Ethics vs Economics? Retailers Push Thanksgiving Holiday Openings

OK, is this getting maybe just a little out of hand?

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. It signals the start of the holiday shopping season. Stuck in the depths of a three-years-and-counting recession, retailers have glommed onto the promotional event as a way of building sales by giving consumers what they want. The result: two years ago a Wal-mart worker was killed by a crowd that broke through a glass door after waiting for hours for the pre-Christmas sales frenzy.

Now, many large national retailers are opening on Thanksgiving Day itself, traditionally a 'family' holiday and national day of rest. When confronted with the inherent contradiction between a time to give thanks and the desire to make sales, at least some have said their workers are thankful to have jobs. The workers feel coerced but in a buyers market for job seekers, are afraid to say no.

The ethical dilemma is not just of the merchants' making; if Americans did not enable, nay fully embrace, this practice there would be no demand. Whether the practice is unethical is an open question. The retailers are businesses, not moral exemplars. But this is a society, not just an economy. If we dont look after the rights of others, we should have no expectation that anyone will look after ours. Maybe that is who we have become. And maybe that is part of the problem. JL

Hadley Malcolm reports in USA Today:

As stores up the ante with earlier holiday hours that creep into Thanksgiving night, Black Friday is turning into Black Thursday, and some shoppers and employees aren't happy about it.
•Toys R Us said Monday that it will open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, an hour earlier than last year and the earliest of any retailer so far this year.

•Walmart will open at 10 p.m., two hours ahead of last year's midnight opening.

•Other stores, including Target, Macy's, Best Buy and Kohl's, will open at midnight.

Anthony Hardwick, a cart attendant at a Target in Omaha, started a campaign to protest the decision to open at midnight, four hours earlier than last year. His petition, on Change.org, calls for Target to push its opening to 5 a.m. Friday. The petition had 62,000 signatures as of late Monday.

"With the midnight open, you're going to cut into a lot of people's family time because you have to rest up if you're going to be working overnight," says Hardwick, 29. He says he'll be in bed by 2 or 3 p.m on Thanksgiving.

Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder says the decision to open earlier is due to consumer desire. "We have heard from our guests that they want to shop Target following their Thanksgiving celebrations rather than only having the option of getting up in the middle of the night," she says, adding that the store does its "best to work around the schedules of our team members."

ConsumerSearch.com found in a recent survey of 1,003 people that 87% felt retailers should stay closed on Thanksgiving. "There's definitely a family spirit around Thanksgiving that people don't really want to see adulterated," says Christine Frietchen, editor-in-chief of the site.

Kristi Tolley, a floral designer in Charleston, S.C., agrees.

"Having retail stores open on the holidays has taken away what once was sacred time with loved ones, which is not good for employee morale," she says. "I will not be shopping on Thanksgiving Day. I feel that it is wrong and has gone too far. What's next? Being open on Christmas Day?"

Still, there's a difference between what consumers say, and what they do, says John Long, a retail strategist at consulting firm Kurt Salmon.

"My guess, based on past trends, is we'll see massive amounts of consumers in stores, even at these earlier hours," he says. "If you think about it, 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. are more convenient than 4 a.m."