Retail Workers Fight To Keep Stores Closed On Thanksgiving

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard all of the hubub about stores opening on Thanksgiving night to get a jump on the 'Black Friday' surge. Target, Best Buy, Macy's and Kohl's all plan to open at midnight on Thanksgiving to get their piece of the retail pie. The stores will make money and the customers will no doubt get great deals, but store workers are not happy and are fighting back. Enter Anthony Hardwick, a Target employee from Omaha, Nebraska who launched an online petition on change.org asking Target to reverse it's decision on a Thanksgiving night opening. So far, more than 80,000 have signed the petition.

 One signer, Caroline Hemenway said, "This is absurd! Corporations are treating their workforce like serfs and fomenting a toxic consumer culture. Pure, unadulterated greed."

 Wal-Mart, not be out done, has announced they will go even further and open at 10pm on Thanksgiving night which has some customers shaking their heads about the new time.

 J.C. Penney is one company that will NOT be following Target and Wal-Mart's lead. Bill Gentner, senior vice president for marketing with J.C. Penney said they will not open until 4am on Black Friday and telling the New York Times, "We wanted to give our associates Thanksgiving Day to spend with their families." 

 Steve Schuknecht, general manager of the Tanger Outlet Center in Howell, Michigan, says his mall is opening at 10pm on Thanksgiving in order "to stay ahead of the curve", adding "I don't like the fact I have to come in on Thanksgiving, but when you work in retail it's the nature of the beast."

[CBS]