Tag: thanksgiving

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Will early Black Friday push people to shop online?

On By jamesinclair

It’s Thanksgiving, a day of relaxing, eating, conversation….and standing in line for hours in the cold to shop?

Many retailers announced this year that they will open as early as 8pm on Thanksgiving day. That means, to get a good spot in line, you’d have to leave the house no later than 5pm – for some, many times earlier. Retailers want people to abandon their Thanksgiving dinner and time with the family to save some money on unneeded goods.

Of course, that’s an individual choice, but what’s worse is that millions of people who choose not to partake are forced into it….all the men and women who work in retail who now have to clock in at 7:30pm on Thanksgiving to staff the store. Some must start earlier for crowd control. Add in commuting time, and their dinner gets cut short as well. Click to read more!

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Retail on Thanksgiving

On By jamesinclair

When I was in Boston last week, I read a Globe article on how various national retailers scheduled their Black Friday opening this year at midnight…and then quickly had to change plans when someone told them doing so in Massachusetts would be illegal.

You see, in Massachusetts, working on Thanksgiving (and I believe Christmas) is generally not allowed (there are exceptions for restaurants and such). So opening at midnight would require workers to clock in on Thanksgiving to set up, and that is illegal. They’ve all moved their opening times forward to around 1am, store depending.

While many scoffed at these blue laws interfering with the private market place, I applaud this particular regulation. Quite frankly, the US has a horrible work culture when it comes to giving people time off, and a huge portion of this is how retail workers and all their support staff (cleaners etc) are generally invisible to huge portions of the population. Click to read more!