This holiday season, millions of Americans will gather by the fire with the family, roasting chestnuts and listening to Bing Crosby tunes. However, there will be other millions of Americans that will be working during the holidays, according to a new survey.
Results of a Allstate/National Journal’s annual Heartland Monitor poll released this week found that one-quarter of the United States labor force will be required to work Thanksgiving, Christmas and/or New Year’s Day. The survey did note that 45 percent reported there’s a good chance they could work at least one of those days.
Although most of the news reports look at retailers who have to bear the burden on working on major holidays, like Thanksgiving, the fact is that numerous non-retail workers have become accustomed to working on holidays, whether they’re in the healthcare field, emergency dispatch, public transportation, movie theaters or sporting stadiums.
With that being said, a movement has been created that is urging shoppers to refrain from participating in Gray Thursday and perhaps even Black Friday sales. It was reported that a big chunk of Wal-Mart employees will stage a nationwide protest on the biggest shopping day of the year: Black Friday.
Of course, retailers are vying for bigger revenues and attempting to outcompete each other, which is why they have opened their doors on Thanksgiving, a move that has irked numerous people – Kmart is open at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving, while other stores are turning on the lights in the late afternoon or early evening.
However, according to a report from CNN Money, shoppers are already not too enthusiastic about spending turkey day at a department store, shopping mall or retail outlet as just 18 percent of consumers plan to buy stuff on Thanksgiving, compared to 23 percent last year.
“Thanksgiving should be spent at home with the family, enjoying the company and food. It should be spent being grateful for what we have, not pushing through crowds trying to get deals on things we don’t even need,” wrote Hallie Dilworth, a freshman at the University of Tennessee, who launched her petition to keep retailers closed on Thanksgiving.
Industry leaders say, though, that the reason for opening on Thanksgiving is because there is a demand. If consumers didn’t want to shop on such a day then retailers would be closing their doors.
Nevertheless, in today’s shaky economy, it may be the trend that retailers will remain open on the final Thursday of the month to attract customers with doorbusters, deeply discounted items and other types of deals ahead of Christmas. This also means that many employees will have to come into work early in the morning on Thanksgiving instead of sleeping in and waiting for the turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and little tiny onions.
American consumers will likely have to get used to the idea of the holiday creep – perhaps decorations and advertisements will reach the shelves of stores in September as opposed to late October. In an economy when consumers aren’t spending enough, this is the reaction that merchants have.