14 Greedy Companies That Are Forcing Employees to Work on Thanksgiving

To open or close your store on a national holiday? Apparently, that is the question for some corporations again this year.

Numerous stores are continuing the corporate trend of bringing their problematic [3] Black Friday consumerism into a day meant for community. Now known as “Black Thursday,” numerous large retailers are opening around 6pm on Thanksgiving Day.

Kmart takes the cake this year by announcing it will open at 6am and remain open for 42 hours.ThinkProgressreported [4] that when one Kmart employee requested to work a split-shift on Thanksgiving, she was denied and told if she didn’t come to work, she would be fired.

As a form of protest, nearly 100,000 people have liked the Boycott Black Thursday [5] Facebook page, which states:

"Employees will be forced to work the majority of the day and evening in preparation for the huge sale. We believe this is an unethical decision that does not consider the families of the men and women who work at these stores, so we're boycotting Black Thursday."

It’s not just Big Box stores keeping their doors open on the holiday. Many workers in the service industry, such as those working at grocery stores, airports, restaurants and movie theaters, are forced to work as well. Many of these workers don’t get paid holidays [6]. The United States is the only developed nation in the world that doesn’t guarantee [7] paid holidays.

The following stores will require their employees to work Thanksgiving Day:

1. Kmart
2. Walmart
3. Macy’s
4. Target
5. RadioShack
6. Starbucks
7. Kohl’s
8. JCPenney
9. Sears
10. Toys”R”Us
11. Best Buy
12. Staples
13. Sports Authority
14. Gap/Old Navy/Banana Republic Company

Whether it’s a marketing move [8] or actual sanity, these stores are keeping their doors closed:

1. Costco
2. Barnes & Noble
3. Sam’s Club
4. BJs
5. Home Depot
6. Lowe’s
7. Nordstrom
8. TJ Maxx
9. Marshall’s
10. GameStop
11. Bed Bath & Beyond
12. Burlington Coat Factory
13. Crate and Barrel
14. Petco
15. Neiman Marcus
16. REI
17. Pier 1 Imports

Would you rather shop at a store that puts people first or its profits?

By Alyssa Figueroa

I plan to boycott stores, who make there employees work on Thanksgiving!

 

Yet the same people whine about companies like Hobby Lobby and Chick-Fil-A who stay closed every Sunday.

Go figure!

 

I went to the local Best Buy yesterday to pick up the Batman show on Blu-ray, and saw about a dozen tents outside the store waiting for the big deals on Friday. The guy at the counter said the first ones started camping out four days prior to that.

Now that's just insane.

 

I don't shop on Thanksgiving. If you have a problem with companies that are open, don't shop there, and don't work there. Some of those "greedy" companies are on the verge of bankruptcy.

 

Depending on what business you are in these days have a lot of profit potential. I'm not religious and have no problem working on any of these days. In fact I hope they are my busiest days of the year.

 

I worked holidays for thirty years. Liberals don't really understand the concept of work. Towards the end of the thirty years I could get some holidays off but again, not being a liberal, I chose to work Christmas so young guys with families could be off for Christmas morning. I chose to work Super Bowl Sunday because I don't watch football.

Really, more liberals should get jobs and experience the world of work.

 

Ditto.

I always elected to work holidays because it paid overtime, and I worked for money, not time off.

 

Yep, no liberals work. This is of course why America's unemployment rate is 40%.

 

I've been in the medical field for 40 years (retired now) and my daughter is an RN...believe me the two of us have worked many, many holidays!

My brother works for Comcast and has to work Thanksgiving Day cause Diety forbid that something should go wrong with someone's cable during the football games.

Now saying you have to work or you're fired is a bit out there. I could always trade with someone if I truly wanted the day off...or put in for it as a day off months ahead of time but I usually didn't bother. However, if they don't pay you overtime and Holiday pay...that's a different story. I was always well compensated for working holidays. I'm guessing some of these places aren't compensating their employees much if at all...and that's just WRONG!

 

I'm going out on a limb and saying I'll bet all the companies listed pay double time, maybe even double time and a half.

 

So...the OP wants stores to close on the busiest day of the year but expects them to pay employees more?

How does this work?

 

Tell your little story to police officers, I'm sure they will feel just horrible that someone is asked to actually work on a holiday, especially when those that work get triple time. Such a crisis

 

Why would you deny those employees the overtime and the fun they have that, I've heard many say they volunteer to work those days for the money AND the fun they have serving the customers.

 

I keep a list of companies that have been flooding the airwaves for weeks already with their commercialized Christmas bilge and needless to say they won't see a single penny of my money. If you can't wait for Thanksgiving at least to end before you begin to flog Christmas to death
then you are a big part of the problem.

 

So what about all the left-wingers who refuse to celebrate Thanksgiving due to the historical oppression of Native Americans? They can't go to their local Starbucks with their laptops to sip on some lattes?

 

Liberals don't understand the concept of work. You financially support the nation's Liberals? I live in a Liberal state and obviously we work long and hard to pay he lion's share of Federal taxes, but you are going to stand by your asinine statement I'm sure.

 

Then it should be voluntary if so many get their jollies doing it.

 

I had no problem working on Thanksgiving, Christmas, any holiday. I was working my way thru college and couldn't afford to take a day off, and in any event you got paid more if you did.

It's like the old joke: How do you starve a liberal? Hide his food stamps under his work boots!

 

Ironically, a lot of these employees WANT to work on Thanksgiving because they get holiday pay.

 

Yep. My first job was at a grocery store and employees, even part time ones, got triple pay for working certain holidays. Thanksgiving was one of them. It went by seniority and there was always a waiting list generated because of the surplus of employees wanting to work that day.

 

Most places it is, the people I heard calling into to shows all volunteered every year, but if not enough then it is scheduled. I've worked many holidays in my job as plant shutdowns happen during holidays.

 

Heh. Where I worked, all the high-seniority people avoided working holidays. All the more money for me!

You know, some of those companies listed - I'm surprised they're still around. I'm specifically thinking of K-Mart and Radio Shack. There used to be three K-Marts in the general area I lived in, and now - none. Target and Wal-Mart took over all their customers here.

 

I don't think Radio Shack is long for this world.

 

Those two companies could stay closed 7 days a week as far as I'm concerned.

 

What an absurd post.

You know, it's nothing special to brag that you don't have a life outside of work.