This Thursday, Thanksgiving, the Richland County locations of over 26 national chain stores will open their doors to shoppers, some as early as 6 a.m. This relatively new trend in holiday shopping precedes Black Friday and thus many have begun to call it “Black Thursday,” although officially the National Retail Federation (NRF) has neither endorsed nor embraced that title.
In addition to the national chains many regional chains, and some smaller businesses are following suit. At the Richland Mall all the department stores and 35 of the smaller stores will open in the evening on Thanksgiving.
But not all retailers have jumped on the bandwagon. A few national chains like Costco and Nordstrom are holding out, and very few independent retailers and small businesses are opening on the holiday. Locally, PurseSnickety Boutique just opened a second location called Poppy and business has been good for the local retailer. Even though big chains pose formidable competition, both locations will not be open on Thanksgiving Day.
According to store manager Caitlin McCue, “We love our customers and enjoy offering sales to them and spending time with them, but we also value our families and are happy to be spending the holiday with them on Thanksgiving. We look forward to seeing our customers on Black Friday at 8 a.m.”
On Monday some shoppers shared their holiday shopping plans. None of the people interviewed has plans to shop on Thanksgiving, although some knew of friends or family who were planning to do so. Richland Source will report on this week’s Thanksgiving Day shopping.
Marc Sprang of Cleveland said, “No, I’ll be spending the day with my family.”
Shelby resident Debbie Dorsey also is opting out, “I have twenty-five people coming to my house for Thanksgiving, I’ll be at home.” She did mention that she didn’t have strong feelings about whether or not stores should be open, she just would be too busy herself.
Retail workers were hesitant to talk to the press at all. When asked how her family would accommodate for her working on Thanksgiving the manager of one store said, “I’m sure some people would give you an earful, but I won’t say anything bad about my employer. I need this job. Don’t talk to any of my employees and get out of my store.”
Beth, a manager of Claire’s Boutique in the Richland Mall, and her perspective stood in stark contrast. “I love this company and I love my job. Maybe the difference for us is that our corporate office let the stores decide whether or not to open. I polled the other stores in the mall and most planned to be open. I talked to my staff and let them decide. They chose to open so we could make our sales goal.”
Employees at several stores voiced fears that they would be fired if they didn’t show up for work on the holiday or if they spoke with the press. The media relations departments at Wal-Mart, Old Navy and Sears were unable to be reached for comment.
Some former retail workers and family members were comfortable sharing their thoughts about Thanksgiving sales.
Collin Shaum is currently working as a police dispatcher, but in the past he worked retail with Verizon. His current job does involve working on holidays, but he was quick to point out the difference, “This job is about public safety, it’s life and death. A cheap cell phone you can buy the next day isn’t even close to the same thing,” he continued, “It’s ridiculous that they make people give up half or all of their holiday, and for what? It makes for a miserable holiday for everyone and it’s disrespectful to the whole idea of family.”
In 2008 Amy Burns’ brother-in-law lost his job during the economic downturn and in order to care for his wife, who is battling cancer, he took a retail job in 2010.
“He works every holiday. His job is custodian and shelving product at night. On Black Friday he is used as ‘security,’ which amounts to ‘crowd control’. He is not allowed to defend himself or other customers if fights break out. He will not speak with you and would probably be angry that I have. He will not protest because he needs the job to help take care of my sister. He makes under $10 an hour and qualified for $19 a month in food stamps before they were recently cut. Last Christmas they saved their food stamps from November and combined them with December so they could buy a turkey. This is what America is becoming,” said Burns.
Some area residents are joining a growing trend, skipping the Black Friday and Thanksgiving shopping entirely. According to a Consumer Reports poll, 56 percent of Americans are opting-out this year. One of these residents is Sue Kochheiser. “I will be shopping on Small Business Saturday. I never have shopped on Black Friday and I certainly am not going to shop on Thanksgiving,” said Kochheiser.
Small Business Saturday is a newer holiday shopping trend spearheaded by American Express in 2010, the idea is to support small, local retailers on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. American Express’ numbers indicate that 77 percent of their cardholders plan to participate this year.
A complete list of stores that plan to be open on Thanksgiving can be found here.
