Macy’s To Cut Workers’ Thanksgiving Dinner Short

[geardaddy]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/10/15/3579861/macys-open-thanksgiving/

On Tuesday, Macy’s became the first major retailer to announce its Thanksgiving operating hours. The department store will open its doors at 6 p.m. nationwide — the second year in a row the chain will open on the federal holiday
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In 2012, Macy’s opened at midnight to kick off its Black Friday sales. Last year, it opened on Thanksgiving for the first time, at 8 p.m., in an attempt to get ahead of its competitors. According to the department store’s representatives, the sale strategy is “in response to the significant, sustained customer interest in last year’s opening on Thanksgiving.”

Macy’s also claims that volunteers have signed up for most of the coming holiday’s shifts.

Major businesses that open on Thanksgiving have received backlash for taking advantage of workers who cannot otherwise decline to work. Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Kmart, Kohl’s, J.C. Penney, and Toys R Us were among the biggest companies to do so in 2013.

And workers have very little say in the matter. Some are told outright that they cannot request time off, as was the case with Kmart employees. And those who volunteer tend to do so because they are part-time, underpaid employees who are given erratic schedules and need all of the hours they can get. Others are not guaranteed vacation days at all. Indeed, out of 21 developed countries, the U.S. is the only one that does not require all workers to have paid vacations and holidays.

More at link.

[liberal N proud]

1. My wife is a WalMart Manager - we don't get Thanksgiving dinner.

[yeoman6987]

2. Ugh! Hate to hear that!

Well hopefully you still can have some nice time together.

[Omaha Steve]

3. Move Black Friday to....

Halloween this year. It is a Friday!

[MANative]

4. Here we go again...

My husband is a manager for Walgreens, and they've been told that they will likely be open on Thanksgiving and Christmas - not only regular hours, but extended hours. He tries to be fair with the part-timers so that people can volunteer - have preference of opening, closing, which holiday, etc., but he gets completely screwed. He'll be required to work both, will not get any compensatory pay or time off - salary, dontcha know - and won't see more than a half-dozen customers all day. I witnessed this first-hand when I went to work with him last year, so as to not spend all of Christmas day alone in my house (family is a couple hundred miles away). I sat and read in a chair in his office while he tended to exactly seven customers from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Oh, and the actual pharmacy will be closed. Only the front store will be open.

His company was a smaller chain that was bought out by Walgreens. They always closed on the major holidays, but as soon as Walgreens took over, that tiny grace went out the window. Unlike Market Basket, this is not a group of managers that will fight back en masse. Not easy to rally so many thousands all across the country. I hate retail.

Grrrrrrrr.

[DonCoquixote]

5. Sadly, our walgreens are BUSY on those days

It seems that everybody and their mother forgets to buy beer, Milk or cigarettes the day before...(groan).