Why Walmart Is Not Evil For Opening On Thanksgiving, Give It A Break

[308jake]

Its simple, If you don't like their policy, don't go.

 

[newguy]

Second to paper targets, it seems like people take shots at walmart more than pop cans and clay targets.

Why Walmart Is Not Evil For Opening On Thanksgiving, Give It A Break - Forbes

Who died and made you the authority on business principles? This was my response in a recent discussion with a family member in discussing the state of retail giant Walmart. It seems although I have no personal interest in the company, I continue to come to its defense. As far as I’m concerned, the company has become too easy of a target.


What bothers me is the idea that a scarlet letter has to be immediately attached to anyone with enough audacity to publicly say anything positive about the company. It’s beginning to get old. When Walmart is not being attacked for claims over low wages, it is being punished for what is perceived as undermining U.S. manufacturing – It all depends on what day it is. Walmart does not kill off “mom and pop” shops – they kill themselves. Anyone with enough business sense should understand this. However, why let a good opportunity for some “righteous anger” slip away.

It’s Thanksgiving – Thanks for Shopping
However, aside from the fact that these arguments often get stale, over and over again, they are grossly based on hypocrisy. The same people that toss insults at Walmart can’t stay out of its stores for the convenience it brings. Still, this time around the company is being loathed and finds itself on the receiving end of increased backlash for its decision to open its doors on Thanksgiving. At the risk of sounding insensitive – so what! I don’t see what the big deal is.
However, over 30,000 people do as they have all signed an online petition asking the company to reverse its decision and close on Thanksgiving. However, Walmart’s plan is to open after 8PM – long after every one has eaten and certainly after second and third portions have had enough time to be digested. Still this is nothing new as the company also opened on Thanksgiving of last year – except this time it wants to open two hours earlier. Again, I ask where is the crime?


The petition asserts that Walmart is disregarding the needs of its employees and that the company can afford to allow them the time to be spend with their families. But does this make Walmart evil for providing employment in an economy already ravaged by lost jobs. What’s more, Walmart is not the only retailer that plans to open on thanksgiving in preparation for Black Friday. Other retailers such as Target, Kmart as well as Toy R Us also plan to take advantage of early shoppers. Yet it is Walmart that is considered evil for this decision.

Bottom Line
As you’re walking into a Walmart try to remember how difficult things were at the height of our country’s recent recession. By Walmart’s low prices, it’s hard to imagine if there was any other company that was more instrumental in helping Americans manage their household budgets. Still, the self-appointed moral figures on American business forget that offering low prices come at a cost. If it requires generating enough revenue on Thanksgiving so that “little Johnny” can enjoy Tickle-Me-Elmo for $10 less, I ask again – where’s the crime?


What’s more, there is a lot of good that Walmart does for which it gets very little credit – including being one of the country’s largest tax payers while offering jobs and providing American workers with opportunities that they otherwise might not have had. So is opening in Thanksgiving really that egregious after all. I think it is safe to say that there are bigger travesties in the world of business. So can we for now shelve the constant hypocrisy on this issue – at least until Christmas?

 

[Brushscrubber]

I worked EMS for 8 years. My wife and I would always argue to which parent's house we were going to for the holidays (all major holidays) until I started volunteering for those shifts. I knew fellow workers that had kids or out of town/state families and I would volunteer to switch shifts for them, so they could be at home with their families. It took out the argument of where my wife and I would be going since I knew I would be on the truck. She could go back home and I could allow someone to be at home since we don't have kids.

I can remember years ago the grocery would be open till noon on Thanksgiving and open around 4pm for Christmas day, only gas stations, hotels, and an occasional pharmacy would be open 24/7/365, then you had the public service section of fire, ems, police, hospitals, etc. on 24/7/365., heck you never saw a big truck on the road on Thanksgiving or Christmas., and you never had a department store open for those days. I grew up around when those days were meant to be spent with family and friends, not getting bargains, and such. If you got bored you, your family and friends played games and/or went outside to do something together (ride a bike, take a walk, etc)

Today it is just seen as just another day to many. No real meaning behind it seems. We go through the motions but if there is a bargain to be had then "I" need it and I don't care that the other person working is not with their family because it benefits me and I have the day off. Our lives are so much more complicated and we all move as a society at a much greater pace. We get wrapped up in all the things we have to do/get done that we don't think of yesteryear when things were slower, simpler (maybe?). Anyone remember what they would have done without the cellphones, gps, computers, internet, etc, etc.??? All the technology is great, and is there to help make our lives simpler (again maybe??) but yet I think it has just added to the chaos, and to our "its about me" attitude because I'm so darn busy and this fits my schedule right now.

Don't really know, but sharing my

BTW. I'm not really that old.

 

[Ted]

I see 3 different issues at the store level, meaning management issues within the store. Where's the corporate level retailation we're hearing about?

EVERY employer has made mistakes in their past in regards to hiring/firing pricedures over the years, whether it's mom and pop store or a retail giant. These whiners are complaining about corporate level retalitation for protesting them being open on thanksgiving(a condition they KNEW about prior to employment). I'm not seeing it.

If there are a reported number of 2,000 incidents at retail store operations level, when does it cease to be mere isolated local incidents, and become a corporate....or rather a systemic problem?

Turning a head and refusing to address the number of violations, is paramount to condoning them.