As Black Friday shoppers prepare their lists, some students are preparing to work this Thanksgiving rather than spend time with family. Students may be out of school for Thanksgiving, but that does not mean they are off work.
Pierto Weaver, freshman in mechanical engineering and Walmart employee, said, “I’m not sure if I have to work Black Friday yet, but if I did I would be very upset. That would be terrible.”
Weaver said he does not like the idea of Black Friday because it takes advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday just for money.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and is known as the kickoff for holiday shopping season. When Black Friday first originated, stores started opening at 6 a.m., but this year many stores are opening their doors as early as Thanksgiving day.
Jordan Dillard, junior in marketing and employee of Best Buy, said, “This will be my third year to work a Black Friday. The previous two years were 12 hour shifts and this year’s will most likely be the same.”
Target, Best Buy and Walmart are just three of the stores now opening their doors on Thanksgiving instead of waiting until Black Friday.
Dallas Theisen, sophomore in business management, said Target did not give him a choice to not work, and that the extra pay is the only good thing about working and not seeing family.
“They want me to work the night before Thanksgiving to set the floors for Black Friday, but I hope I don’t have to,” Theisen said. “It just sucks, I probably won’t get to see my family, maybe just for a couple hours.”
This annual event is widely thought to be the busiest shopping day of the year. Days before Black Friday, people camp out in front of the stores to ensure they get everything they want from that particular store.
“There were customers waiting outside of the doors last year the days before Thanksgiving. I feel like it only gets worse from here on,” Dillard said.
This year’s announcement of the earlier store openings has brought both positive and negative feedback, but employees of companies now opening on Thanksgiving have a more one-sided opinion on having to work on a national holiday.
“In some ways I feel like I am missing out on Thanksgiving. Best Buy opens at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving day this year. Luckily my family is only 30 minutes away so I will be able to spend a decent amount of time with them,” Dillard said.
Dillard said he thinks Black Friday has overrun Thanksgiving this year, and that no one should have to work on such an important holiday. With stores opening so early this year, some employees say it is still too early to judge if the trend will occur next year, and the year after that.
“I think it’s businesses’ fault for opening so early this year. Customers will come in no matter what time the doors open. So businesses are all for it and the way that society has reacted to these ‘door busters’ or ‘mega deals’ only condones the stores to continue their plan of action,” Dillard said.
While for some this holiday is an opportunity to buy items for a lower price than what they normally could afford, some employees say that Thanksgiving is not about shopping.
“I do think that Black Friday interferes with the mindset of Thanksgiving,” Michael Katley, junior in biology and Best Buy employee, said. “Now I believe that the prices do give us an opportunity to give our loved ones great gifts for really low prices, but I believe the desire for those items can overshadow the Thanksgiving holiday.”
As long as consumers continue to give these stores a reason to open earlier and earlier each year, the companies will. Supply and demand is an easy concept, and consumers demand finding a bargain and retailers want to make even more money than the last year.
“Managers of our store refer to it as ‘green Friday’ because of the large amount of revenue that is coming in,” Dillard said.
Dillard, along with others working on this day, said they think Black Friday interferes with the mindset of the meaning of Thanksgiving, and that no one should be forced to work and be away from their families.
According to blackfriday.com, the term Black Friday came from police officers in Philadelphia in the 1960’s. They started using the term because of the traffic jams occurring from all the shoppers. Black Friday was also used to describe the stock market crash of 1869 caused by gold spectators. CNN Money reported in 2012 there were about 139.4 million Black Friday shoppers. Totals for Thursday, Black Friday, Saturday and Sunday equaled $59.1 billion, a 13% increase from 2011, according to the National Retail Federation.
