Black Friday Shopping

[arbcoind]

There is a petition to the CEO of Target at www.change.org


Target:  Take the high road and save Thanksgiving

I'm not especially old, but there was a time when we got all our shopping done between Thanksgiving and Christmas and stores and malls were NOT open 24/7.  Heck, most stores and all malls were closed on Sunday.

I pay my employees 8 hours holiday for Thanksgiving...we are closed that day, so everyone can enjoy the day however they want to spend it.

Gina

[Lady Kett]

I would rather gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon than go out shopping on Black Friday. I have done it, and hope to never do so again. I shop online and but mostly for food items as gifts because I personally don't need another knick-knack or gaudy sweater and would like to think no one else does either.

If there were not crazy people out there who WILL go out and stampede stores on Thursday or whatnot, then stores would not be open. I do think people should get paid appropriately and not have mandatory hours but retail isn't the only place open. Those who work in hospitals or health care have the same issue - demands for services either real (health care) or stupidly created (retail) are still demands.

But to sum it up, I will agree with Merlin and say bah, humbug. This time of hear irritates me more than warming my heart these days. I find the people I like, act with warm and thankful thoughts all year round, and those who don't are most giddy in Nov and Dec, thus making my teeth itch. Which may be why I avoid them all on Black Friday!

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

There is a simple way to let the retailers know what the shopping public thinks of opening on Thanksgiving and/or opening at midnight just after Thanksgiving.

Don't shop.  Nobody go shopping on Thanksgiving, and don't show up at the stores until their regular opening times on Friday.

It won't happen.  A large portion of the public is greedy, too.  "Oh, if I don't get there early, someone else will get that great deal."

But it would make a point.

[Rowan MacD]

  Amen. 
  According to those die hard BF shoppers, and other people I know who work in the stores in question, the good deals are pretty much all gone 20 minutes or less after the doors open.   Chances are slim for getting a deal, even if you wait in line.
  The only folks who I know who say they routinely score, are the ones that have honed BF shopping down to an art.  I know of one 'team' that has been working their system for about 20 years, with about a 50% success rate.
  The team shoppers have 2 or more members assigned to each store who camp out as early as possible to be the first ones in.  They grab as many Doorbusters as they can, then call other 'floating' team members in to help make the actual purchases, especially if the store has the 'one per customer rule'.  I have seen these people waiting for hours guarding full carts, waiting for their buddies to show up.  The pile of goodies is gone in minutes.