Retailers Taking Steps To Entice Workers This Thanksgiving

Online, November 13, 2013 (Newswire.com) - As an increasing number of retailers in the US announced plans to open their stores on Thanksgiving Day, some protesters and consumers are expressing disappointment that employees in such chains will spend the holiday at work. However, retailers are taking steps to entice their associates by offering store discounts, bigger paychecks and, of course, a side of turkey for that day.

The move has received positive response, where many workers have even volunteered for the shifts.

Macy's senior vice president of corporate communications and external affairs, Jim Sluzewski, said that their workers are responding positively to the store's decision to open doors for the first time on such a holiday. He stated, "Virtually all our shifts and slots for that opening are being filled by volunteers."

Their staff will be compensated overtime for the entire shift. This has resulted in more than 90% of the holiday's shifts being filled with regular employees.

The retailer is going to tap into their network of 83,000 seasonal workers to fill in the remaining time slots.

At Wal-Mart, which planned to open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, management has decided to, once again, compensate more than 1 million of their workers with holiday pay. This means that, apart from the regular pay, the store will get the average of their staff's worked hours from the previous two weeks and will give them an additional paycheck for those hours.

The discounter is also boosting 2012's 20% employee discount to 25% on all purchases made. Also, it will provide traditional Thanksgiving meals during shifts.

Being always open on Thanksgiving Day for 22 years, Sears Holding's Kmart and Best Buy will similarly give their regular and seasonal workers holiday pay. Employees at Toys R Us, including 45,000 seasonal workers, will receive time and a half and team meals throughout the day. They will also be allowed to wear jeans and sneakers. The same goes to Target employees (they will receive time and a half), but those who work certain hours will additionally receive a shift's pay.

In many years, these perks have encouraged employees to work on holidays.

In response to a forum titled "Boycott Shopping on Thanksgiving Day" on Facebook, former convenience store worker, Rebecca Viets commented that she has always worked during holidays to get more compensation. "You know when hired that you will stand the chance of working a holiday," she wrote. "If someone had petitioned my place of employment to be closed and had taken away my opportunity to work for extra pay I would be mad."

Despite some negative criticism and responses, which include threats of protest and posted pledges on Facebook that some people will not shop on Thanksgiving Day, a new survey by Accenture showed the Thanksgiving creep is becoming more important for retail chains to stay competitive. It found that people will show up in large crowds to benefit from promotions during holidays, with 38% of shoppers expressing they are likely to make purchases on Thanksgiving and 55% stating they are likely to buy some things on Black Friday, which is the highest figure in five years.

In 2012, the National Retail Federation made an estimate showing the value of Black Friday weekend reaching $59.1 billion.

Commeting on the issue, Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg stated, "We know there are going to be a lot of customers."

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