Closed Thanksgiving forever.

SallyHoover said:
Personally I like the idea of a 7pm to midnight opening on Thanksgiving. Employees can still have an early dinner with family and get paid time and half to come in vs nothing extra for Friday. It also is a festive fun night for shoppers who don't want to stay home watching football. They can have a leisurely dinner and then come out shopping for some fun specials. Then there is time to restock some new specials for Friday and open up at regular time 7am or 8am on Friday.
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Um, I would rather stay home with my family.
 
SallyHoover said:
Personally I like the idea of a 7pm to midnight opening on Thanksgiving. Employees can still have an early dinner with family and get paid time and half to come in vs nothing extra for Friday. It also is a festive fun night for shoppers who don't want to stay home watching football. They can have a leisurely dinner and then come out shopping for some fun specials. Then there is time to restock some new specials for Friday and open up at regular time 7am or 8am on Friday.
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Stop
 
It makes financial sense. I’ve been at Target since 2008. We had openings like at 5am, then crept to 3am, then midnight, then Thursday 9pm, and IIRC Thursday 6pm?

all those times it goes the same way. About 3 hours of wild mayhem and then dead silence until mid morning Friday.

I remember standing in front of a check lane 2am store is dead quiet, we long ago picked up the stray and straightened our end caps. The cashier next to me (sweet 70+ lady) wants to chat about Thanksgiving (we are bored and tired at 2am) and the damn STL reprimanded us for standing around doing nothing.

It’s just ridiculous to open on Thursday and stay in a dead quiet store through the night. What a waste of lights and payroll.

Furthermore, we are already selling BF items all week. How badly do we need to sell it Friday.

Having Thursday off isn’t just a nice platitude for us serfs. It’s a wise money move too.
 
SallyHoover said:
Personally I like the idea of a 7pm to midnight opening on Thanksgiving. Employees can still have an early dinner with family and get paid time and half to come in vs nothing extra for Friday. It also is a festive fun night for shoppers who don't want to stay home watching football. They can have a leisurely dinner and then come out shopping for some fun specials. Then there is time to restock some new specials for Friday and open up at regular time 7am or 8am on Friday.
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Employees could only have that early dinner with family only if there was no travel involved. Our family celebrates 2 hours away from the store. Because the world doesn’t revolve around me the Target employee, asking Aunt Carol to move dinner to 11am isn’t feasible.

there’s nothing we sell that can’t wait until the wee hours of Friday morning.
 
Those of us who have been around since the Bob Ulrich days are probably hesitant to believe the word "forever." Then again, brick-and-mortar retail has changed a ton since 2008. The fact that my store has only scheduled 8 cashiers to open on Black Friday shows just that (that, and uh, we can't find people to hire).

Fun fact, my store actually turned off SFS for Black Friday. We were forecasted 5000 units. My old SD would have never let us lose that amount in sales, but that's just how understaffed we are going into Friday.
 
Rarejem said:
When I was hired, we were closed on Thanksgiving. This is not "new"'; it's a return to the past. Some of us on certain teams would be asked and could choose to work Thanksgiving from anywhere from midnight until 10 am, depending upon what your store decided, for time and a half pay to set up for Black Friday and those people did not work on Black Friday. I never missed the chance to work. Of course, the pay was less back then. We started to open when Walmart and other stores did because Target seldom sets the bar, but follows what others do. What would impress me is for him to have made Thanksgiving a paid holiday for all team members.
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When they used to be closed Thanksgiving. I used to work until 3 or 4am on Wednesday night doing the set up and then had to return Friday morning at 4 am. I would basically wake up and eat and go back to sleep.

Being open on Thanksgiving was better, because they let us start setting up earlier so I would work Wednesday morning, and return Thursday night at 6pm.

The best is being closed Thursday now and not allowed to work at all during the 24 hour window.

The past 2 years have been my first normal Thanksgivings in over 20 years. This year I work 6a on Wednesday and Friday. I can actually enjoy time with my family as it's intended. I made almost $100 an hour working on Thanksgiving and I still would rather have it off.
 
SallyHoover said:
Personally I like the idea of a 7pm to midnight opening on Thanksgiving. Employees can still have an early dinner with family and get paid time and half to come in vs nothing extra for Friday. It also is a festive fun night for shoppers who don't want to stay home watching football. They can have a leisurely dinner and then come out shopping for some fun specials. Then there is time to restock some new specials for Friday and open up at regular time 7am or 8am on Friday.
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Some people’s families live further away and they would have to skip thanksgiving dinner to get ready for work.
If stores were to ever be open on thanksgiving, it should be like 7am-12pm.
 
baba777 said:
Some people’s families live further away and they would have to skip thanksgiving dinner to get ready for work.
If stores were to ever be open on thanksgiving, it should be like 7am-12pm.
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I agree, most places are open for the morning of Thanksgiving if at all. I think no one should be scheduled until 4am on Black Friday and not at all Thursday. This would actually allow people to spend quality time with family. It doesn't exactly count when you are scheduled at 12am on Friday.
 
COextraordinaire said:
Employees could only have that early dinner with family only if there was no travel involved. Our family celebrates 2 hours away from the store. Because the world doesn’t revolve around me the Target employee, asking Aunt Carol to move dinner to 11am isn’t feasible.

there’s nothing we sell that can’t wait until the wee hours of Friday morning.
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I agree!! When we were open for thanksgiving I used to have to skip dessert so I could make it to work on time. I also enjoy a nap after turkey, there was definitely no time for that.
 
SallyHoover said:
Personally I like the idea of a 7pm to midnight opening on Thanksgiving. Employees can still have an early dinner with family and get paid time and half to come in vs nothing extra for Friday. It also is a festive fun night for shoppers who don't want to stay home watching football. They can have a leisurely dinner and then come out shopping for some fun specials. Then there is time to restock some new specials for Friday and open up at regular time 7am or 8am on Friday.
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Some things aren't worth the OT.
I worked every year we were open on Thanksgiving & there was nothing 'festive' about it; just rude guests yammering about missed deals.
Also our family gathering was 30 miles out of town with elderly parents so our choice was to choke down a Thanksgiving 'lunch' with a short visit before bolting back into town to go to work or skip altogether.
There's plenty of opps for OT during Q4 & being closed means I can treasure the time with folks still among us.
 
I know this isn't the case for most people, but I'm a little bummed about this. My family lives too far away to make it worth traveling for just one day. I liked being able to go in and work 12+ hours on Thursday and get an amazing paycheck, now I just have to sit home alone. Is this a paid day off at least? I'm still not sure about how those work and who qualifies.
 
Rarejem said:
When I was hired, we were closed on Thanksgiving. This is not "new"'; it's a return to the past. Some of us on certain teams would be asked and could choose to work Thanksgiving from anywhere from midnight until 10 am, depending upon what your store decided, for time and a half pay to set up for Black Friday and those people did not work on Black Friday. I never missed the chance to work. Of course, the pay was less back then. We started to open when Walmart and other stores did because Target seldom sets the bar, but follows what others do. What would impress me is for him to have made Thanksgiving a paid holiday for all team members.
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Specifically, former CEO of Sears and Kmart Eddie Lampert really introduced America to Thanksgiving Shopping back in the Great Recession era (2008-09). He thought this gave Sears/Kmart an advantage over competitors. One by one, other retail stores joined suit and so we can really blame Eddie Lampert - the mediocre leader who presided over Sears Holdings' death spiral into bankruptcy - for this so-called innovation which spoiled one of the few remaining "pure" American holidays.

My family shopped a lot at Sears during my childhood and while it became less relevant in recent years (in part due to Target's ascendancy) I still lament its collapse. In its now-distant heyday, Sears was a very powerful retail force in America. Its century-old catalog delivery service, started in 1886 and inexplicably killed off in 1993 just on the verge of modern e-commerce, was the precursor to today's Amazon.

I guess it's the "creative destruction of capitalism" and you can read articles online about why Lampert was such a mediocre corporate leader.
 
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jackandcat said:
Specifically, former CEO of Sears and Kmart Eddie Lampert really introduced America to Thanksgiving Shopping back in the Great Recession era (2008-09). He thought this gave Sears/Kmart an advantage over competitors. One by one, other retail stores joined suit and so we can really blame Eddie Lampert - the mediocre leader who presided over Sears Holdings' death spiral into bankruptcy - for this so-called innovation which spoiled one of the few remaining "pure" American holidays.

My family shopped a lot at Sears during my childhood and while it became less relevant in recent years (in part due to Target's ascendancy) I still lament its collapse. In its now-distant heyday, Sears was a very powerful retail force in America. Its century-old catalog delivery service, started in 1886 and inexplicably killed off in 1993 just on the verge of modern e-commerce, was the precursor to today's Amazon.

I guess it's the "creative destruction of capitalism" and you can read articles online about why Lampert was such a mediocre corporate leader.
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Lived it.

Many of us were surprised it took so long. By the time my position was eliminated and I was laid off (a year or so before my store closed) I was more than ready to be done. My store manager and department manager sat there looking devastated and I could barely keep the smile off my face as I said "I'm fine guys, really, it's ok." I then went on my break and did a happy dance outside.

I got a nice severance and withdrew my retirement and 401K with no penalties. I heard that things got pretty ugly when the store closed - I'm so happy I wasn't there for it. Also, very shortly after the closure, Sears filed for bankruptcy and all severance payments stopped. Not gonna lie, I experienced some schadenfreude, oops. Not sure if they ever ended up getting their money.
 

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