Shoppers Enthusiastic About Thanksgiving, Employees Not so Much

The Huffington Post reports that shoppers are already camping out in front of the Best Buy store in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

The first consumer pitched his tent outside the store at 5 p.m. on Monday, November 18.

More and more retailers are also getting a jump on the season. Walmart Stores Inc. (Bentonville, Ark.) began offering select holiday deals last week.

“Black Friday is our Super Bowl, and we plan to win,” Duncan Mac Naughton, Walmart’s chief merchandising and marketing officer, told CNBC.

And Walmart, Macy’s Inc. (Cincinnati), JCPenney Co. Inc. (Plano, Texas) and Kohl’s Corp. (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) are among the retailers announcing they will open, for the first time, on Thanksgiving Day.

“Another holiday bites the dust in favor of retailers,” said consultant Candace Corlett, president of WSL Strategic Retail. “Our culture now is to shop, and to get the best deals. Thanksgiving as a day of rest was another culture, another time, not today.”

Among those whose day of rest is being taken away will be more than a million employees of various retail organizations. “Workers are going to be in that store all day Thanksgiving,” Martha Sellers, a Walmart cashier in Paramount, Calif., told Bloomberg News. “Walmart claims it’s such a family-oriented business and they’re taking away the family holidays.”

Walmart says it is giving its employees the option to be off on Thanksgiving, but those who do work will get holiday pay, December store discounts and free hot meals during breaks. “A lot of folks really enjoy it because of the benefits they get,” said Walmart spokesman Brooke Buchanan.

However, said cashier Sellers, “When you’re scheduled, you work or it’s a missed day. So many missed days and you’re fired.”