Wow, I never thought I'd be doing a post like this today, but I have to give props and Retail Balls to JC Penney Corp for not caving to the ridiculousness of opening their store on Thanksgiving Day.
National Retail Federation VP, Ellen Davis told Huff Po that the customers were "Driving the bus," and that's why stores were opening on Thanksgiving. This is complete and utter corporate BULLSHIT. The customers aren't drivng any bus! They are boarding one that has shown up at their doorstep and it's called Black Thanksgiving!
Don't blame this one on the customers, Retail Corporations! The custys are like hungry mice. There is no way any of us could expect them to stay out of a store full of cheap cheese. They are being hearded into the stores by advertising, media, and social networking excitement. They are being pushed away from a cherished American holiday because of desperate corporations fighting each other like the sharks I used to work with at The Big Fancy.
But here we have JC Penney deciding to take the high road and wait a few fucking hours so their employees could enjoy Thanksgivng! I commend them! Thank you!
During my 20 years plus in retail, nearly all of my Thanksgivings were ruined because of Black Friday. They were even ruined when there was no Black Friday and we called it "the day after Thanksgiving - the busiest shopping day of the year" (which it's not). But at least I had that day. I would fly home to Reno, eat dinner with my family and fly back to LA that night. The service workers of today don't even have that option. Yes, we all signed up to work in retail which has hideous hours and forces you to miss many important family moments, but is it right to suddenly start taking away holidays form them and make them work because a few greedy companys want to get a sales jump on each other? People that have worked for these companies for decades were hired knowing they would not lose their Thankgsiving holiday. Now they have no choice.
Thanksgiving has been stolen from them by the companies they work for.
The competivivenss is disgusting. Retailers have taken the humanity out of Thanksgiving and turned it into a sale. That's why I called it Happy Black Thanksgiving in the intro of my new book Return To The Big Fancy. Thanksgiving is changing as we know it and it will continue to happen because at some point (maybe this year even) the increases some companies are seeing from being open on Thanksgiving will hit a plateau. What will they do next? Open at 6 am on Thanksgiving Day?
Tomorrow is Selfless Saturday Be Kind To Service Workers Day and the folks that have taken the pledge will go out and show apprecition to those that have had a tough work week. What will you do to show appreciation?
JC Penney celebrated Selfless Saturday Be Kind To Service Workers Day on Thanksgiving! Way to go JCP! And by the looks of the article below, they had just as many shoppers buying! As all of us long time commissioned Sales Associates know...it's all about the merchandise...not whether you open early or not. I saw many sales crash and burn because of price point and item no matter what time we opened the doors.
xo
Freeman/Freddy
From News-Leader.com:
The holiday shopping season has officially begun.
Dozens of people streamed into JCPenney at Battlefield mall when the store opened at 6 a.m. this morning, a scene that has played out at retailers around the nation on Black Friday, which marks the traditional start of the holiday shopping season.
JCPenney’s 6 a.m. opening gave it one of the latest Black Friday openings for a major retailer this year. In some cases, retailers such as Walmart and Target — where TVs and tablets were the big ticket buys — actually kicked off their Black Friday deals on Thursday evening.
Many shoppers at JCPenney — where the big items were pairs of jeans going for $10, and $25 boots — touted full shopping bags from other retailers. Many had come when the mall opened at midnight to shop at other stores and wait.
Springfield’s Tammy Cameron started at Walmart before lining up outside Battlefield Mall.
“It was the most insane experience I’ve ever had,” Cameron said. “We had to park so far away — there was not a single parking spot in the parking lot.”
In the end, she said, she only was able to buy one item that she had come for.
Retailers are hoping that the earlier openings will help boost sales this holiday season. It is unclear how many shoppers took advantage of the earlier openings. But about 17 percent of shoppers said earlier this month that they planned to shop at stores that opened on Thanksgiving, according to an International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs survey. Overall, it's estimated that sales on Black Friday will be up 3.8 percent to $11.4 billion this year.
Nice analysis, Freddie. You're right - if the stupid stores weren't willing to be open, the stupid custys wouldn't be heading to the stores on Thanksgiving Day. Now, Thanksgiving Holiday - sharing a traditional meal with our families, perhaps watch the parade, some football - THAT is ENNOBLING. I grew up on memory on memory, year after year, and cherished each Thanksgiving. A simple holiday - and my favorite, because it is plain, and so fundamental to life for us to take a couple of hours to be philosophical enough to appreciate what is good about our lives, and be grateful for the love and fellowship and generosity that surrounds our immediate lives.
But to heck with being grateful for what you have - get out there and get some more shit you don't need! Storming a store to buy some stupid trinket - and we all see the disgraceful scenes of stampedes, with people literally being stomped to death, sucker punches, fist fights - this is IGNOBLING.
I thank God that I do not suffer the insatiable poverty of greed that would propel me from a warm and precious gathering of family and friends to a fucking STORE.
The 1950s that everyone likes to memorialize as the Golden Age of Family Life? No fucking stores were open on holidays - it would have been dishonorable and disgraceful.
Posted by: Polo Necked Strip Mall Monkey | Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 08:06 PM