Early Black Friday sales should not be allowed because of these three reasons: jworkers don’t get time to spend with their families, Thanksgiving is a holiday and it should not be used for people to shop, and stores in the past never would open earlier than Friday. Instead of opening on the late nights of Thanksgiving and early mornings of Friday, many retailers like Target, Toys R Us, Wal-mart, and many others have decided to start sales on Thanksgiving day. Just like many americans are asking, is this right?
Workers don’t get time with their families
“We believe it is important for our team members to be able to spend this time with their loved ones,” said Travis Smith the CEO and president from Jo Ann Fabric and Craft Stores (New Haven). If all store owners thought like this then there would be no early Black Friday on Thanksgiving and workers could spend that time with their families. Instead of being with their families, they have to be answering to rude customers. Many americans have said that Black Friday shopping is one of the worst ideas stores have made and Thanksgiving is meant to be spent with your family. Although they are getting paid pretty good money to work on Thanksgiving, many have said they would much rather be with their families.
“Really Thanksgiving should be spent with your family and I believe the workers have a life, and need their time with family” (The Premier). Bart Reed, the consumer marketing director of Best Buy, said the company did not want to open until the earliest five a.m. on Black Friday. “We wanted to give our employees a "work-life balance" (Mother Jones). Costco refuses to open on Turkey day and said they would open at ten a.m. on Friday, which is their regular hours. Costco wants wor...
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... shopping takes the time we have with our families away from us and workers. We need to stand up against stores and stop this day of greed!
Works Cited
King Broadcasting Company, a Subsidiary of Belo Corp. "Black Friday Creeps into Thursday." KGW Kgw.com. King Broadcasting Company, a Subsidiary of Belo Corp, 2009-2013. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress. "Why Are Big Retailers Trying to Kill Thanksgiving?" Mother Jones. Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress., 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.
New Haven Register. "Business." U.S. Retailers Continue to Creep Black Friday Sales into Thanksgiving. New Haven Register, 22 Nov. 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
The Premier Online Debate Website. "Should Stores Start Black Friday Sales on Thanksgiving?" The Premier Online Debate Website. Debate.org, 2013. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Federated, and department stores in general, encompass a huge portion of not only American history but also the American economy. Fred Lazarus, former president of the present day Lazarus-Macy’s, was even responsible for the changing of the Thanksgiving holiday to the fourth Thursday in November. Lazarus suggested this to President Roosevelt in 1939 in order to give consumers more shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas thereby improving economic efficiency. Federated also operates the largest store in America, the Macy’s flagship in Manhattan, and sponsors the annual Thanksgiving Day parade. Without retail stores like Federated, America would not only lose a substantial amount of history, but the backbone of our economy.
The. FOX News Network, 3 June 2012. Web. The Web. The Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
The idea that department stores might be losing out to retailers like Amazon is not a new one. However, the extent to which one affects the other is not entirely clear. More specialized, non-department stores may also play a role in pulling department store sales downward. Clothing store sales, for example, grew slightly, by 1.2 percent, from January 2013 to January 2014 while department store sales declined. (Census Bureau, 2014)
According to Williams, a renewed commitment to the values of the citizen consumer is necessary to bring about changes in the retail industry. She said that the political economy of shopping must change and that the retail industry must be reined in by new legislation mandating worker rights to living wages, health care, and equal opportunities. I think that what she says is true. The whole retail system need revamped to take in the consideration of the workers, and until the consumers start to realize this and demand changes, nothing will change.
Thanksgiving Day is a day of family, food, and giving thanks for the blessings in life and yet some people believe Thanksgiving to be a prep day for Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. The focus of Thanksgiving shifted from family bonding to incessant shopping. This trend of taking away from the hours of Thanksgiving in order to shop is enraging. It steals away from family time for the shoppers and the employees. Employers threaten workers that if they do not work on that certain holiday, they will be fired. Black Friday should be kept to Friday instead of moving in on my family time. The whole culture of Black Friday has become repugnant and unnecessary.
and 2000 for a spokesperson had publicly mentioned that more than two thirds of our people are not trying to support a family that 's why our jobs are designed for, and yet it seems that they 're low wages and 2000 for a spokesperson had publicly mentioned that more than two thirds of our people are not trying to support a family that 's why our jobs are designed for, and yet it seems that they 're low wages don 't even support those who aren 't trying to support a family. So who do they help? Walmart doesn 't provide adequate healthcare, the healthcare isn 't just for the family it is for everyone who would like good health. But while Walmart has its downs it also has a few pros, like their genius inventions such as the Telon, And their ingenuity have helped make and bring Walmart to the top. They have intelligently used their barcodes on products to bring about information, such as how many our soul, how many are expected to be sold, prices and even discounts. Then Walmart brilliantly patented the idea so if other competitors want to stay in the game, they have to buy this idea from Walmart just to keep up with Walmart. It 's pretty brilliant when you think about it. They also use a open price system where you are drawn into a department by the low prices they stick in front and you stay because you assume that other products in this department will have similar low prices, when in reality they might be more expensive than other
Imagine having to work on thanksgiving. Not only do those people miss out on Black Friday, but also miss out on time with your family. They also get to go to work more than likely sleep deprived, deal with unpleasant customers, and constant lines. Curtis West worked as a Macy’s employee. In his 24 years of work for them he had to work a total of 19 Black Fridays. He said it wasn’t bad when Black Friday started off, because it usually meant going in at 5 am on Friday. Now for sto...
" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 May 2012. Web. The Web. The Web.
By keeping their prices low, Walmart can easily pass that savings on to their customers and in return, their buyers are able to have a higher income and can spend their money on more products, preferably Walmart’s.
Mallaby admits Wal-Mart can treat their employees and other retailers unfairly, but as a result everyone can share in the 50 billion in savings that American shoppers consume annually. The pay that employees get is the price they must pay for low priced merchandise. Because of the minimal pay to employees, Wal-Mart strengthens its’ consumer buying power. Giving the American shoppers the savings they need, Wal-Mart’s has ultimately been them successful. Wal-Mart has potentially wiped out the middle class as an employer, but the employees can now work and ...
" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 May 2013. Web. The Web. The Web.
It is seen in everything from the hoarding of material objects to the destruction of friendships, both of which are popular themes when regarding the topic of Black Friday shopping. Black Friday has become Black Thursday, a trend which has only shown up within the last decade. The great American holiday that is Thanksgiving is celebrated because of our gratefulness toward all that we have, a holiday that is meant to be spent gathered around a table of our loved ones. However, the retail holiday that consumes the day afterward has begun to overflow into our gatherings, and it is due to the greed of the American people. Were it not for the market’s demand for earlier sales, stores would not open their sales on Thursday nights. Everyone would simply wait until early the next morning to start off on their shopping extravaganzas, and the sales themselves would likely be far less violent as
Huffington Post, 2013. http://huffingtonpost.com/ Web. The Web. The Web. 29 Nov 2013.
Big box stores are not bad, people just need to remember the local businesses need their support in order to keep helping the community these local owners are what builds strong communities so if you’re saving money buying from big box stores make sure to give back to your local businesses by spending it doing something fun locally.
Ordinarily, people witness vulgar acts and retaliate accordingly. While shopping on Black Friday, it is not uncommon to watch someone steal something out of someone else’s cart, causing an unruly argument in the store, or witness someone flipping another person off while driving down the