Black Friday on Thanksgiving?

I recently posted about the fatal injuries that have occurred due to overzealous Black Friday crowds, but there is now a new backlash related to national retailers opening later on Thanksgiving Day, rather than the day after.

This article talks about a part-time Target employee who is especially sentimental about the holiday, and doesn’t want to work on the national holiday. It claims he has garnered already 80,000 signatures in support of his position–that the holiday should be reserved as a time with family, rather than an opportunity for retail steals.

I personally find the issue interesting, because it seems like a paradox for retailers: they either have the option of opening at more “reasonable” hours, such as at 10 p.m., where some people already consider themselves finished with familial festivities (the article refers to the time period as after the dishes are done), and capturing a larger audience, or waiting until the following day at an unreasonably early hour, such as 4 or 5 in the morning, and potentially having less of a crowd.

At a time when many are probably thankful to have a job, I don’t think there will be much more “backlash” about the issue. But, perhaps the promise of commercial steals is best relegated to the day after a holiday that originally represented such a humble sentiment.