The popular explanation for the term Black Friday is that retailers operate at a loss (in the red) all year, and then when the holiday shopping season begins on the day after Thanksgiving, they begin to profit (in the black).Like so many popular explanations though, it’s simply not true. The name actually came from the chaos and disruption that the Philadelphia Police Department experienced from so many people trying to shop the day after Thanksgiving.I don’t like that explanation either. I think the black in Black Friday actually refers to something much darker. Something ominous, threatening, distasteful, totally devoid of compassion, and obsessed with nothing but making a buck.Something like the soul of the people in charge at Target.In case you missed it, yesterday Target announced that their stores will open at 6:00 p.m. Thanksgiving evening.I wonder if Target sells calendars. I’m sure they do. They should take a look at the calendar and see that Thanksgiving is on a Thursday. How does a Black Friday promotion begin on Thursday?Whatever. Who cares about that? Let them confuse their days of the week.The real problem here is Target’s complete disregard for their employees and each employee’s privilege of spending a major holiday at home, with their family, without having to cut short their holiday in order to go to work.Thanksgiving used to be the one day every year where we sort of agreed to take a break from rampant materialism, commercialism and the endless accumulation of things. (Unless those things are turkeys, cranberries or sweet potatoes!) Everyone paused, ate, relaxed, spent time with family, and enjoyed the day. Sure the craziness began bright and early the next day, but we can’t expect people to put off accumulating things forever, can we?The writing’s been on the wall for a few years though. Everyone used to accept that Black Friday started at the ungodly hour of 5:00 a.m. Then some retail executives decided, “Why waste so much time? Let’s move that up to 3:00 a.m.?” And then midnight. And once you’re at midnight, it’s only a hop, skip and a jump back to infringing on Thanksgiving itself, right?How long until the shopping craziness moves back to midnight on Wednesday night, so shoppers can get their deals and then sit half-awake at the Thanksgiving dinner table? Not long I bet.Which all raises the logical question: why?What does Target gain by opening at 6:00 p.m. Thursday instead of 6:00 a.m. Friday? I wish I could sit-in on the discussion in the Target board room.Black-souled Executive #1: “We need to find ways to increase sales.”Black-souled Executive #2: “There simply aren’t enough hours in the year. We’re open about 5,082 hours per year, but we’re still not hitting our sales goals.”Black-souled Executive #1: “Where can we find more hours?”Black-souled Executive #2: “We could open at 6:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving. That would give us twelve more hours of sales.”Black-souled Executive #1: “Twelve more hours! You’re a genius. Let’s do it!”With executive decisions like that we can see why Target lost $148 million due to a data breach, and why they lost $1.4 billion in eighteen months in Canada, and why they recently announced they’re closing 11 more stores in the U.S.It’s easy to defend Target by saying, “Well, they’re in business to make money for their investors. The employees are paid for working. They shouldn’t complain.”Yes, the employees are paid for working. And yes, Target is in business to make money.But even the most inept executive knows that a business with good employee morale will operate better than a business with low employee morale. And that everyone needs a breather sometimes. And that a happy employee is more likely to stay on the job than a dissatisfied employee, which prevents the company from the expense of hiring and training a new employee.And those executives definitely know about labor costs. So not only do the Target employees lose a relaxing holiday evening with their families, they don’t end up earning as much as they’d planned since their six hour shift is cut to four hours when 10:00 p.m. arrives, all the sales are over, and Target doesn’t need so many employees.Of course the easy way to put an end to Thanksgiving shopping is for no one to go shopping on Thanksgiving. I’m a realist though. Even though I’ve never stood in line to wait for a store to open after Thanksgiving, I know a good deal on a big television is just too much for some people to pass up.I’m left with one lingering question though: I wonder if the executives who decided that Target would open on Thanksgiving are in the stores working on Thanksgiving or home with their families?+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++My Facebook page will also work Thanksgiving: Brett Baker Writes. Like it, please.
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