Will our ever-growing obsession with Buying More Stuff
end up turning the entire 24-hour period now known as Thanksgiving Day into
Black Thursday?
Probably. And how depressing. At least The Miami Herald’s brilliant political
cartoonist, Jim Morin, managed to convey the craziness with
a little humor.
Last year, major retailers
including Walmart, Toys R’ US and Target threw their doors open on November 22nd
to throngs of holiday deal-hunters. Consumers by the millions shook off the
post-turkey tryptophan lethargy and dashed away shortly after Thanksgiving
dinner, afraid of missing bargains on the most in-demand gift items.
And that meant possibly hundreds of thousands of low-paid
employees had to forsake their family celebration to be on retail sales floors,
ready to smile and cheerfully risk a serious bodily injury to greet the
oncoming stampede. Take a look at this disturbing video
of a mob scene inside a Walmart store as crazed shoppers nearly climb over one
another, screaming and having tugs-of-war over marked-down smartphones.
Looks like a cattle round-up gone horribly awry, doesn’t
it? Well, it also looks like this year a handful of sensible retailers are
saying no to the insanity and keeping
their stores closed until it’s actually Black Friday.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently announced
that, with the exception of three stores in New York City, Las Vegas and
Hawaii, all Apple stores will be closed on Thanksgiving so employees can relax
and spend the holiday with their families. Several other retailers, including
Nordstrom, Costco, Marshall’s and Home Depot have also decided to buck the
Black Thursday trend.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I feel that it’s an easy
decision to make,” BJ’s Wholesale Club CEO Laura Sen told
the Huffington Post, adding that workers deserve “a nice holiday with their
families.”
Amen to that. How about just being thankful for what we
already have?
Now, I can put on my marketing hat and acknowledge that
yes, stores need to remain competitive and yes, the period between Black Friday
and Christmas Eve is by far the most important of the year for retailers. In
fact, for some, it represents between 20-40% of annual sales, according
to the National Retail Federation.
Furthermore, putting in long, grueling work hours during
the holiday shopping season has always been a fact of life for retail employees
because that’s just the nature of the beast. And they know that.
But isn’t it enough that most big retailers already open at
12 a.m. on Black Friday? Giving employees those few extra hours to enjoy their
Thanksgiving feast with loved ones doesn’t seem like too much to concede.
Last year Brendan O’Kane, CEO of OtherLevels (a ThinkInk client), mused
in a guest post on Retail Merchandiser – after reading that
Macy’s would be open around the clock the weekend before Christmas – about the
possibility of a holiday shopping season where stores just don’t close at all.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this scenario actually
becomes real within a few years.
And on that wildly cheerful note, I and the whole
ThinkInk staff would like to wish our readers and clients a beautiful and
peaceful Thanksgiving holiday close
to their families and far from the
madding crowd at the mall.
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