early enough that we could go home and have traditional dinner with our families….quit your complaining….11p is NOT a problem

No, what the Target employees are doing is called WHINING. You employees and supporters need to get your head out of your butt….11p is NOT a big deal, considering all the thanksgiving celebrations are done earlier in the day….NOT at 11p

Butt, butt, butt…If TARGET isn’t open on thanksgiving day, Where will Queen Michelle go to spend the taxpayers money????? Worry, Worry, Worry….

I don’t know what kinda stores you frequent that stay open on thanksgiving, but in most places grocery stores are the only things open and even then they are only open until 2 or 3p and then they close. Everything else is pretty much closed up until Black Friday. Otherwise you have a Habib mart where Praveen can sell you a can of vienna sausages as your thanksgiving dinner

Are they requiring the workers to work a normal shift on the holiday (I.e. 8 hrs.)? Or is everyone supposed to work mandatory overtime and longer hours, such as a 12 hour shift? I agree the former is perfectly fine, this is America and you can find an employer who doesn’t request you to work on holidays. But the latter case of being made to work a longer shift on top of working a holiday, that’s a little far. Is that happened at all here?

Perhaps if the consumers would stop clamoring to get iin the stores so early, then everyone would be able to enjoy the holiday. Why not open the stores at a normal time on Friday? When did the American public get sucked into this ploy of shopping at 4:00am on the day after Thanksgiving? If no one showed up in the middle of the night to shop, the stores would not be open then…just saying.

If they really want to have that day off, they deserve the right, however that is up to them to find a way, not up to the corporation if a free market country to accomodate demands of the employed. Find a different gig, or just work really really hard, get an MBA, startup an exceptionally successful retail store that quickly goes national, and then declare that all stores are to be closed on all traditionally observed American holidays such as Thanksgiving. You are free to do this! It’s done already! Look for a different job. I understand Chick Filet is closed EVERY Sunday. Look around, whine less.

I propose the holiday be eliminated. Its a useless holiday, and by taking the day off we are only costing our employers money and depriving our government of additional revenue.

All of this talk about food is making me hungry.

Who is taking the orders again?

Ok let me help some people out. Midnight, 12:00 am is not Thanksgiving day it is the day after. Yes not everyone loves everything about their job. It is part of life. Is it going to kill you to work at 12:00am. No. My mother in law is in for 50′s and has to work it every year. Alot of the people that are on here making the whine complaints are the same people that act like they hate their job when they are at work. Bad mood, fighting so you do not have to do your job and complaining, all saw when you are at work. I am so over going to a store and asking for help and they say oh it is somewhere over there and not taking me to it and seeing that I am taken care. If you want a paycheck do the job. If not then move aside and let someone else take the job.

WHy not round up the “Occupiers” and let them work on Thansgiving? Oops, I forgot, (1) they obviously don’t want to work for a living. (2) They smell so bad no one would want to enter the store , because of the foul stench!

Businesses are in business to make money. Target is requiring their workers to come in on Thanksgiving because it will make them money. It is not a democracy. It is a business decision. If you don’t like it, find another job that doesn’t require you to work on holidays.

[...] plans to open at 10pm on Thanksgiving in order to get more shoppers to their store, but now employees are fighting back because they don’t want to work on [...]

Stop your whining and get back to work you low lifes!

No one really needs the day off on Thanksgiving. Lets just get rid of the holiday!

ROFL.. Ask any “mom” about getting the day off! Mine would get up at 0400 to start cooking so we could eat 10-12 hours later (yes I know men cook too, just generalizing here for the point). She didn’t get paid for it and she did it every year w/o complaint. Starting to work at 9PM or later on T-Day isn’t a big deal. If you don’t like it, ask to not work or ask for a different shift. Most major retailers like Target and Walmart pay extra for holiday work, even the part time workers.

Why is there no uproar about movie theatres being opened on Thanksgiving? They are open all day. At least the retail stores are opening at 10pm at the earliest. Still leaves plenty of time during the day to have dinner and make it to work.

To the idiots above who are upset about the complaint about coming in at 11 PM …if you are working an 11-7 shift, you have to SLEEP Someitme. It means you will have to cut your day off on Thanksgiving considerably short because you have to rest up to help your employer.

The Target stores of the world and their ilk are so greedy that they can’t wait another six hours for their Christmas profits to start coming in. That’s ultimately what it comes down to – it has NOTHING to do with “you should be thankful you have a job” or anything like that. Nor are they trying deliberately trying to anger their eimployees – they are simply profit minded and cannot contain their greed one extra sexond. Period

Wow, Walmart was making you work 12 hours a day 7 days a week? Let me at that store.. My wife works at Walmart and she has to repeatedly ask for work hours – full timers barely get “full time” and part timers get whatever is left. She would almost literally kill to have been in your shoes to get the extra money and benefits. Something doesn’t quite smell right about your “story”.

Try to “petition” your boss without a union, suckers.

If it’s so urgent to get this sale product to the consumer, why not put it on sale Wednesday?

Or how about this, Target, why not just give us the best price every day so we wouldn’t have to show up to special events to get a fair price?

Seriously, if you want to put on some marketing event to hype the fact that you’re finally giving the consumers a good deal, why not pay the store employees the same wage you pay the executive marketing team that dreamed this nonsense up?

[...] Thousands Of TARGET Workers Petition Against Store Being Open On Thanksgiving… [...]

There was a time years ago when stores closed on Sunday, stores closed at 9:00pm…..on Holiday’s business closed and people were with family. Now Thanksgiving is being tossed aside…..Let’s hope Christmas stays a family holiday.

People that don’t want to work on Thanksgiving should find a replacement and give them some extra money. Problem solved. Stop looking to the corporation and government to solve your needs. Be your own ‘decider’.

http://911essentials.com

If we as a Nation would not pander to the stores and not go out shopping any time on Thanksgiving or on Black Friday before 8am, the stores would have no need to open! Let we the people take a stand!

the benefit of HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT is that there is a VERY LARGE EMPLOYEE POOL out there to choose from and get rid of the whiners

I just got hired by a company to work seasonally. I have to work at midnight on Black Friday as well. That means we will eat earlier on Thanksgiving, I will get a nap from 7-10:30 pm, and be at my store at 11:30. I also have to work until midnight the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to set up the store for Black Friday. This is the first time I’ve had to do this. Is it hard? You bet. Will my family have to adjust to my work schedule? Yes. But since I only work seasonally as a lifeguard, this job is a God send to me. I will gladly make those adjustments so we don’t fall behind on our bills.

.I was sympathetic UNTIL I see that they have to be there by 11:00 PM i.e. almost MIDNIGHT when they would normally have to be there by 4:00 AM or so.

These bellyachers are whining about a FEW HOURS – which they will get paid – this is NOT a big deal. I support Target on this – and remember there are PLENTY OF PEOPLE WHO WANT TO WORK – during this Obama Recession

Exactly! My husband had to work many holidays as a member of the armed services. My mother did, too, as a nurse. Firefighters, police officers, and other emergency personnel know they’ll have to work holidays because they provide essential services. Unless you are a shopaholic, retail is not an essential service. What will it hurt to wait an extra day to buy that toy for your kid? It will probably be broken soon after it’s taken out of the package anyway. Stay home and enjoy some time with your family. Send retailers a message that family time is more important than a bargain.

Fair enough, everyone should do that.

Then when your local Target, Wal-mart etc. closes and those working for slave wages can go out and get a high paying corporate job or end up on welfare which ever requires them to work less.

The best way to stop them from opening early is to not shop there early. Go on Friday or Saturday instead.

If noone shops their early hours, they won’t open early!

STFU COMMIE.

Do you hear yourself? You are going to boycott Target completely because they won’t give their employees the day off. If we all did that, they’d lose business and the employees would have every day off because they wouldn’t be working. Would that make you feel better?

The knew the working conditions when they took the job, if they didn’t like it, they shouldn’t have taken the job. Stop crying and look aor another one if it bothers you so much.

No one should have to work on Thanksgiving or any holiday? REALLY? REALLY? I have worked all of them every year for the last 12 years. Why? Well, I happen to be a nurse and sick people don’t get better for a day or two while the holiday is here. Fact is people are more likely to have a heart attack from gathering with thier family and eating to much. But lets let everyone off for the holidays, because no one is going to get sick, get in an accident, or commit a crime because its a holiday.

There is one class of persons who have been expected to work every year without fail on Thanksgiving Day throughout its entire history without complaining. It is us Moms. For more than a quarter century we have gotten up before sunrise to prep the turkey and get it started in the oven, followed by tending animals and then getting to work on whatever side-dishes still needed to be made – usually without complaining (and thank you all on-line for listening kindly).

Then there is breakfast to be made for children and furniture to be rearranged to make room for extra people at the table. Then the table is meticulously set and the meal given thanks for and eaten. Then there is clean-up and turkey boning that takes about 2 more hours, and it is dark outside before we Moms even get to take a break. Who even has a spare moment to go shopping on Thanksgiving? Retailers: I don’t know who will be showing up to shop that day, but you can count me out!

P.s. May we all remember to give what we can to the local food banks -they are desperate right now!

Waaaaaaaaa! Your “petition” is a joke. I’m betting I could replace each and every one of you whiny little pricks within a day! You have a job, and if you are unhappy go get another one!

@Joel–Since when is having time with family a “basic human right”? While a agree it’s dumb of Target to be open on Thanksgiving (and even dumber to go shopping on Thanksgiving), there are a lot of people who cannot spend time with their family due to work obligations or because they live too far away. To say that they are being deprived of a “basic human right” is a bit melodramatic.

Corporations care nothing about workers, families, religion, or even the USA. They will do whatever it takes to MAXIMIZE profits. Working on Thanksgiving today and tomorrow you’ll be working all day on Christmas. Happy birthday Jesus!

I agree. This is an exploitation of the workforce and a result of nothing more than organizational greed. I understand you have to stay competitive with Walmart etc, but have some common decency and respect for family. Isn’t it enough that xmas has lost its purpose? now thanksgiving too? take a breath. shop amazon.

Psssst- Sentences not structured properly as well as no punctuation make you look even more pathetic than the one you are so ridiculously attempting (in your case, unsuccessfully) to ridicule.
Oh yeah, >>>>>>>>>>Just sayin

I was one of those “salaried” people and I do not remember “hourly” people working 20 hours straight when the night crew did not show up. I do not remember “hourly” people not taking a lunch or working 6 days a week. I worked 60-70 hours per week while “hourly” people work part-time to up to 40 hours. Who is missing time with who? ON average, I made less per hour than the “hourly” people.

Did I complain, No. It was the job and it required the extra work sometimes. What did I do? I got another job M-F weekends off with my college degree that I worked for when I was “hourly”. I also opened my own retail store. (we are closed on Thanksgiving by the way-paid holiday for my employees even though we only have 5 employees)

So you are not a slave when you can quit and go find another job.

SLAVES? cops and firemen work holidays, so do doctors and nurses and a host of other occupations. Hardly slaves.
While I agree that the stores shouldn’t be open on Thanksgiving, I don’t agree with all the whining. Your boss says you have to work, put on your big girl/boy pants and suck it up or go work for yourself then you can make the rules.
You work for the company, they don’t work for you, the company gets to REQUIRE anything they want, if you don’t like it, work elsewhere.
The company is not doing anything illegal or outside of the labor laws.

You want government to regulate when stores can open and close? How about letting the market (aka the consumer) decide. Don’t like the stores being open on Thanksgiving? Don’t go. Simple.

well really, Black Friday used to start in the morning when the stores opened.When it was light out. This is more about commercialism out of control than people not wanting to work. Nothing wrong with wanting to stay home with your family.

Too bad so sad. Consumer backlash? Not against Target, but against lazy entitlement minded “workers”.

We’ve all had jobs that have had us working on Holidays. I’ve spent multiple Thanksgiving days and Christmas days away from family due to work. It’s part of being an adult, get over it.

It said the guy would have to leave in the middle of dinner to get to work by 11pm. Who eats dinner that late?!?! I also want to say that this is all just part of working at a retail store. Get over it guy. If you don’t like it, join the Army and get deployed for a year. You will miss every holiday. People these days….complaining about everything.

not a problem, you couldn’t drag me out of the house after a Thanksgiving dinner to go shopping even if they were giving away 52″ flat screens for a dollar.
I bet the stores won’t be busy at all and it will end up costing them in the long run.

shhhh. Don’t be so ridiculous Cathy. Saying that an American company is going too far to request its employees work one of the two days considered a holiday is not whining. People are just saying it is taking our culture too far from its roots. Remember what this holiday is all about? It is not a holiday enacted for you to get the best deals on all of the stuff you don’t need at your local big box store. Relax a little. Focus on that beautiful turkey in the oven. Hug your grandchildren and be thankful they don’t have to excuse themselves (for any reason) during this one dinner per year.

Oh you will too! Idle threats.

Was with Sears when they test market opened my store on Thanksgiving day. Total sales for the day? $0.00

I’m still going to shop at Target

Anthony eats Thanksgiving dinner at 11:pm? We usually have our dinner as the midday meal or at latest early afternoon.As for going in to work. We do what needs to be done to survive. Is it wrong ?,Maybe. Will it keep your job to go in early?, Probably.

Wow, not one person here knows why the stores are opening earlier and earlier. It does have to do with consumerism, yes. But the biggest reason is CROWD CONTROL !!! Every year people line up at the crack-a$$ of dawn to shop. People die during entry into the stores and the stores become too crowded to control. So places like Walmart and Target and Best Buy came up with a plan. Staggered sales. Things that start at 10pm Thursday night, Midnight, and then Friday 5 AM, 7AM, and 12 PM… that continue all weekend. It was done with the idea that people want to shop for specific things they will come in at those times, people who don’t care about the items on sale at 10PM on Thursday won’t come in until sometime Friday. Hot ticket items are spread out during different time periods to control how many people are in the store. It is done with the idea of the customers safety and the employees safety. It’s not a conspiracy to ruin Thanksgiving for the employees. And yes, MANAGEMENT at those types of stores are there working longer hour than the hourly employees on those days. Salary in retail means working longer hours for only a little more pay, extra hours included. However, management that has to work on holidays get an extra day off during a different week.

Did anyone here think of all the millions of people that will line up at midnight to go shop. You are not being asked to work on Thanksgiving for the hell of it.

You know what CEOs are, right? Chief Executive Officer. They’re sort of above the level at which outsourcing happens.

Spare me with the St. Mom shi’ite, please! Do your job without complaining, Mom. Chances are that Dad is the one supplying the shelter, food, and transportation necessary for the day and the economy. God bless Dad, the true hero!

Wait a minute. The guy said this would force him to leave for work in the middle of his Thanksgiving dinner? They have to report to work by 11PM?? What time does this guy’s family eat?? Sounds like another “entitlement minded” worker to me!! Fire him and let someone who WANTS a job take his place.

Having had to work the past 16 Thankgivings, I would be willing to bet that most of the people who are complaining are those who frequent retailers or attend movie theatres who are open on the holiday. If the general public would take a day off to observe the holiday, it wouldn’t be profitable for anybody to be open.

Next they’ll complain about working on Veterans Day, Columbus Day, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc etc. If you don’t want to work on Thanksgiving, don’t work at Target! Or Walmart.

Also – for those of you Target employees who are complaining, did it ever occur to you that perhaps some of your colleagues like working holidays so they can make additional money and take care of their families?

Miss those blue laws yet? Just curious as to how many of these Target employees will shop at another store, such as Family Dollar, on Thanksgiving Day.

I work for a major retailer in management, and my company was open last year on Thanksgiving. This year they decided to close. Most retailers are open 362 days per year, why not let the employees have their two days off per year with their families. This is not a retail problem, this is a culture problem. This is the fall of the American family, when we value profit over family, and we are all responsilbe for this fall. It started with the destruction of the blue laws, merchants started opening on Sundays, then it was opening on Easter, now Thanksgiving, next will be Christmas. This is what happens when we value the dollar over family, and we are all at fault.

Excuse my 363 days per year.

Just simply do not go shopping the day after Thanksgiving! Enjoy a day off and stay home! Problem solved!

The same people saying Target is a greedy corporation treating their workers like Slaves by not letting them have Thanksgiving off are the same EXACT liberals who denounce and deride the holiday as the beginning of white oppression in the New World. Its the Holidays man! It is retail, the busiest time of the year. JC Penny’s is closed on Thanksgiving. And guess what-they are struggling to stay solvent. Would you want your Tax Accountant to take off on April 14th-you know, the day you always file your taxes? I worked lame jobs in high school and college. It’s life.

You can bet your sweet azz, the owners of these companies will be at home with their families. They don’t care about all the “associates”. It’s all about their bonuses! The next holiday will be Christmas.

I guess its withing Target’s rights to require it but man that is really a sorry thing to do. I will shop at Target during the Christmas season but not on Thanksgiving day.

When the store opens @ 10pm on Thanksgiving the merchandise doesn’t magically appear. Someone had to come in @ 4pm to move regular merchandise and get the specials in place.
So many nasty attitudes/comments on here but have you walked in the retail workers shoes? Maybe they were laid off, work nights while spouse/partner works days so kids not in daycare, previous employer closed or moved.

The absolute bottom line is—-if people wouldn’t shop on holidays, the stores wouldn’t be open. Why are stores opening at midnight instead of 5 or 6AM? Because the people who run them have seen the same news footage we have, of people camping out in front of stores the night before.

If people will camp out at midnight in front of Best Buy, they’ll shop at Target at midnight.

Greedy consumers are just as much to blame for this as insensitive CEOs, if not moreso. I don’t shop on holidays, even to buy gasoline. I don’t shop on Black Friday. Why? Because I don’t want to get out there and see the absolute WORST of people.

If you don’t like what a company decides then you can get a job somewhere else. 11pm is not pulling someone from dinner and even if it was big deal! Be happy to be working and if dinner with your family is so important then schedule dinner around your JOB, or quit. My god I’ve worked plenty of holidays and I made it, I’m not seeing a shrink because of it. If you want to stand up for someone how about standing up for the men and women in our military that will be away from family for months even years, how many times did they miss a holiday, birth, death? For what so you can sit here crying about going to work at 11pm thanksgiving day. Pull up your panties and be thankful your not in their shoes.

All companies should be closed on Thanksgviing. It is an AMERICAN holiday and we are in AMERICA. Retailers are greedy. Allow the employees to spend time with their families. It’s just that simple.

Ultimately this is a consumer issue. Consumers have shown they are willing to shop on Sundays and are wiling to visit restaurants on holidays. People have shown that they are willing to camp out overnight on Black Friday, so businesses assume they will shop at midnight.

If consumers quit doing things like that, the business would not open until the morning of Black Friday. But people are in a frenzy to load their credit cards with debt buying useless disposable Chinese junk for their families. Those would be the same families they left behind to camp out in front of Best Buy.

These employees have the European attiftude that is bringing down those economies one-by-one. If you don’t like the hours of your job, get a different one. Companies exist not to provide employment to folks, they exist to be profitable. And, being profitable requires being competitive.

That is SO STUPID! Working in a hospital is a NECESSITY (I worked in a hospital too, on holidays). Target is not a necessity! It is just down right money grubbing!!! And it serves to negate Thanksgiving! Who wants to go to work on Thanksgiving.? Thanksgiving is a time for FAMILY!!! This is just So what is wrong with America, today….

Spoken like a true socialist. Regulate free enterprise. Yeah how well did that work out for the Soviet Union? How well is that working for Europe and South American countries right now? If you don’t want to work, then quit. If you don’t want the stores to be open, the don’t shop there. The demand is why these stores open.

Then don’t work retail. That’s the nature of the business. Like some cheese with that whine?

Retailers have gotten greedy. I remember as I kid in the 60s nothing was opened on holidays except maybe restaurant and convenience stores. Even Farmer Jack was closed. On Sundays, retailers opened at noon and closed by 5 (I worked at United Shirt at Universal Mall in the 70s). America was great back than and we didn’t have to work 24-7, 365. I think we have all lost perspective on life and are failing to enjoy why we are here. It’s all about the $$$$$!

Can I have your Job? I would gladly work thanksgiving for some extra cash. I applied at Target about a year ago but they said I was overqualified because I have a double major in chemistry and business. :-[ I’m struggling to even find food to eat right now. I’m sitting here drinking a cup of hot water from the coffee shop, stealing wireless on a 7 year old laptop to apply for jobs (but I read the news to decompress in the morning). Anyway you suck sikov. People like you put the country in this situation that is now killing people like me.

Perhaps if you had made better life choices you would not work in retail. No one owes you an apology for having to work and I assure you that the store managers at Target who did go to college will be there working right along with you as well. Your bitterness and contempt need to be refocused at yourself. I didn’t get my cush, corner office with a view job by sitting on my ass expecting people to give me time off. Suck it up and deal with it.

Right, it’s retail and the nature of the retail business is to generate sales. The Christmas shopping season is the busiest, most profitable of the retail business and those businesses have to do what is best for them to make the sales. And since demand says give me the best sale and open as early as possible the business will comply. Also realize you signed up to work for a retail business, not the other way around. You have the right not to work there.

Wow, Pat. I will support “employees” not “imployees” like you when you are literate. Clearly your lack of education got you where you are today, so enjoy your retail job – you’re lucky to have it. Further, I’m fairly certain you and your family will be done with dinner by 11:00 p.m. – so get to work!

STOP SUPPORTING THE BIG BOX STORES. AS LONG AS PEOPLE LINE UP TO BUY.
PROTEST.. STOP SHOPPING.. THE HOURS WILL CHANGE… WHAT DO U NEED TO BUY AT MIDNIGHT

Wow six years at K-Mart….must be proud. I worked kmart once – for two years while I was in school. Yep had to work Thanksgiving too and so did everyone that worked there including the store managers and district managers. Guess what? I got an education and now work in the technology business. I still have to work Thanksgiving at times, but I still get to spend time with my family and have success. Your son can do the same Edward. Quit whining for him.

As did retail employees. No one is forcing them to work. They have the right to quit.

people get over it! midnight is not right in the middle of dinner! also those of you who are complaining should be fired. the fact that your store is open puts more money into your pockets, your stock and your business. im sure there are plenty of unemployed people who would like to have your job.

Exactly. In fact, I know some families that actually love going shopping together at midnight. It is a family bonding time as much as the meal earlier in the day. I used to work retail. Many Thanksgivings we did not spend out of town with family because I had to work the next day. And, no real celebrating on Christmas Eve because I was working. But, guess what. When I took a RETAIL position, I knew that was part of the job. Growing up, my dad had a part time job working as a security guard to provide for our family. There were holidays where he was scheduled to work. It didn’t ruin the holiday for us, we just adjusted to his schedule and took the actual holiday to thank God that he had the opportunity to provide for his family. You know we have become a messed up, entitled society when we correlate working undesirable hours to slavery. Unbelievable.

They are lucky I’m not their boss, I would fire everylast one of them. Go protest that

working is not a right, its a choice and an opportunity. if you dont like it…quit. protests and petitions and strikes are stupid.

Oh, Timothy. Where to begin? When was a holiday a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT? Again, I’ll say it, if you had made different life choices, perhaps you wouldn’t have to “break your back for a corporation that doesn’t appreciate you” and barely make rent. Who got you where you are today, Tim? Did I choose your job for you? Did Target (or whatever other retail establishment you work in)? Is someone making you work there? I think not. So yeah, I expect you to suck it up and get to work. Going in at 11:00 for a midnight opening is essentially working the next day!

Liar

Target is serving the desires of their customers. If they opened at midnight on Thanksgiving and the store was empty they would no longer do it. I agree with the sentiment of the petitioners. However, instead of targeting Target they should be preaching to their fellow Americans to spend their Thanksgiving with family instead of buying s**t they do not need. Or at the very least, do all your shopping at JCPenney and be sure to tell them why. Or better yet, start an internet campaign to shop at JCPenny this year.

Stores used to be closed on Sunday’s, then not until noon on Sunday’s it didn’t kill anyone or stop life from moving forward – it actaully made family spend time together. So many people say they miss the good old days of the 1950s and 1960s, yet they hate anything that brings families together.

I am a salaried employee, but I think that having Thanksgiving off is a good idea. No one should be that desperate to shop on that Thursday, nothing should be more important than family, that it can’t wait one day.

Your right if everyone took the “right”path our entire society would fail. There would be no franchises because everyone did the “right thing” NO janitors, NO trashmen, NO police, NO teachers. Your right we just need to all choose the right path in life to make this allllll better. So before you go simplyfing what all our society needs to run the way it runs now, you may wanna think about what “right” really is.

Agree – a job serving the public means just that. If you don’t want to work on the busiest shopping day of the year for a retailer that serves the public you are in the wrong job. Perhaps you should quit and let other hard working Americans take care of you. We, the working and the unemployed don’t have an ounce of pity for you.

I work in a hospital. I’m working Thanksgiving morning. I work every Thanksgiving. Hard to feel sorry for people. Get another job.

Who thinks that midnight is in the middleof Thanks Giving dinner??? Hardley. Suck it up and drink a Red Bull. This would help the economy!

Great, the inmates are running the asylum. The stores are open on Thanksgiving. If you want to work then come in, if you dont want to work, quit.
Part of the joy of starting a business is you get to decide when you are open and when you are closed. We are in a major recession

Actually, in many families today all members, with the exception of the children work. In many cases they have to stagger the hours so that they have child care. So this was the one day that everyone had the day off and could spend together. So you are wrong that there is a lot of time to spend time with family otherwise and to imply that they are just not doing it.

Are so many of you really willing to just say that capitalism should win over families? Jobs are scare these days, people can’t just quit because they don’t like the hours, but all they are asking, as non-essential to life workers, one day off, is that too much to ask? Is shopping really all that important?

You are letting corpprations that have no loyalty to you run your life and telling others they have to or else. What is funny is that if these people didn’t have jobs you would be screaming about that too and telling them to go work retail. Shopping can wait a day.

All of the people complaining about working the holiday should just quit. There are people without jobs who would be more than happy to take their place. If you don’t like what the job requires, quit your complaining and quit.

God Bless you. Thank you for your service to our country. Most of my family is military, and they don’t get to come home for holidays. Many military do not get a home cooked meal on the holidays. Yet, they do their job and don’t complain one bit.

The ONLY SOLUTION: Don’t shop on Thanksgiving. They are preying on your greed and stupidity! The people are in control…only if they decide to be. Don’t be lemmings.

No one is asking for any entitlements, they are not saying they do not want to work hard, they are asking for one day off that has historically been a national holiday in the USA with the exception of essential workers. What is so wrong with that? No one is going to quit their job or should be asked to because they would like one day off that has been historically a day off. Do any of you that keep telling people they are selfish, should quit their job, want entitlements, etc., even know what Thanksgiving is about? We are becoming a selfish society, no society with that kind of attitude ever survivied.

“The new opening time will require employees to arrive at work by 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

“All Americans should be able to break bread with loved ones on Thanksgiving,” said Hardwick, who works as a part-time parking attendant at a Target store in Omaha, in a press release from change.org. ”With the midnight opening, employees like myself will have to leave for work right in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner. We don’t mind hard work, but cutting into our holidays is a step too far.”

What BS !!! Another loser/whiner. Give me a break, Most people have T dinner in the early afternoon- LOL – when do you eat at 10:30 at night ?? Unless you have to commute hours to get to your wonderful job as a part time parking attendant (whatever that is at Target) how is that going to impact the “middle” of your dinner ? You have all day to hang out with your family. Grow up !

There is not even a comparison there. Ridiculous. There is no need for retail to be open on Thanksgiving other than greed. Essential workers knew they signed up to be away for the holidays when they signed up, that includes firemen, soldiers, nurses, doctor’s, etc. Retail is not essential one one day of the year other than for greed.

Maybe we should start putting children to work next, right?

Isn’t “Black” Friday racist ? Can’t we just call it a White sale ? Just sayin’.

Fire them all. Plenty of people needing jobs and willing to work after a boat load of failed policies have destroyed our economy over the last 40 years.

Pam, that is old and sad. Just because you are lucky to have a job, doesn’t mean that employers should ever take advantage of you and othe hardworking retailers. You guys already give up tons of family time and other things to serve the retail industry. I was all too happy to sign the change . org petition.

Scrooge has nothing on the commentators on this board. Conservatives preach family values until it hurts the bottom line of the fat cats; then we see that you are all about WALL STREET VALUES.

OK marcus i’m going to give you your perfect world. Everyone now has a degree and i mean everyone (cause that’s all it takes right , everyone making the right choices). So we have a America full of Doctors, Lawyers, CEO…..Oh wait dont really need CEO’s now as there arent any workers. Ok Ok scratch the CEO, well wait a minute a Doctor really cant be up to snuff with out Drivers to transfer organs hmm oh heck and i also forgot about the Billing department so the Doc can make sure he gets paid, and looks like the hospital has gotten filthy since noone does unskilled labor anymore.. Well we still have the Lawyers right, wellll not really because everyone went for higher education and the dream, theres no longer Officers to man the jails, or Cops to arrest the criminals so the Lawyers have no system to function inside of. Well Marcus i tried man, why dont you explain to me how everyone can do the “right” thing in your world.

Oh, absolutely! I see no reason for hardly any businesses to be open Thanksgiving. You need gas stations (which nowadays are usually connected to convenience stores), restaurants and fast food because people are traveling.
I am old enough to remember when most stores were closed on Sundays! Now maybe they have shorter hours. Aside from Christmas, nobody closes for any other national holidays. I have been some places where they didn’t even close for Easter. Enough already.
Besides, Target (pronounced Tar-`jhay) does enough other stuff that I disapprove of that I only shop there in emergency anyway. So there!

Anyone here go to any movies on Thanksgiving night or watch a football game? Should the theaters and stadiums be shut down for the same reasons? Why should NFL players be deprived of their family time!

This just in: retailers are NOT opening on Thanksgiving evening due to demand, as some have alleged.

They’re doing it to beat the other retailers to the punch. That’s all. They’re trying to peel the limited dollars that people have had the last few years out of customers’ pockets before another company can.

Folks on a limited budget will end up going to these places not because their dream was to trudge out to the stores on Thanksgiving instead of early Friday morning; they’ll go to stretch their dollars to the absolute limit, and if that’s the day those items are on sale, then that’s where they’re going.

How any of this is the cashiers’ fault, I’d be fascinated to know.

If you want a job in retail you know that you work holidays.There are thousands of others who would work that day instead of you and if Target fires every name on the petition I’d say they did the right thing.You are not important anyone can do your job please remember that.

“B-rad
I’ve worked at Target just over 3 years and still work there. Never had a problem. You know what Target does on holidays such as Thanksgiving? They pay you extra. because they know it sucks. ”

Actually, B-rad, they pay you extra on holidays because Labor Laws require that of them. You can thank the Unions for that. It is not out of the generousity of their hearts or because they know it sucks.

[...] Retail Workers Fight Back, Want Stores Closed On Thanksgiving November 14, 2011 11:58 PM Share this 299 338 comments Getty Images Filed under Business, Entertainment, Holiday Season, Local, News, [...]

My wife is a nurse and has to work a double on Thanksgiving. I am always on call for my job. This kind of staffing is needed, even on a holiday. There is no real need for Target and other stores to be open on Thanksgiving. They are doing it out of greed. I hope no one goes shopping that day.

Wow! Time for some of you people to get a life.

Cops work on Thanksgiving Day. Firefighters work on Thanksgiving Day, Doctors, nurses…they all work Thanksgiving Day.

I’m in the broadcast industry. I am now fortunate as I don’t have to work that day…but I did for over 35 years.

Retailers here are only responding to the fact that people want to go shopping on the holiday and that means some employees are going to have to work.

It’s your job. Stop whining…and go do it.

With all due respect, that is Bravo Sierra.

The problem our country is facing is lost direction and purpose.

If a company with 8,970 locations , 15.355 billion in net sales and 2.1 million employees can’t give the employees a national day of thanksgiving off, then we are doomed.

I would almost start to sympathize with OWS if they don’t.

Your post is not only ridiculous, but it makes no sense. Quit drinking whatever koolaid you are drinking.

Alexis, gotta respect a name caller for their obvious lack of intellect. Your mother must be proud.

[...] flat screen can fill the void cause by yet another ignored holiday as you bust those doors on Thanksgiving Day.  As for me, I respect the bird and I believe that there will still be Sony flat screens on Friday [...]

With all due respect, that is Bravo Sierra.

The problem our country is facing is lost direction and purpose.

If a company with 8,970 locations , 15.355 billion in net sales and 2.1 million employees can’t give the employees a national day of thanksgiving off, then we are doomed.

I would almost start to sympathize with OWS if they don’t.

Close the damn stores down for Thanksgiving and Christmas! SHAME on those stories that insist on being open!

Exceptionally well said, Joel.

Sikov It – So quit. You want to know what REAL psychological stress is??? How about giving 16 years of your life to a company abd then losing your job. How about losing your home and having to file for bankruptcy? How about not having ANY medical coverage for your family. How about your entire savings account used up just to pay reant???? You are a real gem, aren’t you, you crybaby. I hope target fires every single one of you who signed that petition and hire 80,000 of us 14 million who are out of work. You make me want to puke!

Target has always been open on Thanksgiving. You knew this when you took the job. Jobs exist because work needs to be done, not because someone is obligated to provide you with benefits. I’d fire all of you for insubordination. Plenty of people out there who do want to work and realize that’s what they’re paid for.

either you work or your FIRED whats the problem?
there a a lot of replacements waiting to fill the jobs

Silliness. employees of hotels and motels, convenience stores, gas stations, fire departments, police departments, security companies, alarm companies and any number of other businesses work 365 days a year.

Me too! I used to work similar hours. We would have Thanksgiving meal at lunch time and visit until the evening. I’d catch a nap and go into work at 11:30pm. It worked out ok. These whiners will really be upset when Walmart takes away sales and Target has to compensate by trimming their workforce.

Well, Pat, that means I will make an extra effort to shop on Thanksgiving, before we eat. Being out of work after 16 years with a company is very disheartening and seeing people like you post whiny comments about having to go in to work makes me sick.

I truly hope the boycott shopping crowd sticks to their principles. So that means no TV watching, even to check the weather–the weatherman deserves the day off too. Don’t turn on that radio. DJ’s also have families. Forget that stuffing? Well, no last minute trips to the store. They are closed–do without. Boycott all HS football games–how dare they make the referees work a holiday! Need to take along drive to visit precious family? Make sure you purchase enough gas cans to buy your fuel in advance–gas station attendants are serfs too! See where this goes?

Yes, quit, find another job because they are so many out there. Ridiculous. Do you not realize that employers are using this to abuse employees? I work in a salaried position, in a well recognized company, we have let so many people go that I work about 60-70 hours a week. I am glad to have a job, I am not glad to have not seen a pay increase of any sort for 4 years, despite my performance being rated in the top 5%, or to lose vacation time because there is no one to cover for me while the company continues to hire more VPs and management, but not the worker bees. While the CEO and management continue to get pay increases and hige bonuses. I am not going to quit, I need the job to pay my bills, so I keep working more and more. When I fall on my keyboard dead, the company won’t care, they will hire someone else, at a lower salary and the ywill keep that worker down until they fall on their keyboard and the cycle starts again. This is all about greed. If you don’t start standing for something now pretty soon you will have absolutely no leverage.

You are an idiot, Patricia.

First of all, Target is NOT open on Thansgiving Day. 12:01AM is the start of Black Friday, perhaps the busiest shopping day of the entire year in retail. Second, how does having to go to work at 11PM on Thansgiving Day “interrupt” TG dinner? I swear that Americans are the biggest whining bunch of spoiled and entitled wussies on the face of the planet. If you don’t like working on Black Friday, then quit and get out of retail. Here is a a news alert for you whimpering little crybabies: Target is in business to make a profit for its shareholders, not to ignore a chance to substantially increase its revenue opportunities by opening early on Black Friday. Like all employers, Target doesn’t put bars on the doors and windows of the place. If you don’t like it, then quit. In the meantime, stop your pathetic whining, you spoiled brats.

I hope you get fired, too. There are plenty of us who want to work.

Wow. When I was in high school and college, I worked retail, and often ended up working on Thanksgiving. My mom would schedule our Thanksgiving meal around my schedule, and I was just a part-time kid. I guess we had a different ethic in my household. Why stop with petitioning for which hours you want the store to be open? Why don’t they just petition to be paid and stay home. That would be the most ‘fair’. We can just ask all the retail companies to ‘give a little more’ to those poor, poor saps who have to work at their jobs…

It is absolutely absurd that people are forced to work on thanksgiving!!! Not only should the poor employees of Target have the day off but so should Doctors, Cops and Firefighters. Its just not fair that they not get to spend time with their families on such an important day.
***rolls eyes***

They are a private company, Jerry. They can do what they want. If the employees don’t like it, they can quit their jobs or quit whining. I personally hope Target fires every single person who signed that petition. There are plenty of people who want to work. Mission critical. What a joke.

Democrats, are you going to just sit by and let your political party
continue to be hijacked by these ridiculous angry Marxists? What are you doing to marginalize these anti-american attitudes.

Target workers, you will work when the company says you will work. That’s the job. Don’t like it? Quit. Welcome to real life.

Let me summarize this post: “I am a hopeless loser who has an excuse for every failure. It is all outside of my control and everyone else’s’ fault when bad things happen so I don’t even try.” Pathetic.

Yeah, right. Then they lay off those people. I say Target FIRES everyone on the petition. I am going to make an extra effort to shop at Target on Thanksgiving, just because of you whiners.

Liar

This is really to prevent crushing mobs outside the store at 5am. What a bunch of uncaring, inconsiderate dummies that must work at Target.

What the hell are you talking about? Basic human rights? Are you twelve? Quit the job and let someone who wants to work have it. You sound like a fleabagger.

You’re a fool. If the shoppers are out there, then the stores should be there to serve them. You have NO RIGHT to tell others when they can shop.

No Joel… Sounds like you and other on here just want to blame everyone but yourself. Take some personal responsibility.

if not working on holidays is important. Don;t work in retail or other industries where it is required.

College loans aren’t risky, if you seek out affordable collegese, good loan terms, and pursue a career that pays.

Or you can just keep blaming everyone else…

I used to work in retail. I was in the retail side of the auto industry. I spent 21 years in that business and every other year, we would open for another holiday. When I left the business this year, we were only closed on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We were open every single other day of the year and every Sunday.

The argument for opening on Thanksgiving is the same that retailers always use when taking away a holiday from employees, this will create extra sales. They will then point to the sales made that day and pat themselves on the back. What they never get around to looking at is the overall picture at the end of the season which will be that the total holiday sales will be no different than if they had been closed. All they accomplished was keeping people from dinner with their families and further eroding the social fabric of this country in the insatiable quest for profit.

I for one believe that EVERYTHING should be closed on major national holidays with the exception of police, fire and essential services. People need time off to spend with their loved ones, period.

The sad thing is next year, they will open at 9pm, the year after at noon and the year after at 9am and never again will Thanksgiving be a day off. Once taken away from employees, it will never be given back because the fools that run these companies think they might miss a sale.

I for one will not shop at any major retailer who is open on Thanksgiving. I will support the ones who still put some value in the family.

Welcome to life in retail. You have to work during times when other people are able/want to buy things. This is notoriously the biggest shopping weekend of the year, so it shouldn’t be a shock. Suck it up or find another line of work.

So you hate capitalism and then use communist gulags as a negative reference? Excellent demonstration of your knowledge. I really hope you don’t vote.

Taget is ANTI AMERICAN anyway. I am surprised they even celebrate Thanksgiving, this is a store that no longer calles Christmas, Christmas, it is now the Holidays or whatever. Target sucks too. If you don’t get Thanksgiving off then quit and start your own ANTI AMERICAN store and STFU.

I agree with M, I am salary, as well and I don’t see any of the techs working an average of 65 to 70 hours a week, and only getting paid for 40. No they work 40 and any overtime is paid. I have to work based off of engineering projects due date. I work weekends, and have worked during Christmas when out at a site. So boo freaking hoo, you have to work at midnight on thanksgiving…. and get paid for it. I have missed two thanksgivings and only got my base pay. You should keep in mind that 1. A business exists to make money. 2 jobs are a byproduct of a business doing well, not the reason for the business. 3. If you are unhappy with your station in life, either apply for a “wonderful” salary position, or create your own business. A caveat for the second part of number 3 is, be ready to miss a lot of holidays and weekends while you work 70 to 80 hours a week to keep it afloat.

TD – Target is a private company. They can do what they like. If you really want the government to regulate their business, you are invoking fascism by definition. Let your fascist flag fly, TD! As for the younger generation… LACK of responsibility and discipline is the problem, not the other way around. I sincerely doubt that you are religious, anyway. Working holidays is a part of life. Get over it.

And you fools wonder why all our companies are moving over seas. LESS REGULATIONS! Look up the definition of fascism, Jasmine. Read a little history or something.

I remember when stores use to be closed on Holidays – AND – Sundays! It was nice. It was peaceful. It gave people a time to reflect on what the holiday meant, and to relax and be with their families. One company opens then others follow so they won’t lose business to the competition! Thanksgiving – everyone should be off except emergency personnel – i.e. hospitals, pharmacies, fire and police depts. Black Friday is bad enough – w/out making people work Thanksgiving, too! We need to remember what these holidays are for….and it’s NOT to buy more stuff!

So don’t shop then. Why should you impose YOUR will upon the rest of us?

Verbal diarreah. I WISH I had to go to work on Thanksgiving.

I meant diarrhea

Fire them and get new people. There are plenty of people who want jobs. Lot’s of people are going to be working on that day. Just what made them decide they are the speical ones.?

That’s right. It’s retail. A private company that can set hours whenever they want. Stop acting like a fascist government thug.

Thank you, Thomas.

It is amazing that you even have grandchildren since you are definately not “family oriented” or you would not have said these things. Historically, American families have, for the most part, been allowed under their employment, to have this ONE day off to spend with each other. There is something inherently wrong with putting :”great buys” before family.

Spelling… fail. Grammar… fail. Punctuation… fail. And yet Melody was hired. She should be thanking Walmart whole-heartedly and be begging for her job back. That post was at the third grade level.

Why are you shouting?

I smell a troll. Nobody is this stupid – not even Obama supporters.

We’re too busy enforcing South Korea’s, Columbia’s, Iraq’s and Afghanistan’s borders right now. How about we round up all the illegals, let them build a big ol’ electric fence, plant a buttload of land mines and then leave them there on the other side?

Exactly what I was saying. No one HAS to go into work. I work every year on Thanksgiving and have missed dinners entirely before both Thanksgiving and on Christmas eve due to work.

If you don’t want the shift, don’t keep a job in retail.

If you’re good to work on the Lord’s Day… what is so special about Thanksgiving? You lazy, self-obsessed slackers will find plenty of competition for your job. There’s where you should give thanks… that you still have a paycheck in an economy trampled by the welfare idiot in your White House.

Fleabaggers, for sure!

In my opinion Thanksgiving and Christmas days are days of family and friends, eating and sharing, story telling, and catching up. Sure there are those that HAVE to work to keep us safe and to provide those items we forgot to get ahead of time (police, fire, convenience stores open half days). But really, do retailers have to try to get an edge over each other, at the expense of their employees missing out on all the things I mentioned above, just for the few that think they will get a better bargain, by shopping and missing out on their own families? I think its a bad precedent. Open up at midnight for those bargain hunters, and lets let families or friends that want to share the holidays do so.

My favorite bumper sticker: STOP GLOBAL WHINING

The guy that wrote that one had the SIKOVs of the world in mind.

TO JOEL : My wife & I got sick of our corporate jobs, quit, started our own business, struggled, succeeded & never looked back. After reading your post I would have to agree that you could never do it but not for the reasons you gave.

I worked as a Merchant Seaman for over 45 years. At sea there are no holidays. We were on board the vessel 24/7 until the end of the voyage. If you couldn’t handle the job, the hours or the separation from family and friends you were welcome to work elsewhere. I have no pity for these people. They knew the stores were going to be open on Holidays when they took the job. So quit your whining and get you butt behind the counter, wimp.

Retail is a private industry. They can set hours any way they want in a free society. You sound like a big government fleabagger.

Who is still having thanskgiving dinner at 11pm?

Might as well boycott McDonalds as well since they are open ON THANKSGIVING DAY itself plus they are also open on Christmas eve too.

Yeah, I hope people that sign that petition know that the comapany CAN fire you. I’m not just saying that. It’s policy in most major companies to help stop worker retaliation. Just saying…

So, just because it’s Thanksgiving, people should not be working because it’s a holiday. Well, with that logic, I hope you don’t start choking on your turkey bone as the EMT and ER docs will be off as well as the nurses and hospital administration. And pray that no one decides to break into your home because the alarm system company and policemen will be eating pumpkin pie. And try to get around a major city to see grandma because the trains and cabs and transportation will be down as well as gas station guys. And pray for your child deployed overseas that when he is eating he isnt hit by a suicide bomber that got on base because the guys and girls on guard duty didn’t have to work.
When you are offered employment, it is your choice to accept it. It is not forced on you. You are given the terms, vacation time, how to ask (keyword ask) for time off and if someone gets approved before you, it’s your lack of planning. You don’t like the terms of your employment, you can leave. There will be someone happy to take your place.. In fact, they probably have several names in their personnel files to call the minute you walk.

This is more than just copmplaining about having to work. It is about being able to spend the time with your family like most people. There is no reason why these businesses need to open at midnight or even earlier for some. The same sales they will be having at midnight can still be made at 8 a.m. In what way is this supposed to help the economy? People will make purchases regardless of when the sales start.

well its about time that the people stand up.. I remember 15 yrs ago when all you could find in my home town open on Thanksgiving and Christmas was a convienient store, Walmart till 6pm and a chineese restraunt and now everyone is bowing to the all mighty dollar and forgeting what these holidays were all about it makes me sick that this country is more concerned about MONEY than FAMILY….

Since Thanksgiving is an American holiday, why not let the illegals come to work so Americans can stay home with their families? We’ve got, what, 30 million illegals? That should be plenty for the Best Buys and Wal-Marts. Think of the amazing Black Friday – all ICE agents show up to arrest them AND get that $10 gift card!

Everyone wins!

Apparently they are not opening till midnight. So they are not actually open on thanksgiving. I have no issue with this at all. They are not keeping people away from family gatherings, nor are they enticing customers away from getting together. Sure it is hard to come in at midnight, when they are not normally open. But that is part of the season in retail at this time of year. Plan for it and make the best of it. Walmart, you go to far opening at 10 PM on Thanksgiving day.

How many retail jobs have you applied to so that wouldn’t happen to you?

“10 PM – midnight openings DO NOT stop anyone from spending time with their families.”

Really? How much time do you get with your family when you need to sleep most of the day away so that you can serve the greedy needs of the glassy-eyed bargain hunters until 10 a.m. the next day with a smile? Why even have a national holiday in the first place? It was enacted to give most people a day to spend with their families and give thanks. Time that isn’t usually available, especially for those in retail. Again, no one has explained to me how opening before 6 a.m. is supposed to drive more sales?

To Dave – “Why even have a national holiday in the first place?” EXACTLY! You are so right! We need to remember what Thanksgiving is for – To give Thanks for all we have in this country, for all the people we cherish, for our freedom, health and family! Thanksgiving and Christmas have become lost in the mass marketing frenzy of “things”! No wonder everyone is sniping and carping at each other. The stress is palpable – as shown by some of the comments on this site! JC Penney’s said they’ll give their employees off for Thanksgiving… well then that’s a store I will frequent! PUBLIX is another company that cares about their employees over the almighty $. Those management groups have their priorities straight – and the best interest of their employees at heart! NONE of us is helpless here. Take your business to companies that care about their employees. There are plenty of them out there! No need for hostilities – you’ll get further by just being civil and letting management know WHY you are frequenting their competitors!

Get your facts straight “Employers Need Not Pay Extra For Holidays
It is a common misconception that the federal government requires businesses to pay employees extra for holidays. There is no state or federal law requiring employers to pay employees extra for working on a holidays, nor is there any law requiring employers to give employees paid time off for holidays.”

Only government workers get guaranteed holiday pay.

Also, I thank unions for nothing. Those overblown wastes of money have not brought anything good in the last 30 years. Originally, 70 years ago, they created the workers rights we needed. Now, they are a self-absorbed company ruining, job prohibiting pieces of filth.

And honestly, Target gives us extra pay for several things that are not mandated by law. So shove it.

I haven’t shopped at Target since they drove away the Salvation Army bell ringers several years ago. I wrote to Target and told them that I was going to do it, too! No response from Target. (big surprise) That wasn’t an idle threat from me. I have four children and I have purposely trained them not to be Target shoppers as they have grown into adulthood. Guess I got the last word on that! Ha! Not an idle threat!

Target should feel lucky that anyone buys from them this holiday season – almost all of us should get out of debt and save every penny we can get our hands on in our current national economic condition.

Thanksgiving and Christman did not start out as “retail” events. I refuse to buy “stuff” in association with either holiday. I do less spending in November and December than any other months of the year, and we always have wonderful family Thanksgiving and Christmas family celebrations.

Wake up sheep!

[...] A CBS news report has about 80,000 people signing the petition. CBS also reports that the petition was started by Target employee  Anthony Hardwick. [...]

What is funny to me is that if Target and the other retailers, make Thanksgiving and Christmas into “just another work day” and if EVERYONE else followed along, the whole reason for their being open to sell “stuff” for the holidays would cease to exist!

Holiday means Holy-Day. If it is not “holy” and set apart from other days, it is just another day. Why would anyone do any “Holiday Shopping” then?

Umm, if you have an eight hour shift (11p,-7am), when do you sleep to prepare for it? What if your family is out of town? If this shift is at an odd time, how do you get back in sync for example a 2-10 pm shift the next day?

Have you ever worked retail?

I’m a guy and I just don’t understand the fascination with shopping. It’s a chore, nothing more, something I’d rather put off as long as possible. I surea s hell am not going to drag my tryptophan-laden and lazy tuchus off the chesterfield at 22:00 hours to schlep around Target in the middle of the night to save a buck on something that is going to be exchanged anyway. What a waste of time, money and resources. I’d rather spend the evening catching up with family I only get to see a couple of times a year. Compulsive shoppers are very sad people trying to fill their empty lives with things.

You make a good comment, however, my organizations President and CEO have both announced they will be on vacation for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday. This is actually the norm for the industry. As a manager, above store level myself, this makes it difficult for me to justify their actions to my teams. Of course they will make a few phone calls but not from the office.

In the past it was a requirement of All salary managers, including Senior partners to work at store level on Black Friday Weekend and the Christmas Week. Unfortunately the current Senior teams in my industry have little or no experience at store level. PR works for both customers and employees. If they do not make a better show….well, look at the last years of Circuit City and how they lost so much business by their mistreatment of employees. There is a balance and now they are missing it.

The issue is often not the hourly employees who either are locked in at 40 hours or some number below that. Salary retail manager are required to pick up the slack without the addition of extra hours for the extra business. They are pressured to work beyond the scope of what defines salary or be replaced. In California this was so abused the state stepped in and essentially removed retail managers from salary, locking them into a 40 hour type schedule. Many retailers mandate salary manager to work 7 day a week, yes this is standard practice.

As for me I am a manager above store level and I often have to hire new management right after the holidays to replace those who didn’t fall in line or quit.

Excuses, excuses! I didn’t have a Mommy and Daddy to pay for my undergradute degree or my MBA, I worked my way through both while working in retail jobs – including Black Friday! Go figure! I actually had to get off my bum and work to get where I wanted to be, not just sit back and complain that no one handed me my dimploma! If you want a college degree and a better job, I’m still pretty sure this is a free country – get off your whining a** and go get one!

And may I ask how much time you have spent in Europe? Are you aware of the current social and economic client in Europe? I think not or you wouldn’t have used it as an example!

And may I ask how much time you have spent in Europe? Are you aware of the current social and economic climate in Europe? I think not or you wouldn’t have used it as an example!

You clearly have never taken a Business Law course Dawn, or you would know that holiday is not a legal requirement.

I’m really tired of people waiving their MBAs, while misusing grammar and misspelling words – although in this case it’s ironic that DIMploma might actually fit the commenter! All “non-emergency” employees are asking for is a day off to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families! That’s NOT too much to ask and hardly justifies some of the comments on this board!

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

Feel free to quit those horrible conditions.

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

@Cathy Frenette:

Cathy, since you are so deeply in favor of working on holidays, you should move to Alabama. Because of strict immigration law enforcement, illegals are running to different illegal heaven like California. May be you can go there and take a job working farms, fields, slaughter-houses. I would love to see you give this “lucky to be working” speech after just spending a day doing any of these mediocre, low-wage paying, no health insurance, no benefits job.
All we do as a society is push human beings to the point of breakdown. Sure productivity of American workers are higher compared to anyother country in NA or Europe. But look at the quality of life in countries like Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France etc. In the name of productivity, we are depriving fellow human beings of just wages, benefits etc. This Walmart mentality of wanting everything for next to nothing is destroying our families and society and our country in general.

You do lie, I worked at a Sears on thanksgiving day and people do shop. Hell, I was one of them, coming in a little early before my shift or staying a little late so I could get the deals (plus my Sears employee discount on top of that).

Yeah I miss the 50s and 60s when women had no rights and you could smoke in the work place. Those were the days…. When the world was like the show Mad Men and guys cheated on their wives when they went to their big jobs in the cities… The good old days dawn….

Oh wait, those weren’t the good days in retail were they. It was a man’s world.

On a side note. If family was important, you wouldn’t wait till thanksgiving to spend time with them. It’s that simple.

Nah, the peasants are at home, the hard workers are overseas, let’s send these peasants overseas and bring the hardworkers here.

I’m sorry, I can’t hear you Zudz, you were whispering or Joe’s shouting made me deaf.

So you’ll support other online retailers, ones that may or may not also treat their employees like serfs…. Way to go.

@Jen I’m sorry I missed the part where our quality of life is bad. I quote:

“Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more. Two-thirds have cable or satellite TV. Half have one or more computers. Forty-two percent own their homes. The average poor American has more living space than the typical non-poor person in Sweden, France or the U.K. Ninety-six percent of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry during the year because they couldn’t afford food.”

That doesn’t seem to bad to me….

Thank goodness target drove away those annoying salvation army bell ringers. If I want to donate to charity, I’ll seek them out.

Seems as though all the hate and insults directed at me is by calling me a low wage worker. Funny.

So to clarify. I am simply saying retail workers have a right to spend time with their family, yet that makes me an awful person, lazy, etc.

FYI I was MVP at Best Buy many times. I garnered a BBQ set, a volleyball, and several gift cards. That was when the company was really great to work for. They were also closed Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter. The pay was fair for the time and the perks working there were fantastic. Things change. “The economy” excuse is the reason why it’s changing. Workers were given more responsibility and duties, positions stripped, etc.

I have quit, and have run my own business for 2 years which is doing really well. I learned a lot there. About how to treat people who work for you, how little tokens no matter how small mean a lot in terms of loyalty and appreciation.

I don’t live in Mom’s basement, I am educated, I floss. Just because I speak out against a corporations tactic doesn’t make me lazy or uneducated. I’m just trying to protect an American Tradition, for the rest of us.

Hop on change.org and sign the petition, it takes two seconds, and I’m pretty sure it’ll make a lot of fellow American’s happy.

Oh and KVN, what hypocrisy, calling someone out for name calling by then calling them something worse. I’m sorry your parents taught you such twisted logic.

I think this is someone being satirical.

Yeah I wish I could get the overtime on Thanksgiving, unfortunately I’m salary, but I get the day off and still get paid anyways, the advantages of moving on up past the retail world.

Hmm yes all families work and yes Thanksgiving is a nice day that most people can get off, but that being said, since most people want thanksgiving off, it’s much easier to ask for another day off to spend time with your family and then work on Thanksgiving and get the double time. Again, if your family were important, you’d make time for them, not wait around for someone else to tell you when to spend time with your family.

You know what day is still important that always comes once a year that you can spend time with your family, it’s called your birthday. And then you can still be thankful and eat the same things, plus you can open the presents someone bought for you on Thanksgiving day when they were on sale.

And you know who runs my life… me, because I need to survive, because I want my needs and my wants and all the frivolous and materialistic things that my salary has allowed me to afford. When I was working retail, I also worked full time at a call center, and part time at a help desk at a university as well as going to school full time, and still found time to be able to travel several hours on thanksgiving or other random holidays, to spend time with my parents. And now, because of my hard work and working many holidays and finishing school, I can work a job where I can take holidays off if I want and get paid for it.

I bet they procrastinated too long, notice how thanksgiving is only a week away and the petition only went up 18 days ago? For holiday work, companies generally tell you weeks or months in advance that they will be open. So yeah, no sympathy from me, next time they don’t want to work thanksgiving they should plan ahead of time.

Jobs are not scarce, not for those people that have experience and skills. Perhaps if people had chosen a science, math or engineering major they wouldn’t be stuck working in retail for so long. Check out monster.com, hotjobs.com, dice.com, etc… plenty of jobs out there… Even where I work we have at least a dozen open positions to be filled, but no qualified people applying.

And corporations do have loyalty to their employees, they have a vested interest in keeping you if you do well. It’s a lot less costly to keep any employee then hire a new one.

Children in the US don’t even know what work is. With their indulgent parents never punishing them and always trying to be the “good guy”. US children will grow up to complain about having to work on days that end in Y.

Weird, my brother worked at circuit city and he never complained about how they treated him. He actually did quite well there, even being able to pull in side jobs to help people install their home audio equipment. The problem he had was with fellow employees that didn’t work near as hard as he did and never got fired.

They didn’t lose business because of their mistreatment of employees, they lost business because they couldn’t compete, just like CompUSA. Stores like bestbuy and Fry’s blew them out of the water.

You are missing the point. Those are mission critical jobs. I think people can wait a few more hours before they get their hands on some plastic toys.

Doing what they want and what’s right is what distinguishes between a good company and a greedy one.

Erm that’s what the debate is about. They WERE closed thanksgiving until a couple of weeks ago.

But hey, they still get lucky every night.

Yes they have more brains, that’s why they work at target….

Yeah you probably shouldn’t have bought that unneeded computer you decided to surf the net on. Those damn evil retail money grubbing computer makers…

One last thing. For those of you who have actually worked a black friday. It is different than a “typical” day at the movie theater or the store, etc. It is a bloodbath of greed. There are fights, trampling, etc. I’ve seen it all. It is the true base side of human nature, fighting over material things. So for employees to leave their families and go to that? Yeah, I’d say that’s a big deal.

You mean till this year… thanksgiving only comes around once a year, it doesn’t come around every few weeks.

Some CEOS came from India

Get a better job… Sorry that you aren’t qualified enough to make wages above the minimum. You can work a job, even on holidays, and still make time for the family. And money kind of gets things done, you know, food, rent, sometimes even the extra things in life that make it bearable. Nothing wrong with wanting that. I’m sure your family will thank you since a minimum wage job barely makes ends meet.

I like working on Thanksgiving…. My family is around most of the time, I don’t need a holiday to set time aside for them. But you know what makes my family happy, being able to take them on vacations, buy neat stuff for them, pay for their college education, etc… all things that working extra hours and getting holiday pay for help me do more often, but the US is about instant gratification..

Oh I have, people were leaving the company left and right, they gave us all raises, brought us up to market value, no unions needed.

If you are so concerned about your family maybe you should think about other peoples families as well. Thanksgiving is a holiday to spend with family. Not to be out trying to save 5 bucks on an item. That means everyone’s family NOT JUST YOURS.

For all of you people who are complaining because you do not have a job and you would work on Thanksgiving. Migrate down to Alabama they are looking for help now that the illegals have been run out of town. Maybe after you spend 14 hours in the field on Thanksgiving you too can realize shopping should not replace a holiday that should be for family. Also, everyone does not live across the street from relatives some people have to travel quite a distance to hook up with relatives. Oh and before anyone responds to me i have a four day weekend. I am however in favor of family over your shopping addictions.

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

Honestly people I don’t believe the comments area is ment for attacking others for posting opinions, most of us are adults so please let’s try acting like it.
The facts are that people who would prefer not to work on Thanksgiving are being forced to. I see no reason stores, gas stations or food vendors of any kind should be open on thanksgiving. If you need gas fill up on Wednesday, get your grocery shopping done before thanksgiving day.
Yes those who have jobs should be thankful for them and as for those who keep saying those without jobs would be happy to take that job… come to Iowa, we have lots of jobs open at burger king, McDonald’s, Walmart, kmart, swift but the problem is so many of those unemployed ppl u r talking about think those jobs are below them so they won’t apply.
As for all of you that are telling everyone to quit the whining… let me guess ur retired, stay at home parent/spouse, on disability, never had to work on thanksgiving, or ur just so insensitive to the fact that some ppl are very family oriented and enjoy spending NATIONAL HOLIDAYS w/ family they don’t get to see on a regular basis.
The United States in the only well developed country that does not encourage or require vacation for employees. For example the UK requires NO LESS thank 5.6 weeks of PAID vacation every year plus 8-10 paid holidays for full time employees but almost all make way more than that, China employees have more paid vacation each year than they have hours worked .
Studies have shown that employees who have plenty of family time & vacation time are much more productive at work and will help the company yield a much larger profit. Besides its not going to help stimulate our economy to have people rushing out to purchase items they can’t afford thus using money ment for bills and what not to buy useless junk. Spending money you don’t have is one way our economy as a entire whole has gotten into such bad shape.

The Occupy “whatever” slobs would not work even if given a job! Those fools simply think they are entitled to a free ride. They say “down with capatalism”, but when asked what should replace it they just have a dumb look on their faces. I personally think that if we could get some of the leeches out of this country we would be better off.

You are a moron. Please do the world a favor and clock out permanently.

Newsflash! As long as the lemmings keep camping out outside these stores to save a buck, the retailers will keep opening earlier. Its called business!

NO! The CEO is at home. He or She got a fancy college degree so that they dont have to come in with the minimum wagers.

Yeah … with underage kids, or unwilling partners!

Hey we could get rid of Bob too! Then we have two dumb things off the list!

Yeah….tell that to all the Wal-Mart employees.

Ok, AJ, PSSSST is not a word, and sentences don’t contain >>>>>>>. Just sayin’

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

A-MEN!!

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

I work for Walmart and I agree, yes we are lucky to have jobs. But this world needs to get back to family and values. When I was growing up in NJ we had blue laws and stores could sell somethings or not open. Say something about bringing them back, and people will ask “what will we do.” Spend time with each other. Have everyone get off the computer and no cell phones (texting and talking). Take a drive, walk, do something together and enjoy one another.

I never have, and never will, participate in Black Friday shopping. I also never patronize stores open on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Every year, my family spends less and less money on these holidays, as money is not what they are about. They’re about spending time with family and friends. And those of us who wish to celebrate should be allowed to do so. That’s what this is about. Yes, these people are lucky to have jobs. But they should not have to sacrifice holidays with their families. Holidays should be sacred, and shame on corporations for using them to promote greed.

This is the most ignorant comment I’ve ever seen. I’m sure plenty of these people have gone to college, and this is the best job they can get. Do you pay attention to any of the studies that show more and more college graduates working minimum wage jobs because of the poor economy? Go back to college and read some.

How much debt did you have. College is not the answer. I know people working McDonald, Target, Kmart,Walmart, all with college degrees and 50000-100000 in debt. That is more than I paid for the home I have. And I do have a real job. And I do not sit on my butt behind a desk.

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

LOL – maybe you should go on the Obama apology tour? Then you can talk about how “lazy” we are as a nation…
There are a LOT of hard working kids out there! Don’t condemn an entire group with a blanket statement – just because you haven’t run into any of them, yet!

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] noticed one of your managers stated in a news story: “I don’t like the fact I have to come in on Thanskgiving, but when you work in retail it’s [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] [CBS] Ron Lamkey / Getty Images Filed Under: best buy, cbs detroit, kohl's, macy's, retail workers fight back, target, thanksgiving night open, Wal-mart Category: Evansville News, Events Share on facebook!Share on twitter!Send to a friend! Like More from WKDQ-FM [...]

I think it is absolutely rude to tell someone they are lucky to have a job because they do not want to work on Thanksgiving or come in the nbext day at 12am. Black Friday is getting ridiculous. I understand that there are occupations that require someone to work like the medical, fire and police. But retail liife is not is jeopardy, Retail can wait till the next day like 6am to open. I think everyone should stay at home until the next day and show these stores that money is not everything that FAMILY comes first. If they wnat to open up on ridiculous hours then let the CEO’s and the president and VP open the stores. I talso think no one should show up and refuse to work, they can’;t fire everyone. Also why don;t all these stupid Occupy Boycotters show up at t he stores and sit there where they can’t open up the stores. That is a reason to boycott

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

And Wal-Mart is expecting its employees to be at work by 8pm Thanksgiving evening…some earlier then that…Actually Wal-Mart is open ALL day Thanksgiving.

If they do not want to work there will be a line behind them for that job. In this economy I would be happy to have the job and would not complain.

Get to work you cry babies, Thanksgiving has been given over to a ball that doesn’t bounce right.

I bet Marcus doesn’t have to work….enjoy your dinner with your family, putz.

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

If you don’t believe the stores should be open, don’t shop. I can’t imagine the $10 gift card mentioned in the news article or a $5 discount on some toy is more important than anyone’s holiday.

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

I’m sure retail employees are thankful for their jobs especially in this economy. But where will this trend end? My main complaint is that Thanksgiving is a time for family and tradition and that is being lost for the greater cause of what? Commercialism?

People won’t refuse to purchase Christmas gifts or other products simply because they have to wait until 4am the following morning, instead of 10pm Thanksgiving day. Your reasoning indicates that one should be happy for anything they get. What if the issue becomes 18 hour shifts or working 7 days a week? Should the employee simply be happy and deal with it? It is up to us, consumers to prevent working expectations to exceed unfair working conditions.

@bobo – Your statement and general anger about people telling you that you can’t shop for two days of the entire year just shows how much commercialism has taken over.

The argument that this petition is giving is not about people being lazy and not wanting to work, being ungrateful for their jobs, or forcing people not to shop on a particular day of the year – it’s about keeping tradition and family time during one day of the year that people have come to rely on.

I don’t know about your family, but having this one day off for all of my whole extended family (excluding a couple who are in the Navy) allows us to all come together when we usually can’t. All work schedules, activities, and obligations can finally be put to the side and the priority becomes oriented towards family. We do this twice a year at Thanksgiving and Christmas. And this new scheduling threatens to take that away.

Surely, people can wait another 4-5 hours for the stores to open bright and early on Black Friday.

Families are breaking apart, divorce is everywhere. To have one day to encourage families to be together & share a turkey dinner, family games, ball games, etc. Is that asking too much of Target? Target should encourage their employees to stay home on this wonderful day. Not everyone believes in prayer, but we have prayers of thanks to Jesus for all that he has given us. It’s a special day to give thanks. Years ago K-Mart opened its stores on Thanksgiving. Now Target is edging in that direction. For those that agree, and there are many – yes many, I recommend not shopping at Target, K-Mart year round. That’s the only way they will get the message.

Wow. Reality check here. Did you know the emergency rooms of most hospitals are staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by emergency department physicians? Hmm, I have family, I have friends, and I enjoy my job outside of work. I suggest if you happen to find yourself on a holiday, any holiday hit by a bus, shot, stabbed, or otherwise incapicitated by crushing chest pain that you please wait until the next business day for treatment. If you have to see one of the other excellent physicians that work on holidays or the day after since you have declared we should unionize, the pathologist will be happy to see you. Please apologize and I’ll appreciate that you spoke out of school without thinking. I certainly respect our military as well for protecting me on holidays and while I sleep.

If it is a “job serving the public” Then the government needs to take it over and we can refer to them as public servants like we do Officers,Firefighters etc. I beleave its a Job serving the shareholders and the board.

Then in your final years you can sit around with all those great memories of work to keep you company. I’ll remember all the holidays.

Remember this line from from Scrooge? “I suppose you’ll be wanting the entire day?” So are you off to make sure the work houses are running properly next?

Glad you informed me of this, i had no clue that retail workers were in the life saving business, guess we really need to see about getting them benefits and maybe something better then minimum wage.

So you would be ok with retail workers getting the same pay and benefits as you then? Which of course means that the 5 Dollar toy just became 15-20 Dollars, but as you stated since the service the retail worker provides is so needed the price increase must be justified.

Ohhhh that’s right you don’t want any of that, you just want them there to serve the selfish WANTS of people like you.

Working became a right the second society took away everyone’s ability to live freely off the land. Thats like saying you have no right to food or water. Life , Liberty and the per-suite of happiness ,with out WORKING, how can you achieve the very first thing in that list , LIFE. You cant because society took all the other options away. So either work is a basic human right or foodstamps are. Your choice.

I’m with you 100% Walmart went as far as asking us to come in 7am-12noon, then coming back 10pm-7am Thanksgiving into friday,Just sad, and greed., I called our home office about it, all she could say that our hours wasn’t company hours worldwide, then how do our store get away with that,. I put in for vacation and it was denied for 15yrs i’ve been with walmart., I hope and pray this changes for next and on out., we do have families money is not every thing, I’ve never seen a Uhaul truck hitched to a Hearst., can’t take money to the grave, let us enjoy the real value of Life and that’s family and friends.,

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] Today’s Top TalkersRetail Workers Fight Back, Want Stores Closed On Thanksgiving (520)Mansion Begs The Question: Is Michael Moore A Hypocrite? (14)Kilpatrick’s Friend [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

[...] This year, stores like Target, Macy’s and Kohls plan on beginning their Black Friday sales at midnight on Thanksgiving in order to claim a piece of the retail pie. While this may be beneficial for the company and customers, the workers seem to be getting the short end of the stick. [...]

I agree, your lucky to have a job is getting very old. Thanksgiving is an American holiday time for families and friends to get together, a lot of people travel miles to be with family on Thanksgiving and Christmas all stores care about is making money, sad sad many people’s Thanksgivings are going to be ruined because of GREED, next it WILL be Christmas.

Thats Exactly what i am saying…i have to work an 8 hour shift on thanksgiving. Those 8 hours i can be spending with my family, helping my mother prepare the big meal…i bet those higher up in the corporate ladder get to take the whole weekend off to be with their families…

To the people who are saying to “stop whining” clearly has never worked for walmart. They’re so evil they are actually making a 60+ year old woman DYING of cancer work 1-10 on Thanksgiving.

Stores should be cllosed on all Holidays. Laws need to be legislated . That’s the only way it will happen. A common day of rest is also needed. Remember those days? They were once called Sunday.
http://www.saveoursundays.ca

Amy visit our web site, we are trying to bring back those days. It’s needed in Canada and the USA.

http://www.saveoursundays.ca

Join us as we fight for a common day of rest on Sundays.

http://www.saveoursundays.ca

[...] 8. http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/11/14/retail-workers-fight-back-want-stores-closed-on-thanksgiving/ [...]

Cathy I am sorry but are a twit and do not the meaning of Thanksgiving. If were a
Fiireman
Police
EMT
Hospital staff
Why does some one need Walmart open on Thatnksgivinhg at all.
I was hired on Monday of Thatnksgiving week. They told me it was a holiday. Then Wednesday they announced they would be open in Tday. We were offeerd 7-3 or 3-10 I chose 3 to 10. But was told I was needed for 7 to 3. I had ten guests and entire menu to cook see I planned this welll before Idiot mart opened on a holiday. WHEN I WAS HIRED 3 DAYS BEFORE THANKSGIVING I WAS TOLD THAT WAS A HOLIDAY. You are a twit.

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