Archived Black Friday Walkout

[NPC]

If I were still working I can see how this would go down.
Me emailing my family: I won't be there for Thanksgiving dinner. Can we make it another day?
Their response: We'll miss you.

Well, better ask an entire company to shut it's doors because your family isn't cooperative.

 

[seewhatididthere]

Clearly someone does not love their family at all if they cannot understand the value of Thanksgiving and Family if they insist on defending greedy multi-billion dollar companies opening on Thanksgiving because they'd miss out on "millions of dollars" that they made perfectly fine on Black Friday for decades upon decades, and recent statistics have showed that they're making less anyways because more people are shopping online (40% to be exact)than coming into their stores that end up dying around 1AM because nobody is in there to shop, so payroll is being wasted, therefore causing them to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll to team members standing around doing literally nothing and being zombies for another 5 hours, not to mention the stores that die nearly two hours after the fact because they're ULV, and not to mention the cost of electricity overnight because the store is 24 hours, therefore nightlights cannot be put on, and also the night owl payment, after 12AM in addition to that regular payroll causing another couple thousand dollars, and not to mention the resellers that come in droves and suck up the inventory causing false sales in the figures, and end up selling them online at a hugely inflated price on some sketchy black market, therefore depriving genuine shoppers of their beloved iPad for Grandpa Dan on Christmas, not to mention, now that they are forcing said team members to work on Thanksgiving, they will not cook meals, therefore depriving them of the potential sales they may have received from team members specifically regarding grocery sales to cook that Thanksgiving dinner that will be imaginary this year and buy gifts for their children on Black Friday, because y'know, corporations are more important than family.

Sorry, had to use sarcastic font to avoid being fired from The Breakroom.

No wonder they keep cancelling our visits, they're too busy trolling the boards.

 

[Bosch]

^ Your GIF is everything

 

[Triscuit]

Not every store has a volunteer sheet as some of yours do. Sure, they go around asking everyone what they prefer to work, but they scheduled a lot of people outside of what they wanted to work meanwhile a bunch of people have the day off that would have preferred to work.

 

[Bosch]

Not every store has a volunteer sheet as some of yours do. Sure, they go around asking everyone what they prefer to work, but they scheduled a lot of people outside of what they wanted to work meanwhile a bunch of people have the day off that would have preferred to work.

Nope no volunteer sheet, they did try to respect wishes. Mine was open, no split shift and 10hrs at max. Cause my body won't take the abuse, getting old sucks. But opening, is good. I get it over with but I have a lot of skills that can help a lot of work centers. And usually do.

 

[brizzy93]

Not every store has a volunteer sheet as some of yours do. Sure, they go around asking everyone what they prefer to work, but they scheduled a lot of people outside of what they wanted to work meanwhile a bunch of people have the day off that would have preferred to work.

That sounds like the perfect opportunity for people to start swapping shifts/giving hours away lol

 

[CleanMyBackRoOm]

I would offer my hours if I were in that situation... that swap shift sheet that goes so unused in our store because TM's would much rather call off in some cases. RIP

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

It won't happen. Don't believe everything you hear!!!

 

[Rarejem]

How many of these places were ever open on Thanksgiving in the first place?

Up until a few years ago, there were no businesses open on Thanksgiving. What is your point? Thanksgiving is a genuinely American holiday. HOLIDAY. Take a look at the actual definition of the word. I was hired with Thanksgiving as a holiday. I firmly believe in a work/life balance. I have spent the past 6 months watching my son slowly die and I will not give up this day with my family - most who are able to get a HOLIDAY - to give thanks for the miracle of my child living through the trials he has endured this year. Could we do it on another day? Of course. We have. Could we celebrate our religious holidays on any other day than their actual day? Sure...and our birthdays 6 months later because it's more convenient? Of course! But WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO UNLESS WE CHOOSE TO DO SO. This is retail? Yes, but it was retail when we were closed on Thanksgiving, too.

 

[BlueSide]

The fact is Spot would rather play chicken with Uncle Wally than actually come up with some kind of action plan that makes some kind of sense.

Yes!

What is your point?

I didn't really have a point. Rather, I only had a question. I'm not fighting for anyone to be forced into working holidays in retail. I'm really sorry that you don't have a choice in this, as the majority of other store employees do. You must be pretty short staffed to not be offered the day off :/

 

[BlueSide]

I've been searching for one of my old posts to repost it here but I can't find it, so here goes.

If Target would capitalize on all the consumers who DON'T want to shop on Thanksgiving they may be able to make a bigger profit. There is a massive number of people that would be more than willing to wait until the next day, rather than go out and shop on Thursday. If a big box retailer like Target was offering competative doorbusters Friday morning, people would wait and skip black Thursday altogether. The commercial could go something like this:
Start with a line of text "Thanksgiving." Then run all kinds of warm home video clips of family Thanksgiving dinners. People laughing and smiling with family (some real beaver cleaver sh**). Then it would switch to "Thanksgiving 2014," and it would be clips of long lines of people drinking soup out of their thermos' in near freezing cold. Then they would say, "Save Black Friday for Friday. This year Target will open at 8am, Friday morning. Happy Holidays." *cue giant bullseye*

 

[tomthy]

Not every store has a volunteer sheet as some of yours do. Sure, they go around asking everyone what they prefer to work, but they scheduled a lot of people outside of what they wanted to work meanwhile a bunch of people have the day off that would have preferred to work.

This happened at my store with pretty much everyone I know. Thankfully they got my schedule all right.

 

[carramrod]

To be honest, I really don't put too much fault on Target. I put all the blame on the freaks who are willing to get up at 2 am and go to a store on Thanksgiving to wait outside in the freezing cold and then trample each other to save 100 bucks on a shitty TV that's going to break by New Years Day. I don't want to sound like a Target cool-aid drinker here, but let's be honest. These a-holes are going to shop on Thanksgiving as long as there is a store open on Thanksgiving. If Target waited to open until Friday and Wal-Mart opened on Thanksgiving, Target would get absolutely obliterated in sales because everyone would kill each other at Wal-Mart and then pass out and sleep all day Friday. Then we would be pissed when our hours got cut in the fourth quarter because Target profits/stock took a fall of a huge cliff. If we could convince these freaks to stay home with their families, we (Target, Wal-Mart, etc) would close. Remember that these are the same people who have actually TRAMPLED PEOPLE TO DEATH for crummy sales. Their not logical, nor reasonable. It sucks that our consumer culture has fallen to this point, but that's the way it's gone.

 

[redeye58]

If I were still working I can see how this would go down.
Me emailing my family: I won't be there for Thanksgiving dinner. Can we make it another day?
Their response: We'll miss you.

Well, better ask an entire company to shut it's doors because your family isn't cooperative.

Rock, meet hard place.

 

[paperchemistry]

I'm not sure about a walk-out, but I'd be much more interested in a massive snow fall that would happen on Thanksgiving.

Just imagine the chaos: over a foot of the white stuff on the ground and it's still coming down, blowing drifts, snow removal in parking lots as people fight for a parking space, temperatures in the 30's, and oh, maybe a nice layer of sleet or frozen rain to make everything just perfect.

reminds me of LAST black thursday. my whole city lost power from a wind/snow storm. target was on a generator but we lost all the pfresh food. it was actually a pretty fun day (and super busy, since most people couldn't celebrate thanksgiving without power anyway so they went out to shop). the lights kept flickering and the square lights above would go out one by one... the bathroom lights were non-stop flickering like a disco ball (also making this buzzing noise). the best part was seeing TARGET slowly die down to GET and then to nothing at all. I worked until the morning and we still didn't have power back by the time I left.

 

[commiecorvus]

And that's all fine. But do it on Wednesday. It doesn't matter. You say "then it's just a dinner you manage to put together between everyone's schedules." as if that somehow makes seeing your family less valuable. What, do you love them less if you don't see them on the designated day on the calendar? That's ridiculous.

It's interesting, I'm Jewish so Christmas doesn't mean anything to me.
But I would never think to tell people they should just have Christmas on a different day that is more convenient for the the company they work for.
Of course. I have to take personal days for my High Holy days but that's another matter entirely.
They freak out at the idea of red coffee cups can you imagine the reaction in the right wing wind tunnel if they were told everyone had to work on Christmas?

But it's the same as Thanksgiving right?
At least to those of us who aren't christian, Thanksgiving is actually even more important.
It's a nationwide secular holiday about being thankful and sharing, where I can spend with my friends of all religions without anyone feeling uncomfortable.
I like this designated day on the calendar.
And sadly, now I work for the state so I get it off but friends who work retail don't, that sucks and is just wrong.

 

[HardlinesGuy]

I'm sure everyone is bummed about Staples being closed on Thanksgiving lol

I actually had a friend who worked at Staples last year during Black Friday. It was absolute hell. They called the police four times in one day.

 

[NPC]

It's interesting, I'm Jewish so Christmas doesn't mean anything to me.
But I would never think to tell people they should just have Christmas on a different day that is more convenient for the the company they work for.
Of course. I have to take personal days for my High Holy days but that's another matter entirely.
They freak out at the idea of red coffee cups can you imagine the reaction in the right wing wind tunnel if they were told everyone had to work on Christmas?

But it's the same as Thanksgiving right?
At least to those of us who aren't christian, Thanksgiving is actually even more important.
It's a nationwide secular holiday about being thankful and sharing, where I can spend with my friends of all religions without anyone feeling uncomfortable.
I like this designated day on the calendar.
And sadly, now I work for the state so I get it off but friends who work retail don't, that sucks and is just wrong.

The day for which celebratory family time is scheduled seems so utterly unimportant to me. It's literally the most unimportant factor, for any holiday. What if there was a strange and bizarre error at all the calendar factories in the world...(and somehow this effected the calendar on your smartphone as well) and it listed Thanksgiving a week earlier than normal. Would that suddenly be the ultimate day to do things with your family? What if the entire month was dedicated to the holiday, thus eliminating a specific day to celebrate? Then what? Would you not organize a family dinner because there's no designated day for it? There is no logical reason why that should effect the meaning behind what you're celebrating. If it does, then it suggests to me that the importance of meeting with family is pretty flimsy and questionable.

EVEN IF, I did at least agree with you about dates and timey wimey stuff, I still don't agree with this all or nothing, all retail stores must be closed nonsense. For reasons/rants already specified.

 

[Retail Girl]

My extended family did move Thanksgiving to the Saturday after Thanksgiving so my dad could be there. But since that's a black out weekend, I have to work. So no extended family Thanksgiving for me! But at least a million dollar corporation who doesn't care one lick about me will have me to take back returns from everyone who overbought two days ago.

 

[NPC]

My extended family did move Thanksgiving to the Saturday after Thanksgiving so my dad could be there. But since that's a black out weekend, I have to work. So no extended family Thanksgiving for me! But at least a million dollar corporation who doesn't care one lick about me will have me to take back returns from everyone who overbought two days ago.

Yeah, it sucks. It would be nice and the most fair/logical to let people request days off, since they don't schedule everyone anyway. But I'm not about to support demanding the entire company stay closed, just to guarantee yourself a day off.

 

[Retail Girl]

Problem is, they wouldn't have enough help if everyone who wanted to celebrate their holiday got to do so. So to be most fair, they don't let people ask for the time off.

 

[NPC]

Problem is, they wouldn't have enough help if everyone who wanted to celebrate their holiday got to do so. So to be most fair, they don't let people ask for the time off.

ASANTS! At least for my store, the STL goes around asking everyone's availability. I open mine up for all the holidays. Some of the coworkers I talk to that travel, got a few days off. Lucky us. Also, I don't think your statement is factually accurate, though I would be interested if you found some unbiased statistics to support that.

 

[BlueSide]

I actually had a friend who worked at Staples last year during Black Friday. It was absolute hell. They called the police four times in one day.

What happened?

 

[Lovejones757]

I'm going to try to put it in a different way. If we take Thanksgiving out of the equation and just say it was just another day. There are few days that spot gives us off. We have Christmas and Easter ( that's only if you don't work in the backroom, because they usually work the night in to those holidays). This year going forward we can't carry over vacation and they have taken other "benefits" away from the team members. Ok, so maybe we shouldn't walk out because of the consequences but at least give us a day to not have to deal with guest, and management. Even if we don't spend it with our families; we can just rest. There's all of this talk about wellness but for some reason giving us a day off is not apart of that plan... It's not just about Thanksgiving; it's about giving back to your team members. If not making money this one day of the year causes the company to go under than we have more problems than Thanksgiving.

 

[tgtguy]

[

The day for which celebratory family time is scheduled seems so utterly unimportant to me. It's literally the most unimportant factor, for any holiday. What if there was a strange and bizarre error at all the calendar factories in the world...(and somehow this effected the calendar on your smartphone as well) and it listed Thanksgiving a week earlier than normal. Would that suddenly be the ultimate day to do things with your family? What if the entire month was dedicated to the holiday, thus eliminating a specific day to celebrate? Then what? Would you not organize a family dinner because there's no designated day for it? There is no logical reason why that should effect the meaning behind what you're celebrating. If it does, then it suggests to me that the importance of meeting with family is pretty flimsy and questionable.

EVEN IF, I did at least agree with you about dates and timey wimey stuff, I still don't agree with this all or nothing, all retail stores must be closed nonsense. For reasons/rants already specified.

Maybe it isn't important to you but it is to some ... you may not understand it but its important to some ( including myself ).