It’s Black Friday, Not Thanksgiving! – Boycott Black Thursday

Last year I wrote an open letter to Walmart expressing my “concern” over them starting their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving day, Thursday. It was something that gained national attention, I was asked to talk about it on a radio talk show and I discovered that a lot of the country is still very upset about this. Well this year, stores have not only moved up the times from last year but they are opening all day Thanksgiving in some cases. 

These stores saw a dramatic drop in spending over the last 4 years (if not more), but that is to be expected during a recession. But instead of riding out the storm or looking at what they were selling as the problem they decided to move sales up to be the first store open. I’m guessing the mentality behind this is that if my store is open first it will guarantee people will be lining up to enter my store first. But what these stores aren’t seeing is that consumers visit the stores that have the products on their families holiday shopping lists. It’s about the products they are discounting. Most Black Friday shoppers are extremely savvy shoppers. They know how to plan, they bring maps and friends to cover different sections of the stores. They case the stores to find out the layout. All because of the products they are looking for. 

As the recession hit people stopped spending as much money for the holidays, causing those sale numbers to drop. For some reason that meant that they should open earlier the following year to make sure that the consumers were at their store to spend that money. A lot of consumers however stopped shopping because of this. I don’t plan on missing my Thanksgiving dinner with my family to get a good deal on something. The memories I make during holidays are far more important and rich than any gift I could buy. 

Our country has become so greedy. It’s heartbreaking. What is more heartbreaking is that employees are required to be at their retail jobs pretty much all day during these sales. They staff seasonal workers and volunteers but they are not offered holiday pay and when there are not enough employees to volunteer, the workers are forced to come in. I’m pretty sure the CEO and Stockholders won’t be running those cash registers on Thanksgiving. They will be enjoying their Thanksgiving dinners. 

Consumers need to fight back against big stores making their employees work on Thanksgiving. Stop shopping on Thursday. It’s the only way to show them that family comes first. That greed does not win. I’m all for shopping on Black FRIDAY. It was such a rush and fun. But I refuse to shop on Thursday. 

My hope is that one of these big stores (Target) will take a stand and move their sale back to midnight at least. Instead of creating a PR nightmare on social media and in the news they will get praise and good PR. 

Sign petitions, tell the stores that you won’t be shopping on Thanksgiving. More importantly, spread the word and get others on board with you. The more people boycotting spending on Thanksgiving the more we hold the power. If no one shops, these companies will lose money being open. 

Support companies that will be closed on Thanksgiving! 

Shop this:
DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse
Costco
Nordstrom
Publix
Pier 1 Imports
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
BJ’s Wholesale Club
Gordmans
Crate and Barrel
T.J.Maxx
Dillard’s
HomeGoods
Barnes & Noble
REI
American Girl
Burlington
GameStop
The Home Depot

Show your appreciation of these brands buy spending your dollars in their stores and by thanking them on their Facebook pages! 

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