Target Worker Fights 'Black Midnight' Hours

Shifts start at 11pm on Thanksgiving, to employees' dismay
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 15, 2011 10:28 AM CST
Target Worker Fights Black Friday Hours
A shopping cart stands in the parking lot of a Target store May 15, 2006 in Albany, California.   (Getty Images)

If you rolled your eyes at the news that some stores are opening at midnight on Black Friday, imagine how the employees of those stores feel. Target parking attendant Anthony Hardwick says that for his Black Friday shift—which starts at 11pm on Thursday—he’ll “have to go to bed in the early afternoon on Thanksgiving to go in and work 10 hours." So he started a Change.org petition asking Target to “save Thanksgiving” by opening at 5am instead.

Hardwick tells Bloomberg that his co-workers were resigned to the holiday schedule “because the economy is bad and so our employer has us over a barrel.” In the two weeks since the petition opened, it’s gotten some 85,000 signatures, but now Hardwick fears for his job. Analysts note that the petition will make Target the focus, but many other stores—including Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Best Buy—have similar Black Friday plans. Toys ‘R’ Us, Kmart, Gap, and Old Navy plan to open some of their stores even earlier, on Thanksgiving itself. (More Target stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X