Community Corner

Are Target, Walmart, Other Retailers Ruining Thanksgiving?

Retail 'sale' creep hits the all-American holiday big time this year.

 

If all you can wait to do after you chow down on your Thanksgiving meal is start the holiday shopping marathon, retailers are ready to help you.

Other Americans, including some retail workers, are saying they want to keep one Thursday in November free of American capitalistic intrusion.

Find out what's happening in Kensingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Target, Walmart, Sears, KMart and Toys"R"Us have all announced they will open as early as 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, making 2012's holiday shopping season of 32 days and four hours perhaps the longest ever due to the way the calendar fell this year.

At least one online petition says enough, already.

Find out what's happening in Kensingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A campaign on the site Change.org entitled, "Target: Take the high road and save Thanksgiving," had been signed by more than 230,000 users as of Friday night.

It was started by Change.org user "C Renee," who identified herself as a Corona, CA, Target employee.

In the letter she asks people to sign, she wrote: "A 9 p.m. opening disgusts me and symbolizes everything that is wrong with this country. Give Thanksgiving back to families."

Target responded on its "A Bullseye View" blog, saying customers gave feedback that they wanted to shop on Thanksgiving night rather than getting up in the wee hours on Black Friday to try to beat the crowds. It also said its employees wanted to work on the holiday and that they would be paid extra.

Walmart, whose stores open at 8 p.m., is facing an organized labor action on Black Friday

For decades, Black Friday has heralded the start to the holiday shopping season and early Black Friday circulars online this year have been building anticipation for weeks. In recent years, Black Friday hours have gotten earlier, luring bargain shoppers from their homes shortly after midnight Thanksgiving night.

What do you think? Do Thanksgiving hours do shoppers a favor? Or, are the days of retail-free Thanksgiving over? Tell us in comments.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here