41 Hours Of Retail: Kmart's Black Friday Plan Is Criticized

[MissMillie]

Source: NPR

It's only been hours since Kmart announced its Black Friday plan — to remain open for 41 hours in a row beginning early on Thanksgiving Day. But online critics are throwing a red light on the plan, with some calling the company a Grinch for its aggressive approach to the start of the Christmas shopping season.

"Everybody thinks your executives are horrible people," a man named Christopher Sweet wrote on Kmart's Facebook page. Another critic, Ted Talevski, appealed to the workers: "This is a message to all Kmart employees! Do not go to work on Thanksgiving Day!"

Responding to the negative feedback, Kmart says that it will try to staff its stores with seasonal workers to accommodate employees who want to be with friends and relatives.

Amber Camp, who says she works at Kmart, said via Facebook that her bosses "are planning on all the employees to have some time so we can actually spend time with our families on Thanksgiving."


Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/11/05/243297782/41-hours-of-retail-kmarts-black-friday-plan-is-criticized

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I guess the seasonal workers don't have any family or friends.

I refuse to go ANYWHERE near ANY retail store Thanksgiving weekend. I hate the crowds, I hate that they play nothing but Christmas Carols, I hate all the commercialism.

[Dopers_Greed]

1. I absolutely hate Black Friday

Having to work four of them at Best Buy a few years ago scarred me for life. You have to do 100x the work of a normal shift for the same pay, and all the extra money the stores are making goes straight to executive/manager bonuses.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

4. Yep.

Worked five of them at Target. I overheard the managers talk about goals and bonuses quite a bit (I was making 8 dollars an hour).


At one point Thanksgiving and Christmas were days that were used to clean out the store and get it ready again, there were sign up sheets for people who wanted to work those days and no one was forced. Now it's mandatory. Best Buy workers here have to come in at 5 on Thanksgiving and weren't told until this week.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

2. How generous of Kmart!

The last Black Friday thread was full of apologists for these shitty corporations. We're a seasonal service based economy right now and it fucking sucks.

[AndyA]

3. I refuse to shop at stores that do this.

Their employees have friends and family as well. They deserve time off on holidays to be with their loved ones.

I also have a problem with stores that open at 6:00 am or some other ridiculous time the day after. Because to do that, someone has to be in the store at least an hour before opening, which means they have to leave home in time to get there, and get up early enough to get ready for work. So, they go to bed at 7:00 the night before so they can be up in a few hours.

How pathetic are people that they can't just stay home with loved ones and enjoy their company? So instead they go out and sit in a cold dark parking lot waiting for the store to open. Really, really pathetic.

[SoapBox]

5. Close it!

This shit and the PURE greed is absurd.

[bigworld]

6. Who are the people who will give up Thanksgiving with their families to go shopping?

The company wouldn't do it if people wouldn't go.

[MissMillie]

7. I agree

I think the only store I might go to would be the local Cumberland Farms (convenience store) and that would only be if I ran out of butter for the dinner rolls.

[tblue37]

21. Some are people with little money hoping that they will score a

big bargain that will enable them to have something they otherwise could not afford--or that will let them give someone a nice gift they could not otherwise afford. Some parents do it because their kid really wants some electronic gizmo his schoolmates have but that they could never afford to get him. They hope to get one as a special Christmas gift. (I have read many such stories around this time of year, when reporters interview people in line.)

I despise these events, and I think many who shop these events are what I call "sport shoppers"--i.e., people for whom shopping is both a leisure time entertainment activity and a competitive bargain-hunting sport.

But especially since the recession started, I fear that for at least some people, lining up before dawn in hopes of getting lucky is a lot like lining up before dawn at one of those events where desperate people could get free dental or medical care if they were one of the ones who could get seen before the event came to a close.

[valerief]

8. Bring back blue laws! nt

[brooklynite]

9. The issue is not KMart...

...It's not the people who work for KMart. It the people who choose to go shopping on Thanksgiving.

[MissMillie]

12. I don't necessarily disagree with you

Like I said, I avoid stores the entire weekend.

But there's a famous movie quote, "If you build it, they will come."

The store could very well offer the same big discounts for the entire week following Thanksgiving. They just don't. They set up a pretty big incentive for people to shop on Thursday or Black Friday.

I don't do a lot of holiday shopping, and what I do buy I usually buy online.

But there are a lot of people out there looking for a big bargain--and unfortunately they're willing to sacrifice holiday time w/ loved ones to get it.

[Mz Pip]

20. I don't get it either.

Waiting in line at 4am for a store to open seems like a big waste of time.

There's a herd mentality at work that I just don't understand.

[tblue37]

22. Yes--the same mentality that caused shoppers to come to

blows over a stupid Cabbage Patch Kid or a Tickle Me Elmo.

Our species is easily led and easily stampeded. Propagandists know this and have it down to a science. You know, I assume, that modern PR and political propaganda techniques were pioneered by commercial advertising experts.

[SwankyXomb]

10. Big Box Retail continues its War on Thanksgiving

Why do they hate the American family?

[Skittles]

15. no one is forcing anyone to go shopping

greed and materialism rule

[One_Life_To_Give]

11. Return of the Zayre 48 hour sale?

On my list of Signs the company is in financial difficulties.

[BillyRibs]

13. I hadn't gone shopping

on black Friday in about 20 years. one day My Daughters Boy friend got it into his head he could pick up a few bargains. I warned him but he begged me to take him. So unbeknown to him, (this was about 10 years ago) I got good and relaxed, ( it is amazing how well valerian root works) and took him.
after laughing at the mayhem at the local K-fart, I repeated my warning to him. he then understood I was no fool to pass up all of those "Bargains" on black Friday. he never found what he was looking for, and then bought me a six on the way home. we both enjoyed them that night.

[itsrobert]

14. KMart is on its last legs

going the way of Blockbuster. People shopping online 24 hours a day.

[leftyladyfrommo]

18. I think so, too.

There is a K Mart close to me. They never have any customers in there. Everyone goes to Walmart.

[sakabatou]

16. If I want to shop, I'll do it online

[leftyladyfrommo]

17. I could care less when stores are open or closed.

Remember when no stores were open on Sunday? I remember that. Mostly it was just a big nuisance.

I just don't go where I don't want to. Like I really don't like Hobby Lobby so I don't go there. They are way right wing but everything in the store is from China. Can you say hypocritical? I just don't go.

[Springslips]

19. This is the real war on Christmas.

I wish we could go on the offensive and do something that will drop demand:make false rumors, scream about a war on the holidays, shame the customers shopping on thanksgiving, Black Friday; make it uncool, unsexy, gross; make these shoppers easy subject of ridicule, stater day night life, jokes on TV, movies; come up with a derogatory name for them-- people respond to social cues, norms, and behaviors and fear-- this could be done.

[Mz Pip]

23. This insane commercialism

Combined with competitive shopping is much more offensive than someone saying "Happy Holidays!"

[greatlaurel]

24. Have never gone shopping on black Friday.

Last edited Thu Nov 7, 2013, 09:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Will never shop on Thanksgiving. These executives are so incredibly stupid. I will not shop at any of the stores that are open on Thanksgiving this year.

We still have a local bookstore, so I intend to buy all my Christmas gifts there this year. Anything else will be locally sourced and made. Local maple syrup, local hardwood baskets(my sister-in-law makes these, just beautiful), locally made pottery are all on my list this year.