Last week I expressed my disgust at the increasing intrusion of Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving. The War on Thanksgiving is threatening to consume Thanksgiving, I railed.
Now comes Walmart, announcing that it is pushing Black Friday up a full week. Based on prices leaked from competitors like Best Buy, Target, and Toys R Us, Walmart will be matching “selected” Black Friday specials this Friday, November 22.
Oh joy. Instead of nibbling away at Thanksgiving an hour at a time, Walmart has swallowed it whole and pushed the holiday shopping season up an entire week. Competitors will, of course, have to compete, so the shopping season will be off and running this Friday.
With the precedent established, I’ve no doubt that henceforth Black Friday will be the Friday before Thanksgiving and Turkey Day will be relegated to the status of speed bump in the midst of the hubbub, a grease spot in the mall parking lot.
And to think I was worried Thanksgiving might be gone in another five to ten years.
An optimist might suggest this will take the pressure off Thanksgiving and in the future it will become a welcome pause, a day of rest from the pandemonium of Christmas shopping. But I am not an optimist. With the stores open and Christmas specials to be had, I doubt people are going to “waste” an entire day at home dining with friends and family.
Sad how a single retailer has managed to shred so many basic American values.
Good grief PT, I was already ticked off over this: Walmart employee Thanksgiving donations at Canton store cause controversy. Sad indeed! 😕
I saw something about that last night. Pathetic, isn’t it? I wouldn’t shop at Walmart if it were the last store in town (and sadly, in many towns it is).
It’s a horrible “Catch-22” situation, isn’t it? They so popular because their prices are so attractive to the very poor, and there are more and more very poor because companies like Walmart keep putting the places they work out of business! 😕
Twisted is the word. Imagine paying your employees so poorly that they need food donations — and then asking them to donate to each other instead of … oh, I don’t know, paying them more? Giving them holiday bonuses?
How about stopping the systematic denial of full-time hours? This practice not only ensures their employees won’t be eligible for benefits, but increases the burden on taxpayers who must take up the slack! – Criticism of Walmart: Wages – Wikipedia
That’s the way Walmart thinks. Stick it to their employees and the public and pocket the resulting profits. Of course, on the flip side, nobody is forcing anyone to work for Walmart.
Never been in a Wal-Mart, never will go. Also, those stores whose logos are in the photo for this entry are the very stores who are making their employees work on Thanksgiving Day. I can see a grocery maybe being open until 1:00 for all the people who forgot this or that ingredient, but retail outlets have no reason to be open other than greed–both theirs and the people who are self-absorbed and selfish enough to actually expect others to work so they can save $10 off a toaster or some garbage like that. This year, I am shopping small vendors and businesses through venues like their own websites or Etsy. Enough is enough.
I’ve never been in a Walmart either. I don’t like anything about them or their business practices and will never spend a dime there. I was beyond delighted when citizen opposition here stopped the planned construction of a giant new Walmart in a redevelopment area.
Just one more reason to stay away–far away–from Wal-Mart.
Love this line: “Instead of nibbling away at Thanksgiving an hour at a time, Walmart has swallowed it whole and pushed the holiday shopping season up an entire week.”
Heh, yeah, I really didn’t expect them to jump the line by an entire week.
As long as the FED continues to dilute the money supply by printing money to hide irresponsible government spending, Wal-Mart will continue to be supported by people who’s money is worth less and less. As a retired person with a fixed income, I’m one of that group. Besides that, I frankly appreciate the fact that Wal-Mart charges less than most other retail outlets for the exact same merchandise while at the same time paying their employees more than the minimum wage. I avoid shopping at places that increase prices because of their so-called name recognition for the same reason that some people avoid Wal-Mart because it doesn’t.
As long as I can afford to not shop at Walmart, I’ll not shop there. It’s my own little form of protest. I know it doesn’t make a bit of difference to them, but it does to me.
I’m glad you and I both have the freedom to buy what we want, where we want. Well… some things anyway.
True. It’s not like I boycott Walmart and head straight to Neiman Marcus. I go all the way to … Target. Or more likely Amazon.
Until there is a paradigm shift towards “people’s well being” and not greed — it will continue to be a downward spiral–
Right now if you don’t have money, you can’t afford the luxury of avoiding walmart. Sadly, every day more people cross that line.
Capitalism is based on making a profit, not people’s well-being, and Walmart is entitled to make a profit. Still, there’s profit and then there’s exploitation. Someone pointed out here in the past that Walmart’s business plan is to create and maintain its own customer base. Apparently they’re doing a good job of it because they are the worst paying company in America: http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/11/15/ten-companies-paying-americans-the-least/
I wouldn’t darken their door, except it’s the only place that sells a decent $3.00 bottle of wine. However, every time I buy one, I secretly hope the rascals are taking a loss on that item.
They may be. If it’s one of their loss leaders and you don’t buy anything else, the joke’s on them.