TARGET AND BEST BUY EMPLOYEES, CONSUMERS ASK RETAILERS TO SAVE THANKSGIVING

Campaigns to Target, Best Buy are among the trending petitions on Change.org calling on retailers to “Save Thanksgiving” after companies announce early opening hours on Thanksgiving Day.

MINNEAPOLIS – Both Best Buy and Target will open on Thanksgiving Day this year, with Best Buy starting at 6pm and Target starting at 8pm, and employees and consumers are joining over 216,000 shoppers, retail employees and their loved ones around the country in signing dozens of new petitions on Change.org asking major retailers, including Walmart, Kmart and Big Lots, to save Thanksgiving and to stop the so-called “Black Friday creep.”

Change.org users have launched more than 60 new petitions with a total of more than 216,000 signatures calling on companies to allow families to spend Thanksgiving together and to stick to Black Friday opening times. Companies named in petitions include: Best Buy, Big Lots, the Gap, JCPenney, Kmart, Macy’s, Target, Toys R Us, and Walgreens. This year, petitions shifted from a focus on big box retailers to other businesses like office supply store Staples, family dinner theater Medieval Times, and the Simon Property Group, which owns hundreds of malls across the country.

Pat Stumpff, a Dayton, Ohio-based employee of Target, started the largest petition on Change.org to Target this year. In her petition, she writes:

"My husband and I have two children and we are always 'working around' someone's work schedule to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and such as a family... I believe that the Thanksgiving holiday was instituted for us to take some time out of our often too busy lives to recognize, celebrate and be thankful for all the good things we have in this country."

Daniel Peluso, a Bluffton, South Carolina-based employee of Best Buy, started this petition on Change.org to Best Buy. In his petition, Daniel writes:

"Every year retailers are opening earlier and earlier, but at what expense? Employees are forced to work away one of the few holidays that could be spent with their families. We as Best Buy need to take a stand against this American greed and retail atrocity."

Last November, more than 377,000 people joined Target employee Casey St. Clair’s Change.org petition calling on Target to save Thanksgiving for its employees, their families and consumers by opening on Black Friday instead of on Thanksgiving itself.

“As many retailers open earlier than ever this Thanksgiving, it’s remarkable to see so many employees and consumers calling on retailers once again to ‘Save Thanksgiving,’” said Tim Newman, deputy campaigns director at Change.org. “It’s clear that the concerns reflected in these petitions are resonating with Target and Best Buy employees and consumers and beyond.”