Black Friday has been creeping into Thanksgiving for the passed few years. Traditionalists find this quite annoying because Thanksgiving is a Holiday meant for people to reflect and be thankful for the people and things they have currently in their life. Its not about acquiring new things.
With that said, opening on Thanksgiving does little to increase sales. It simply shifts some Friday sales over to Thursday. Because of the early openings on Thursday, Black Friday sales shrunk by 1.5B last year only to find it replaced by an increase of Thursday sales by 1.8B. Is the .3B increase really worth Thanksgiving openings? Walmart's CEO thinks so who had a Thanksgiving sale which started at 6 pm during the Holiday.
What do you guys think? Should retail stores have their employees give up family time to work for only a small increase in sales?
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/26/news/economy/stores-open-thanksgiving-no-sales-boost/index.html?iid=SF_E_River
As a consumer I would say that the slight increase in sales is not worth giving up time with your family. I can see where the CEO of Walmart would say that the slight increase in sales is worth it because they are trying to make the next dollar. As a CEO there is a reason to want to ope up stores as early as possible. I myself do not believe stores should be open during times when workers should be spending time with their families.
ReplyDeleteWhen organizations take such decisions, they are entirely based on estimates provided by analysts. Many organizations make changes like these on a trial basis to see the real outcome. Clearly whatever walmart anticipated did not come true but that does not mean that if another retail company was to try a similar policy, it would effect them the same way.
ReplyDeleteEven if there is only a slight increase in sales by opening on Thanksgiving, maybe retailers feel they need to because of competition. It is possible that by opening on Friday instead of Thursday, retailers could lose sales to similar type stores that opened sooner. And some stores only schedule workers who volunteer to work on Thanksgiving, and they generally receive holiday pay, so workers may not mind as much as we think.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Aaron. That being said, I think the whole concept of Black "Friday" should be gotten ride of, since the sales no longer exist for the Friday following Thanksgiving. Companies and stores should just give their employees a normal Thanksgiving holiday weekend like so many other companies do, instead of calling them in to, now work, from 5pm on Thanksgiving day till who knows when Friday evening. These sales have been going on for days, so they really aren't Black "Friday" Doorbusters anymore.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anna as this is a competitive-based decision. If Walmart doesn't open for early sales then someone else will take those willing customers. Personally, I think businesses should be put aside for the employees losing valuable time to catch up with families at the dinner table. This is even more true due to the decrease in sales on Black Friday this year.
ReplyDeleteI think the stores should stick to friday and really leave Thursday for Thanksgiving and being with family. But people will always line up early wasting their day being with family. If anything open it up to a little bit of saturday if people want more time.
ReplyDeleteI mean the only reasons these stores are opening on Thursday is because U.S consumers demand it. The fact sales increased by .3 billion shows much they demand it. If we want stores to be closed on Thanksgiving, consumers need to stop going to these stores that are open on Thanksgiving.
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