Archived Black Friday Walkout

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BlueSide said:
:eek:What happened?
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Consumers are crazy. Doesn't matter what the store is, or what they sell. The crazies will act crazy.

Basically, insane fighting on and off throughout the day and people getting trampled. The worst part being, the store is located in a town with a fairly small PD. At one point, local resources got tied up, and they ended up having to wait almost half an hour for a State Trooper to show up from the other side of the county. In that span of time, things just got worse. I don't remember specific details, but, lets just say it's the reason my friend no longer works in retail, and has made a promise to himself to never work in retail again.
 
The cost of opening on Thanksgiving:
We are now open 13 hours earlier that we used to open on Black Friday when I started (7am).
That's 13 more hours of payroll needed to staff a store dead after the initial rush.
That's 14 more hours of shift diff paid from 6pm Thurs to 8am Fri.
That's 6+ hrs of time & a half (depending on what time prep TMs arrive).
The sales are less attractive than before & are spread out much thinner so additional incentives have to be added.
We have a limited supply of the door-busters and many leave when those are gone.
Does corp really think NO ONE would buy them if we waited until Fri?
 
Jack of all Workcenters said:
So have your Holiday earlier or later. Pick and day and have your thanksgiving.
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I don't know her schedule, but hypothetically, she can't.

Kids are out of school by Wedensday at the latest. She has work at Wed night, Turkey Day, she's working, Friday, she's working, Saturday, she's working, Sunday, she's working, Monday, kids are back in school. And that hypothetical schedule is under the assumption that they're all closing and midday shifts.

This just one of many possible reasons is not easy to just say "have it another day", ASANTS applies here as in All Situations Are Not The Same.
 
BlueSide said:
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*
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I saw this ad a couple years ago which is practically exactly your idea.

 
Just my two cents - I'm a mom, have a full time 'day job' and applied to work seasonal at Target so I can provide a good Christmas to my kids. Here's how my week looks:

Tuesday: 7-4 at 'day job' then target until 11:00
Wednesday: 7-4 at 'day job' then target 7 until 1 AM
Thursday: cook Thanksgiving meal for family, we'll eat around 3:00; then 6:00 to 3 AM at Target
Friday and Saturday - evening shifts at Target

Yes, it'll be exhausting, but I took this job knowing what I was in for, as did everyone else who accepted a job working retail. I feel like if you really hate it, look for another job. Yes, they are doing it to make money but that's exactly what they are: a FOR PROFIT business. You cannot blame spot for being competitive and trying to make as much profit as possible.
 
CarriPage said:
Just my two cents - I'm a mom, have a full time 'day job' and applied to work seasonal at Target so I can provide a good Christmas to my kids. Here's how my week looks:

Tuesday: 7-4 at 'day job' then target until 11:00
Wednesday: 7-4 at 'day job' then target 7 until 1 AM
Thursday: cook Thanksgiving meal for family, we'll eat around 3:00; then 6:00 to 3 AM at Target
Friday and Saturday - evening shifts at Target

Yes, it'll be exhausting, but I took this job knowing what I was in for, as did everyone else who accepted a job working retail. I feel like if you really hate it, look for another job. Yes, they are doing it to make money but that's exactly what they are: a FOR PROFIT business. You cannot blame spot for being competitive and trying to make as much profit as possible.
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When a lot of us took retail jobs black Friday was actually on Friday. And profit has been smaller every year they have been open on thanksgiving.
 
This is an argument that will never be settled. As for me, I understand that retail happens during holidays, late at night, early mornings, weekends. I agreed to work retail so I work when I'm needed. My family adjusts. It helps that my family owns a small business which is open 364 days a year (only Christmas are we closed because of State law) so my kids have always understood that Mom and/or Dad work when we work. We never had Christmas Eve celebrations or New Years Eve parties. They had to get up early to hunt Easter Eggs, because Dad had to open the store at 9:30 am. We always tried to have at least one parent with the kids on holidays but as they got older, that didn't always happen. Guess what? They all survived and got through college with no debt, because we worked our butts off when the money was good, not when it was convenient for us.

You may think our situation was different because we were the owners rather than the hourly employees, but I worked at Target to get good insurance at a reasonable price. Working Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and all the crummy hours was a fair trade to our family.

As with every situation in life, if you don't like the situation you are in, you must make the effort to change it.
 
CarriPage said:
Just my two cents - I'm a mom, have a full time 'day job' and applied to work seasonal at Target so I can provide a good Christmas to my kids. Here's how my week looks:

Tuesday: 7-4 at 'day job' then target until 11:00
Wednesday: 7-4 at 'day job' then target 7 until 1 AM
Thursday: cook Thanksgiving meal for family, we'll eat around 3:00; then 6:00 to 3 AM at Target
Friday and Saturday - evening shifts at Target

Yes, it'll be exhausting, but I took this job knowing what I was in for, as did everyone else who accepted a job working retail. I feel like if you really hate it, look for another job. Yes, they are doing it to make money but that's exactly what they are: a FOR PROFIT business. You cannot blame spot for being competitive and trying to make as much profit as possible.
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Thanksgiving was NOT a work day when I accepted my job in retail many, many years ago. As I said before, it was retail then, too. I'm glad you will be able to provide a "good Christmas". I prefer to provide my children with presence rather than presents. I work 2 jobs, too, and this is not a seasonal job for me. I do believe that if you are a seasonal employee, these days were clearly spelled out since they are what "seasonal" is all about. It was not in my job agreement.
 
CarriPage said:
You cannot blame spot for being competitive and trying to make as much profit as possible.
Click to expand...
Since the topic of Black Friday originally being Black Friday when most of us started with spot has already been touched on, I thought I'd touch on this.

Truly, if competition were at stake, and they were actually interested in making as much profit as possible, they'd close on Thanksgiving.

You might say, as would someone else in this thread *cough*, "Why, no, that's not true! That doesn't make any sense! Why would they close on Thanksgiving, they're losing millions of dollars!"

Okay, well, one, no one ever wanted to shop on Thanksgiving. People were perfectly fine spending money on FRIDAY, in fact, more people participated, big box got overly-confident and greedy, which brings me to my next point. Online shopping is on the rise, it hits its peak during the holiday season, not as many people want to come out of the comfort of their home anymore especially when the same 'doorbusters' are only a click away on their phone and avoids 1. leaving the house 2. disrupting family time, 3. standing in a long line, 4. standing in a long line in the cold, 5. standing in a long line with angry people, 6. standing in another long line to get your iPad, 7. literally fighting another mother for that one toy, 8. dealing with an overcrowded building, 9. forgot to mention finding parking, 10. the list goes on.

Times have changed, loudest people on the internet are those fighting for some kind of right (or taking offense to something). Not sure if you've visited the Target Page, but post-R.E.I announcing they're closing on Thanksgiving, and Target announcing another 6PM, people lost their shit, and demanded Target to be closed on Thanksgiving or they wouldn't be shopping there. While, I doubt many will live up to their word, it still paints bad publicity for the company. And closing on Thanksgiving would not only make it seem like Target gives a shit about it's employees, but the publicity would be HUGE. R.E.I. gained so much respect for closing on Thanksgiving, and has found themselves with thousands of new members who had not a single idea what the store was before, but yet, they plan (again, probably bullshit, but still it's about publicity here) to flood their Christmas Trees with gifts from R.E.I. for the family... Imagine, Target, a big box retailer, at the leading front of the holiday season closing it's doors again on Thursday... People would flock, they'd give props, and the work environment would probably be terrific for a while as the response would be widely positive across the boards. And what if they even paid, ALL their workers, part time and full time, those profits would maybe nearly double. And I'd imagine Walmart and Best Buy losing some business, probably not a huge dent, but maybe enough to make it noticeable. Also, it would drastically help this horrible image they've painted on themselves with the leak and the closing of the Canada Stores, the continuous offensive clothing, controversies, humiliating workers, mistreating of workers, porn... just to name a few.

A boy could dream.
 
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My first 4th q in retail (with tgt) was also the first year of thanksgiving opening. At that point, I'd never shopped a Black Friday and I assumed they'd open at like 4am lololol. I didn't even realize stores were opening at midnight the year prior because I just never cared (because the internet). I also didn't realize every person would work. I thought there was a possibility I might not have to work lolol. I was so ignorant about how it all worked.

Of course after 3 thanksgiving evenings at target, I'm not *shocked* but eh, I'm not gonna celebrate that my coworkers are stuck in town for thanksgiving. I'd have no issue with stores being open I f we lived in a world where there were enough people who want to work it that none of the people who *didn't* could carry on with their holiday.

I've never had a positive opinion on Black Friday, though. Before target, I imagined it as people being trampled and fighting over bullshit. I probably posted all of those memes that are like "only in America people fight over Westinghouse trash the day after a celebration for giving thanks." Except now it would be minutes/hours after.
 
seewhatididthere said:
Since the topic of Black Friday originally being Black Friday when most of us started with spot has already been touched on, I thought I'd touch on this.

Truly, if competition were at stake, and they were actually interested in making as much profit as possible, they'd close on Thanksgiving.

You might say, as would someone else in this thread *cough*, "Why, no, that's not true! That doesn't make any sense! Why would they close on Thanksgiving, they're losing millions of dollars!"

Okay, well, one, no one ever wanted to shop on Thanksgiving. People were perfectly fine spending money on FRIDAY, in fact, more people participated, big box got overly-confident and greedy, which brings me to my next point. Online shopping is on the rise, it hits its peak during the holiday season, not as many people want to come out of the comfort of their home anymore especially when the same 'doorbusters' are only a click away on their phone and avoids 1. leaving the house 2. disrupting family time, 3. standing in a long line, 4. standing in a long line in the cold, 5. standing in a long line with angry people, 6. standing in another long line to get your iPad, 7. literally fighting another mother for that one toy, 8. dealing with an overcrowded building, 9. forgot to mention finding parking, 10. the list goes on.

Times have changed, loudest people on the internet are those fighting for some kind of right (or taking offense to something). Not sure if you've visited the Target Page, but post-R.E.I announcing they're closing on Thanksgiving, and Target announcing another 6PM, people lost their shit, and demanded Target to be closed on Thanksgiving or they wouldn't be shopping there. While, I doubt many will live up to their word, it still paints bad publicity for the company. And closing on Thanksgiving would not only make it seem like Target gives a shit about it's employees, but the publicity would be HUGE. R.E.I. gained so much respect for closing on Thanksgiving, and has found themselves with thousands of new members who had not a single idea what the store was before, but yet, they plan (again, probably bullshit, but still it's about publicity here) to flood their Christmas Trees with gifts from R.E.I. for the family... Imagine, Target, a big box retailer, at the leading front of the holiday season closing it's doors again on Thursday... People would flock, they'd give props, and the work environment would probably be terrific for a while as the response would be widely positive across the boards. And what if they even paid, ALL their workers, part time and full time, those profits would maybe nearly double. And I'd imagine Walmart and Best Buy losing some business, probably not a huge dent, but maybe enough to make it noticeable. Also, it would drastically help this horrible image they've painted on themselves with the leak and the closing of the Canada Stores, the continuous offensive clothing, controversies, humiliating workers, mistreating of workers, porn... just to name a few.

A boy could dream.
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So when are you quitting? If you want retail to change, then the consumer has to change. Target isn't just some guy in an evil lair, rubbing his hands together and taking pleasure that many people are slightly inconvenienced working a holiday. The goal of a business is to generate profit, and they're doing just that. It's stupid to go and expect Target to fight for your fucking moral crusade for you. They're doing precisely what's expected of them. Target will close it's doors as soon as it's no longer profitable to stay open. So unless you have some plan to make the average consumer significantly less materialistic than they are now, things will not change.
 
I feel like it kinda depends on when Walmart opens too, since Tarje and Wally's World are neck and neck retail giants. Pretty sure Walmart opens at 6pm this year too, and in the past few years they've been close. I doubt Target will ever pull an REI unless Walmart/major competition for some crazy reason did so too.
 
Would a walkout change anything? No. The bottom line is that no matter how many team members get pissed and whine, nothing will change until consumer demand makes it so. The point of Target's existence (and your job) is to make money for the company and shareholders....not to make sure you have a day off with your family. You signed up for a retail job, this is the reality of said job. If you don't like it, find a different job. That's the choice you have to make. It's funny how bent out of shape people in retail get over working these days, but the emergency workers, factory workers, gas station workers, military personnel, health care workers, etc. who have to do this every year don't whine. They suck it up, deal with it, and make it work. Remember that the next time you get gas...or get sick or hurt...or need a cop or fire response...or need something made in factory....or need national security protected.

Do I like how stressful retail can be that week? No. But it was my choice to work at Target and I need to buck up, show some backbone and work ethic and do my damn job. I have a family...and we manage. We make it work. Again....your choice to work in retail. That's what retail is. Deal with it and move on. It's just another day. If you can't handle that....you may have chosen the wrong line of work.

I've made it work for 17 years with some sacrifices, but that's the name of the game. I knew that in 1998 when I started and I know that now. Again...you choose to work at Target. They don't owe a damn thing to you but a paycheck for the hours you put in.
 
squirrely said:
I don't mind working Thanksgiving since I'm more than 2000 miles from my family, but I never got into the Black Friday shopping, so I don't really understand the appeal. Yeah, stuff is cheaper, but it's never stuff I plan to send as a gift. I'm a cyber Monday girl. It's just easier and usually better deals, IMO.
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I used to do BF shopping for myself or things in my house. I don't think I've ever purchased a gift on that day, tbh. lol
 
Target NPC said:
So when are you quitting? If you want retail to change, then the consumer has to change. Target isn't just some guy in an evil lair, rubbing his hands together and taking pleasure that many people are slightly inconvenienced working a holiday. The goal of a business is to generate profit, and they're doing just that. It's stupid to go and expect Target to fight for your fucking moral crusade for you. They're doing precisely what's expected of them. Target will close it's doors as soon as it's no longer profitable to stay open. So unless you have some plan to make the average consumer significantly less materialistic than they are now, things will not change.
Click to expand...

Ok firstly, you're taking this quite personal, no need to throw around slander. If you must know, I will be quitting by July/August of the next year when I transfer to my four year institution, to continue my degree to get the jobs that respect my "moral crusade" (as you will), so I can enjoy my holiday TRADITION with my FAMILY. :)

Secondly, again, I don't understand how many times I have to say this, there is very little to NO demand for stores to be open on Thanksgiving, you can see this for yourself on countless facebook pages, petitions, news articles, polls and more. People were perfectly fine eating dinner, then rallying up at 12AM and heading out to their favorite stores. And again, they're not making more profit being open on Thanksgiving, they're making the same figures, if not less (in stores).

Lastly, I'd like to point out, I have no problem working on Thanksgiving, the pay is glorious, and most of my family is miles (countries to be exact) away, and usually it's just my mother and I but we have the unfortunate luxury of both working at Target therefore we'll both be at work. However, I'm not oblivious to the fact that there is no need or reason to be open on Thanksgiving. Nor am I a selfish human being who says 'it's retail, suck it up, find another job."

Now, Mister Bulky, you're comparing retail to vital infrastructure. Not much else to say there. When Target starts putting out fires, coming to my rescue, delivering my babies,, and fighting for this country then we can talk, until then, Happy Black Thursday!
 
I have been with Spot for over 19 years. This is my 20th Holiday season ( Christmas) season with Spot. I have worked weekends, holidays, overnights, early mornings, late mornings. I have missed family get togethers, birthday parties, ( I will be missing ny nieces B day party this weekend...cause I have to work )hell I don't even get to celebrate my own birthday because its very close to Christmas. So, I have been there and done all that and didn't even get a t shirt. I know that working retail requires me to work when most people are off ...I get that . I also realize that I am not under contract with Spot, I can end my employment with them and move on to bigger and better things ( or even worse things if I chose that ). I also realize that Spot is a business...they want to make a profit. As a stock holder...I want Spot to make money and lots of it . I also realize that no matter what Spot does someone is not going to be happy. Spot doesn't open on Thanksgiving....guests get upset and some Tms who want to work to get the extra pay. Spot opens on Thanksgiving some people get upset and tms get upset because they don't get to be with their families. I can see both points of view. However, I would never tell someone who feels the need to vent about working holidays....yeah well its retail shut up and deal with it . Sometimes you have to take a step back and look at it from both points of view. By doing so it doesn't mean that you are admitting you are wrong or they are right it just proves you can look at a bigger picture . We don't have to agree with each other but we SHOULD at least respect other peoples view points and not dismiss them with...well if you don't like it leave.
 
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What an interesting back-and-forth. I started earlier this year knowing that Spot would be open on Thursday. But my family eats around 2-3 in the afternoon anyway, so I'll be okay. And I get to see them all other times of the year. I understand both sides but fussing back and forth with each other isn't going to change the situation at hand.
 
It's retail. Give em an inch and they'll take a mile. Til you decide to stand for something.
 
seewhatididthere said:
Nor am I a selfish human being who says 'it's retail, suck it up, find another job."

Now, Mister Bulky, you're comparing retail to vital infrastructure. Not much else to say there. When Target starts putting out fires, coming to my rescue, delivering my babies,, and fighting for this country then we can talk, until then, Happy Black Thursday!
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I was merely stating fact. No need to name call someone as selfish. The bottom line is...you have a job to do. You have a choice to work there or not. It was your choice to apply there, work there and accept the terms of employment which, in retail, means working during that week. If you can't handle that, then maybe the best choice is to find something else. Again....you chose to apply to Target. You chose to accept the terms of employment when you accepted the job, which include working when they need you to during that week.

I am not comparing retail to vital infrastructure. I'm comparing that people in other jobs (like military, emergency services, factories, health care workers, etc.) don't generally have hissy fits over working that week. They know and accept that the reality is that not all jobs have holidays off. It seems like for whatever reason some retail workers feel like its their right to not work during certain times of that week. That is what you signed up for when you chose to work in the retail sector. Could other sectors of the workforce get away with refusing to work during that week? For a real life example, I just got hired on at a large paper mill that operates 24/7/365. I will probably be working all holidays. Do I throw a hissy fit and say I refuse to work that? They would take one look at me and give my job to someone else (like one of the other 700+ people I beat out for the job). Same thing for my brother who's a cop...and my friends who work in the military and health care fields. That's why I used those examples.

The point I'm trying to make is that sometimes people need to have a better work ethic. You chose to work for Target. You need to deal with the ramifications of that choice. If you don't like your schedule/when Target is open/stress of that week/workload, etc., then find some place else to work. As I said before, they don't owe a damn thing to you but a paycheck for the hours you put in. That's the same for any job. You don't have a right to any certain days off (holidays) just because you happen to celebrate them. Target doesn't care. They are there to make money. If being open when they are doesn't make them money or keep them competitive, then they will change. Team members complaining on this forum or others, staging walkouts, being upset about interference in your personal family traditions, etc., won't change a thing.

It's not a selfish viewpoint. It's a reality based viewpoint. It's about maturity, work ethic, and accepting the ramifications of your choice of employment.
 
tgtguy said:
Just because someone voices their concerns about working holidays doesn't mean they have a poor work ethic.
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That may be true...I was more referencing the entire scope of this thread...including posts concerning walk outs and such. That shows a poor work ethic (in my opinion). However, again, if you voice concerns...you knew what you were signing up for. People can complain all they want, but that's the job you chose to apply for, accepted the offer for, and show up to do. My argument mainly is that if you don't like it, or it doesn't work for you, voicing concerns or complaining about this topic will do nothing to change things in the future. Target (corporate) cares very little about team member concerns, especially during 4th quarter. They care about profit and competition above all else. The only thing that will realistically change the situation for someone voicing concerns or complaining about it is to make a change in your own life (like find a different job that fits your needs better). That's all I'm saying.

It may sound harsh...it may not be what you want to hear (read), but I'm just trying to be realistic and logical about it.

We all know this time of the year is coming. Why do people get so bent out of shape about it? You chose to work in retail during this time of the year. Plain and simple. Deal with the fact that you work during that time, put your head down and do the job you chose to apply to and accept. That's what I think people don't get... you chose this for yourself. Target didn't force you to apply and accept a job offer. You chose this sector of the workforce for better or worse and now you have to deal with the ramifications of that choice. You can choose to leave if it's not what you like or not working out for you. That's an important part of this. If working that week doesn't fit with what you want out of life, find a job that fits you better. Complaining and voicing concerns will honestly get you nowhere. It does not create any change in this case. You have to create that change in your own life.
 
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