Archived Thanksgiving at midnight = only this year!! ;)

[spotbadit]

On the day they announce stores open at midnight this year they "sneak" this news in. A new low even for Target. This "test" is more to iron our the wrinkles so it can be executed cleanly to all stores next year. Expect to be open 24 hours next year on Thanksgiving. More hours open means more coverage needed for one day of sales. More headcount needed = less hours for the entire season.

Target stores in the Denver market will be open limited hours on Thanksgiving Day for the first time, the Minneapolis-based company announced today.

Target is piloting the abbreviated hours — from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. — in 29 stores from Castle Rock to Longmont and from Aurora to Silverthorne because the greater Denver area "is one the strongest grocery markets, with 17 SuperTargets and was one of the early markets with expanded fresh food offerings," said Mark Everett, the local executive who oversees the area Target stores.

All other Target stores will remain closed on Thanksgiving.

Target plans to evaluate the Denver test before deciding whether to expand Thanksgiving hours in other markets. "We ought to have a pretty good handle on it from the traffic," Everett said.

Store officials expect groceries will be the main shopping atraction, particularly for last-minute items, Everett said.

Nationally, Target stores will be open at midnight on "Black Friday" — the day after Thanksgiving — to give shoppers a jump on deals instead of waiting until the usual 4 a.m..

In addition, Target also will extend store hours to 11 p.m. on Black Friday, from 7 a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve — depending on the store location — and from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Dec. 26.

 

[Logistics Monkey]

so is this midnight thing 100%? no one at my store will say anything :/

 

[Squid7085]

When Target takes away my Thanksgiving and Christmas, that will be the day I walk out the door. I have given up enough during the holidays, I hardly see my family anyways.

 

[spotbadit]

Yes, STLs received emails today announcing the time change

 

[redeye58]

Yeh, we got the news today.
We're not gonna have NEAR the coverage D:

 

[StateofTarget]

I'm sorry, but besides the hit to TMs that people have already pointed out this is just stupid.

From a guest point of view black friday is "fun" because of the whole experience. Getting in to the stores early in the morning/camping out overnight/etc.

Does HQ not realize that the vast majority of our guests work regular 8AM-5PM office hours? Do they also not realize that they like to spend time with their family on thanksgiving?

So why the hell would they cut their thanksgiving short to come shop at target????? Can anyone answer that?

I can see it now..... "hey everyone. well I know all the family is in town.... some even from 5 states away, but hey target is opening at 12AM this year so get the hell out! we have to get to sleep so we can have enough energy to wake up at 12AM to go shopping at target"

This just isn't going to work.

Target's greed is causing them to completely lose sight of the fact that the outside world does not revolve around target. No one is going to disrupt their own holiday to go shopping at midnight. it just won't happen. well, i take that back..... maybe it will happen, but HQ better have some damn good deals. i am talking 52" TV for $200 kind of deals. of course, after having seen what kind of "deals" we had the last two years, i wouldn't count on it. i still remember having to clearance out 4 pallets of portable ************ty off brand electronics that no one bought two years ago on black friday.

 

[Barcode]

I'm sorry, but besides the hit to TMs that people have already pointed out this is just stupid.

From a guest point of view black friday is "fun" because of the whole experience. Getting in to the stores early in the morning/camping out overnight/etc.

Does HQ not realize that the vast majority of our guests work regular 8AM-5PM office hours? Do they also not realize that they like to spend time with their family on thanksgiving?

So why the hell would they cut their thanksgiving short to come shop at target????? Can anyone answer that?

I can see it now..... "hey everyone. well I know all the family is in town.... some even from 5 states away, but hey target is opening at 12AM this year so get the hell out! we have to get to sleep so we can have enough energy to wake up at 12AM to go shopping at target"

This just isn't going to work.

Target's greed is causing them to completely lose sight of the fact that the outside world does not revolve around target. No one is going to disrupt their own holiday to go shopping at midnight. it just won't happen. well, i take that back..... maybe it will happen, but HQ better have some damn good deals. i am talking 52" TV for $200 kind of deals. of course, after having seen what kind of "deals" we had the last two years, i wouldn't count on it. i still remember having to clearance out 4 pallets of portable ************ty off brand electronics that no one bought two years ago on black friday.

I am pretty sure people will shop at midnight. Probably more than 4am since staying up until midnight is easier than waking up at 4am. Heck I'll go shopping at midnight if I don't get the 1st shift

 

[thale342]

I'm sorry, but besides the hit to TMs that people have already pointed out this is just stupid.

From a guest point of view black friday is "fun" because of the whole experience. Getting in to the stores early in the morning/camping out overnight/etc.

Does HQ not realize that the vast majority of our guests work regular 8AM-5PM office hours? Do they also not realize that they like to spend time with their family on thanksgiving?

So why the hell would they cut their thanksgiving short to come shop at target????? Can anyone answer that?

I can see it now..... "hey everyone. well I know all the family is in town.... some even from 5 states away, but hey target is opening at 12AM this year so get the hell out! we have to get to sleep so we can have enough energy to wake up at 12AM to go shopping at target"

This just isn't going to work.

Target's greed is causing them to completely lose sight of the fact that the outside world does not revolve around target. No one is going to disrupt their own holiday to go shopping at midnight. it just won't happen. well, i take that back..... maybe it will happen, but HQ better have some damn good deals. i am talking 52" TV for $200 kind of deals. of course, after having seen what kind of "deals" we had the last two years, i wouldn't count on it. i still remember having to clearance out 4 pallets of portable ************ty off brand electronics that no one bought two years ago on black friday.

Are you kidding me. You obviously dont have any kind of business background. On Black friday, people dont care what time it is. Toys R us opened at 10 PM last year on Thursday and they are sticking to it. It must have worked. The thing about Black friday is to open earlier than your competitors in order to get people to come to your store and buy instead of going to the other store. And no, there wont be 52 inch tvs for 200 dollars, doubtful if there will be 32 inchers for that. And yes, the outside world does revolve around not just Target, but all retail on Black friday. People are gonna go Early to the stores with the best deals regardless of time

 

[pzychopopgroove]

Are you kidding me. You obviously dont have any kind of business background. On Black friday, people dont care what time it is. Toys R us opened at 10 PM last year on Thursday and they are sticking to it. It must have worked. The thing about Black friday is to open earlier than your competitors in order to get people to come to your store and buy instead of going to the other store. And no, there wont be 52 inch tvs for 200 dollars, doubtful if there will be 32 inchers for that. And yes, the outside world does revolve around not just Target, but all retail on Black friday. People are gonna go Early to the stores with the best deals regardless of time

Yeah because the holiday season is all about consumerism and not spending time with your family..

 

[backroomcrew]

as of today I was told we open at 4am, so i guess i have to wait and see if they announce some change on monday, or if it is oinly certain stores!!! If we do open at midnight the thing i will be most annoyed about will be they keeping it from us for so long.

 

[thale342]

well kind of. i mean now is the time a large portion of our sales come in keeping us in a job year round so we can support our families, how meager our wages may be

 

[greatteam]

Oh good. So I went from spending all day with family, to spending most of the day, to spending about a 3rd of the day, to this year spending about 2 hours. Why not just say "************ you family!!! Target's having turkey dinner!" next year!!!!! Oh wait....turkey would be too expensive.

 

[smurf101]

Are you kidding me. You obviously dont have any kind of business background. On Black friday, people dont care what time it is. Toys R us opened at 10 PM last year on Thursday and they are sticking to it. It must have worked. The thing about Black friday is to open earlier than your competitors in order to get people to come to your store and buy instead of going to the other store. And no, there wont be 52 inch tvs for 200 dollars, doubtful if there will be 32 inchers for that. And yes, the outside world does revolve around not just Target, but all retail on Black friday. People are gonna go Early to the stores with the best deals regardless of time

I was one of those crazy people for many years. I enjoyed the other end of black friday crazyiness!!! I was the shopper. I still do but now after i get out of work. Now I enjoy watching all the crazy people. It's called RETAIL. YOU CHOOSE TO WORK IN IT. You said yes when Target offered you the job you interviewed for. If you don't like working in retail and which means eventually you will be working Thanksgiving day and Christmas in years to come, than start looking for something that better suits you. If you have not been or want to be one of the Black Friday crazy people, all you do is bring the rest of us down. the retailers are doing the best they can especially in this economy. If it means longer hours for me to keep my job, I am all for it. I love my family, I know I don't get to spend as much time with them as I would like. Again, it is called RETAIL. I have worked in retail for 30 years. It hasn't gotten any better in that time span. Life is harder than it used to be. Retail is not going to get any better either.

 

[Stuckinsoftlines]

Haha so when this was announced I laughed because half my team left and were not replacing most of them we don't have enough sl tm to fill the schedule haha whatever I'm opening it will be fun that for sure

 

[3LetterDevil]

I'm sorry, but besides the hit to TMs that people have already pointed out this is just stupid.

From a guest point of view black friday is "fun" because of the whole experience. Getting in to the stores early in the morning/camping out overnight/etc.

Does HQ not realize that the vast majority of our guests work regular 8AM-5PM office hours? Do they also not realize that they like to spend time with their family on thanksgiving?

So why the hell would they cut their thanksgiving short to come shop at target????? Can anyone answer that?

I can see it now..... "hey everyone. well I know all the family is in town.... some even from 5 states away, but hey target is opening at 12AM this year so get the hell out! we have to get to sleep so we can have enough energy to wake up at 12AM to go shopping at target"

This just isn't going to work.

Target's greed is causing them to completely lose sight of the fact that the outside world does not revolve around target. No one is going to disrupt their own holiday to go shopping at midnight. it just won't happen. well, i take that back..... maybe it will happen, but HQ better have some damn good deals. i am talking 52" TV for $200 kind of deals. of course, after having seen what kind of "deals" we had the last two years, i wouldn't count on it. i still remember having to clearance out 4 pallets of portable ************ty off brand electronics that no one bought two years ago on black friday.

No offense, but as others have already pointed out, I also think you're COMPLETELY wrong. For one, the "fun" of "Black Friday" ISN'T "getting to the store early/camping out overnight/etc.", it's "the thrill of VICTORY" in getting the sale items (and the agony of defeat when you watch someone else miss out~LOL!). It's ALL about "consumerism"...the NAME itself comes from "consumerism"...it was the day that "holiday shopping" traditionally began and retailers' accounting ledgers would go from "red" to "black" (or in other words, from losing $$ to MAKING $$).

Also, a good number of offices are CLOSED the day after Thanksgiving, or if they're not, a large number of employees take the day off. Not to mention, as Imerzan mentioned, guests staying AWAKE until midnight to go shopping is MUCH more likely than WAKING UP at 3 am to be at the store by 4 (I know I'll be there at midnight since pharmacy TMs don't have to work until our regular shifts on Friday ). I'd be willing to bet Spot is BUSIER than they have been in past years....stores like Walmart and TRUS have proven that opening earlier=more $$ in sales.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Bf is a the real test of mgt at your store. With organizing, setup, etc.

 

[talan123]

This doesn't have anything to do with increasing sales and everything to do with a pissing contest between Target and Wal-Mart. It's been heading this way for years and Target just simply jumped the gun.

The few hours of additional sales won't even be a blip when it is all said and done because they are not going to get a huge addition of sales because those people who drive from store to store are the same people from year to year and they just do the lottery. Once they see the parking lot full on thanksgiving at the store, they will simply go somewhere else. This is a desperate attempt to increase sales without any actual work from headquarters.

If they wanted to increase sales then they would have actually done something about the lack of merchandise going to store (I get an average of THREE games per release and maybe ONE television per sale, and I constantly run out of cards for the various cellphone providers), lack of team members on the salesfloor during the rest of the year. They chose not to do so because it would have required spending actual money to make money. The greatest recession since the great depression hit this country, management takes one look at the foundation of this company which is customer service and decides that it is too expensive. Has anybody else noticed the gimmicks over the last few years? Recycling which went nowhere, the Mossimi or whatever it was clothes, and P-fresh.

Here's a little story about their chain of thought:

Recently they talked to us about the broken window effect. About how if a abandoned house has a window broken then other people will treat it worse and worse because nobody ever cleans it up and that is how zones go down hill. They talked about how we need to constantly be "fixing" the windows so it doesn't get worse.​

I am fairly sure that they are completely unaware of the fact that this sociological theory was written to prove the need for humans to be watched and to maintain social norms in order to prevent the windows from being broken(sales people to walk the floor to prevent people from destroying zones). It's so sad that it makes me want to cry.

/I volunteered to be there at midnight. Because if I'm going to complain then I have to put my lack of sleep and desperation to avoid my family where my mouth is.

 

[calimero]

I for one don't care if i have to work on thanksgiving or the day after !!! thanksgiving is spent with my mother in law! I'd rather shoot myself in the foot than spend one more dinner eating overcooked turkey and cheap store bought apple pie...
I might as well volunteer to work early,late ,thanksgiving ,whatever!

 

[Bullseye Flow TM]

Originally we were told we would open at 4am on black Friday. Our STL notes on the table talkers mentioned this earlier this month. Thanks to this site I had a heads up to the possibility of opening at midnight. ( another post from a month or so ago mentioned midnight opening.) I thought it was just a decision in each district about the opening time. Now we are among the midnight stores, too. Not sure how this will effect flow, though. Hopefully our ETL-Log will let us know what to expect our schedules to be that week. If not, I'll approach him & ask him directly.

 

[redeye58]

I for one don't care if i have to work on thanksgiving or the day after !!! thanksgiving is spent with my mother in law! I'd rather shoot myself in the foot than spend one more dinner eating overcooked turkey and cheap store bought apple pie...
I might as well volunteer to work early,late ,thanksgiving ,whatever!

Do what my sister & her family did: they spent Thanksgiving day serving folks at the local shelter. When relatives carped about why she wasn't there, she said she was teaching her kids "to make a difference".

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Gtc to red!

 

[calimero]

Do what my sister & her family did: they spent Thanksgiving day serving folks at the local shelter. When relatives carped about why she wasn't there, she said she was teaching her kids "to make a difference".

that would be a good one ,except I would like to avoid a divorce!!lol! if i have to work,my husband won't mind me skipping that dinner with his mom!

 

[redeye58]

You could be sneaky, tell him that you're scheduled & go shop instead.
Of course, you'll have to keep the evidence locked in the trunk (I was busted when husband borrowed the car & got a flat).

On another note, I'm sure if this takes off it won't be "this year only".

 

[greatteam]

Originally we were told we would open at 4am on black Friday. Our STL notes on the table talkers mentioned this earlier this month. Thanks to this site I had a heads up to the possibility of opening at midnight. ( another post from a month or so ago mentioned midnight opening.) I thought it was just a decision in each district about the opening time. Now we are among the midnight stores, too. Not sure how this will effect flow, though. Hopefully our ETL-Log will let us know what to expect our schedules to be that week. If not, I'll approach him & ask him directly.

At my store, Flow is scheduled as cashiers or on the floor to push. There is no flow process on Black Friday. You basically become salesfloor for a day. And the really big scary socially unnormal one's are scheduled as AP.

 

[Sasha]

My store is opening at midnight as well- and every one is required to do a 10 hour shift.