COMMENTARY | Target is one of the major retailers across the United States to hold its Black Friday even earlier this year at midnight. People are still digesting the Thanksgiving meal at that hour. For some who are lovers of this day and look forward to some great bargains annually, it makes sense to stay up later to shop vs. get up in the middle of the night like a robber. But for many others, this is not a volunteer event – the workers and the shoppers.
I have worked part-time for several years during the holiday season to supplement my income at retail stores at the mall. I was young and it was a great way to save up for a vacation on Spring break. But I never worked on a Black Friday before 9 a.m. during those years. The shrinking economy and fierce competition for sales do not justify this new tradition. The hours of shopping on a holiday get pushed earlier each year; we will be shopping for Christmas gifts during Easter Sunday soon. Part-time holiday employees like me have the option to work on that day but full-time employees may not. A retailer is not going to make it mandatory to sign up but when there are not enough volunteers, the company is not going to issue a retraction and not open for business as promised. No one wants to rock the boat at work during these tough times. Even if there are plenty of seasonal employees, they need full-time supervisors on-site to prevent chaos and, based on history, stampedes.
Shoppers do not have the same freedom they think. To get the steep discount, shoppers are forced to get in line days, not hours, before the sale. Camp-outs are at an all time high. I hope they are doing rotations or have a trailer in the parking lot. They are skipping meals, work, a good night’s sleep on a bed, to save a few dollars and have a merry Christmas. The people hiding behind the big retailer names are contributing to the demise of a society in putting materialistic goods above anything else. The work life balance gets more eschewed each year. Is this what we want our kids to grow up to?