WalMart Deprived its Employees of a Family Holiday to Force Black Friday A Day Early ...
Three Days Later, it's a Ghost Town
Ned Barnett
It's no secret that WalMart, the "All-American" store that brought us "happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," forced their employees to work all day and all night on Thanksgiving, trying to get a step ahead on Black Friday. The idea was to start the flood to WalMart early, and to keep people coming all holiday season.
Used to be that the local WalMart was jam-packed on the Sunday after Thanksgiving - my son used to work there when in high school, so I tend to keep an eye on things there. Four years ago, the paucity of patrons on that Sunday was a clue that the recession wasn't over (it wasn't) and that retailers would take it on the chin (they did).
Now, needing some new duds for a business meeting tomorrow, I stopped in late - around 11 p.m., intent on breasting the tidal wave of shoppers to get what I needed. When I got there, the parking lot was empty.
When I got inside, there were more employees than customers. When it came time to check out, there were two registers open. Having 16 items (not 12 or less), I got into the "large purchase" line - one woman was in front of me, and her total bill was under $6 - it took the clerk no time to serve me.
As you can see, there is nobody in any other line - nobody in the store at all.
In the holiday spirit of Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, Walmart robbed its employees of a holiday, for no apparent gain.
Final note. I drove by Walmart on Thanksgiving evening - the parking lot was about as full as an average Saturday mid-afternoon.
Bottom line - this is a big FAIL for Walmart, and probably for other stores who tried to push back "Black Friday" to Thursday. Next year, will it be "Black Halloween?"
No comments:
Post a Comment