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[–]hildebrand_rarity[S] 6230 points6231 points  (525 children)

I can’t imagine mass crowds battling for retail deals during a pandemic is a good idea anyways.

[–]DiaDeLosCancel 2827 points2828 points  (377 children)

Almost like they are doing this to protect their reputation and bottom line.

[–]MuchaBienaEngrish 1443 points1444 points  (297 children)

Best Buy gave up their reputation when they created their own fake website in their stores with higher prices so they could gouge people and not price match their actual online deals.

Also they partnered with HSBC, the cartel funding tycoons, to offer customers financing on their homes in the store if they couldn't afford a new TV

EDIT: The HSBC thing was a pilot program that I don't think the store ever made public (I worked there)

[–][deleted] 357 points358 points  (78 children)

Wait, what?

[–]GitEmSteveDave 524 points525 points  (76 children)

In store, they used an “intrAnet”. It accessed an internally maintained version of their website with higher prices than you could see if you accessed the website via the internet from your home.

EDIT: some sources for it from a great old site called Consumerist:

https://consumerist.com/2007/02/best-buys-secret-employee-only-in-store-website-shows-different-prices-than-public-website.html

Have you ever found a deal at Best Buy’s website only to travel to the store and find that the “sale” is over? Did the Best Buy employee show you “proof” on their “website”? It now seems that there are really TWO websites, and they’re identical except for the prices.

https://consumerist.com/2007/03/02/best-buy-confirms-the-existence-of-its-secret-website/

In the wake of an investigation launched by the Connecticut Attorney General’s office, Best Buy has finally admitted that the now-infamous “secret intranet” (used to mislead in-store customers about BestBuy’s online prices) exists. The website looks identical to BestBuy.com…except for the prices.

[–][deleted] 137 points138 points  (44 children)

How would that work if one is just using data

[–]Nickbou 162 points163 points  (23 children)

This was before smartphones were prevalent. You would use an in-store computer kiosk which was connected to the store network and would bring up the intranet version. It would show different prices than if you looked it up on the internet with your home computer.

The kiosks stuck around even after smartphones were gaining wide use because still not everyone had one, and it was easier to just leave them in place. They’re probably still there in some stores.

[–]DJ_Gr33nMan 61 points62 points  (19 children)

What you would do back then was, use your home computer to search and find your product. Print the page out. Take that to the store and they would price match. I did it plenty of times back in the day when this was going on. Now a days with smart phones. Just make sure not to log into their onsite wifi. Bc then your accessing their "intrAnet"

[–]ILLBORNrecords 234 points235 points  (3 children)

This was before everyone had a smartphone. Like pre iPhone if I remember correctly.

[–]existential_prices 48 points49 points  (0 children)

I remember as popularity of smartphones grew people very much started price shopping in store, even on the same store's website. Especially with photography gear and small audio like headphones.

[–]wereinthething 33 points34 points  (8 children)

It's getting different data. Intranet vs internet.

edit - oh you mean phone data. Dude up the chain said it was 2005-2007 so not many had smart phones yet.

[–]Kamen-Rider 11 points12 points  (6 children)

I think he meant what's stopping someone from just pulling up the best buy site with their phone data these days.

[–]Iggyhopper 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Not much. This was when in store internet kiosks was a thing and cell phones with good enough data was not.

[–]hcsLabs 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Big Faraday cage buildings that eat cellphone signals for breakfast.

[–][deleted] 84 points85 points  (15 children)

customers financing on their homes

Wait what?

[–]hoxxxxx 40 points41 points  (12 children)

in olden times many folk would refinance their home to afford a tv, or a "telly-vision" as we used to call it

onions in belts, so on and so forth etc

[–]Justacuriouslilrhino 23 points24 points  (1 child)

Which was the style at the time.

[–]Air0ck 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Gimme 5 bees for a quarter

[–]Eternal_Revolution 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Like this clip where Homer swipes the deed to his house to buy a computer? https://youtu.be/EXtrbkLE27Y

[–]Hydroxychoroqiine 16 points17 points  (10 children)

Go to Micro Center if you are lucky to have one near you. Or Sweetwater online. I prefer both over Best Buy.

[–]SaxyOmega90125 33 points34 points  (43 children)

About five years ago, I tried to file a warranty claim on a laptop I bought through Best Buy. They claimed they could find no record of the purchase (it was eight months prior), refused to help me, and I had to convince the manufacturer to help me directly against their own policy. This after spending a combined total of over three hours on the phone playing he-said-she-said, and I ended up having to pay shipping to get it to them. That was the last purchase at Best Buy I will ever make.

[–][deleted] 37 points38 points  (5 children)

I’ve known a lot of Best Buy employees, I mean a lot. I work with them in my line of work. There are a lot of dumbasses that work for Best Buy, also a lot of smart people. But you could have very easily gotten one of the Neanderthals that didn’t even add the coverage to your purchase.

[–]Robotic_Lamb 64 points65 points  (21 children)

The lesson? Keep your fucking receipts. I swear consumers can't make up their minds whether they want all their purchases tracked or not...

[–]WhisperScream92 17 points18 points  (9 children)

I'm with you, it's not best buys responsibility to keep track of every person and their transactions. It's the customers and the proof of purchase they are handed after buying something.

[–]Snowstar837 12 points13 points  (4 children)

I mean, I work at a much less popular retailer and when someone buys ANYTHING with a warranty we get their phone number and name to link to the purchase. That way they can provide their number if they lose the receipt. If my company can manage that Best Buy definitely could. But they don't.

[–][deleted] 19 points20 points  (2 children)

They absolutely do.

Source: Employed by Best Buy for 10 years

[–]fuzzum111 15 points16 points  (7 children)

Same with amazon. When buying any kind of electronic product, don't waste money on their 'coverage.' they offer.

It's wholesale, a scam. I have no clue how it is legal, but if they're offering 2 years 'coverage' on a $600 laptop, for $15, that isn't anywhere near possible.

It does not cover any accidental damage, or breakage, etc. It's barely even covers the same stuff as a manufacturers warranty. They portray it as full coverage, when it's not.

EDIT: I do not understand why I'm getting "good" warranty stories about Bestbuy. That wasn't who's warranty I was shitting on. It's AMAZON'S Warranty I'm shitting on. It's useless. It's extremely cheap compared to other comprehensive warranties (Like BestBuy's or Sears's) because it doesn't actually cover everything/anything for that matter.

[–]swissfrenchman 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Also they partnered with HSBC, the cartel funding tycoons

Finacial products are about half the US economy.

[–]GroinShotz 3 points4 points  (2 children)

About two years ago, they got rid of 90% of the American 'covert agents' from their geek squad as well. Cheaper labor in the Phillipines.

[–]DistortoiseLP 41 points42 points  (2 children)

Eh, good. Companies doing the right thing out of fear of the consumer is how things should be in a capitalist economy.

[–]Mist_Rising 74 points75 points  (3 children)

Black Thursday wasnt the fiscal boon it was expected to be anyway, but nobody wanted to yank the ripcord first. Pandemic stepped in and records went blam.

[–]WhisperScream92 31 points32 points  (2 children)

This! Don't get me wrong, a win for the employees is still a win but they aren't winning brownie points from me. I've worked retail and there's a reason every store has wonky ass hours Thursday night and Friday morning. Business wasn't what they hoped for but until one made the decision they all just continued to compete

[–]narcimetamorpho 8 points9 points  (1 child)

Agreed. They aren't winning brownie points until we see how they're actually going to handle black Friday and other holiday sales.

[–]Littleboyhugs 24 points25 points  (19 children)

This is said every time a company does something good. FFS.

[–]levitikush 10 points11 points  (6 children)

And is that a bad thing? Why does their intent matter whatsoever?

[–]AVLThumper 77 points78 points  (10 children)

They’ll all open up at midnight on Friday. Don’t worry, they’ll still sell cheap $300 TVs.

[–]RickDawkins 3 points4 points  (0 children)

$300 isn't even cheap these days for a tv. Not for the crap they'll be slinging.

[–][deleted] 201 points202 points  (26 children)

Then why are we celebrating thanksgiving being cancelled when Black Friday is the real shit show? Sorry, but the mega corps cancelling thanksgiving openings seem like a PR strunt to the max. 5 years ago this wouldn’t even be news

Shut Black Friday the fuck down as that’s the real super spreader event. Until then I honestly see this as a PR move more than anything else. Stores never should’ve been open on Thanksgiving for the first place

[–]cclloyd 27 points28 points  (1 child)

Pretty sure black Friday is how The Division started with the dollar flu.

[–]Paranitis 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Black Friday used to be a real thing. Then the corporations decided to go ahead and open late Thanksgiving night instead of being closed so people can be with their fucking families. And then the "Black Friday" (now Thursday) openings got earlier and earlier.

To be fair, the meaning behind Thanksgiving was always a crock of shit as it is, but at least now the US can be upfront about what's really important. The greenest of dollar bills.

[–][deleted] 21 points22 points  (18 children)

I’m glad I can say I’ve never once gone Black Friday shopping, I don’t understand how anyone could.

[–]tyme 5 points6 points  (1 child)

I have, back in the 80s and 90s at malls. Shit wasn’t nearly as crazy back then. I mean, it was busy for sure, but nothing like it’s been lately.

My fondest memory is finding out that the walkie talkies we used would set off the security sensors at the entries to stores whenever you used them. Lots of confused retail workers when the alarms went off with nobody near the doorway.

[–]hivebroodling 19 points20 points  (0 children)

They are doing this to gear up for black Friday. Closing for Thanksgiving used to be the norm

[–]xbungalo 21 points22 points  (2 children)

Honestly it’s probably not a good idea to go out Black Thursday even without the pandemic

[–]WebHead1287 22 points23 points  (3 children)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ill bet anything the mass crowds still fucking show up on Friday

[–]hohenheim-of-light 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You do realize they'll still be open on ACTUAL black Friday, right?

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

They'll be open on Black Friday though.

[–]roashiki 1512 points1513 points  (58 children)

Remember when this was the normal thing to do?

[–]soda_cookie 595 points596 points  (25 children)

Yeah. Seeing praise for something they should be doing anyway is kinda nauseating

[–]BlurryElephant 264 points265 points  (9 children)

They'll probably make employees come in that night which is a bad deal and not actually a holiday in my opinion. If you ask me a holiday should start at 12am and last until the following day at 8am. 32 hours total to provide a complete holiday that accommodates normal sleep requirements.

[–]Silver__Surfer 65 points66 points  (1 child)

Too reasonable. They’ll never go for it.

[–]S_E_P1950 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Too reasonable

Think about the shareholders.

[–]eggtasticness 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Thats exactly what I was thinking. How is it such a change when being open on Thanksgoving is nothing but a greedy CEO selfish move anyways? Working retail is a nightmare as it is and to deal with holiday crowds is just overwhelming.

[–]AllCaffeineNoEnergy 73 points74 points  (0 children)

Pepperidge Farm remembers...

[–]Usagi-skywalker 15 points16 points  (19 children)

I didn't realize it was a thing at all in the US. In Canada were closed on Thanksgiving :/

[–]Objective-Rain 5 points6 points  (6 children)

You have to remember that we Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in october and don't celebrate black Friday the way the states do if at all. so we don't have the hype for going out to buy things for Christmas and what not. That doesn't mean they should be open but that is why there open, because they get lots of business during that time.

[–]Usagi-skywalker 4 points5 points  (5 children)

That's the thing though I thought the whole hype of black Friday was that they're closed on Thanksgiving and Black Friday is the mad rush. I thought Thanksgiving was super important to them and that like us things should be closed so people can be with their families. What a concept. But capitalism am I right :(

[–]talk2melikethatagain 1868 points1869 points  (50 children)

They will just open 12:01am on Friday

[–]fyslexic__duck 474 points475 points  (31 children)

"Make sure you show up for work early."

[–]talk2melikethatagain 200 points201 points  (30 children)

When I worked retail and we opened at 6pm Thursday, some of us had to show up at 1pm to get the store ready. Sometimes there would be a line so we had to use the backdoor.

[–][deleted] 173 points174 points  (13 children)

I worked at a Best Buy for Thanksgiving 2015. Had to be at the store at 6PM Thanksgiving day, and worked till about 1AM Friday morning. Then had to be back up at the store at 10AM. It was cold and raining Thanksgiving night, but there was still a line of customers wrapped around the store waiting to get in. Blows my mind people actually participate in this shit.

We were running our "Black Friday" deals all week, so it's not like people were saving any money.

[–]Sixwingswide 37 points38 points  (4 children)

I imagine they didn’t know the deals were all week, didn’t believe it, or were afraid of coming back later to empty shelves.

[–][deleted] 38 points39 points  (3 children)

People tend to know all of that, but think there’ll be some secret Black Friday deals only for the day itself. When I worked retail as a teen, I’d get old ladies whispering to me, asking me where to find the really good deals left for today, to which I’d always say that it’s the same deals we’ve been having all week, and they get frustrated and walk away, thinking I’m useless. Jokes on you granny, you wasted a whole day at Walmart when you could’ve bought that blender on Tuesday for the same price.

[–]Sixwingswide 10 points11 points  (1 child)

blender

Completely unrelated but fuck Oster. Bought a blender and discovered it was missing the seal that stopped liquid from leaking out of the top part. Tried looking it up, looks like a few others had the same issue. Called the 800 number and got stuck on an endless recording/hold loop.

[–]altnumberfour 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Not to mention at like 90% of stores you can get deals as good or better either 1) online on Black Friday or 2) on Cyber Monday.

[–]CanuckianOz 66 points67 points  (11 children)

That’s awful.

I’m not American (Canadian) but we have thanksgiving day and I always thought it was similar except a different day (same food, family etc) but I spent one Thanksgiving in the US with a coworker that invited me and that was CRAZY. I was in downtown Denver and the city was completely dead at 10am. Couldn’t even go to 7-11 or McDonalds. I went to their house and it was the entire extended family, additional kids tables and shit loads of food. Football on the TV and all the decorations. It was absolutely next level. In Canada, we will have over direct family and maybe grandma or an uncle/aunt and their kids. It’s just another turkey holiday really.

I’ve lived in three other countries and I don’t recall anywhere that had a family-focused holiday like that. Americans get so little holidays to begin with and get one day to gather together. I think working on Thanksgiving should attract 2x or 3x pay and retail surcharges for consumers.

[–]StabilizedDarkkyo 16 points17 points  (8 children)

Oh my god thank you. Workers definitely deserve to be paid more if they work that day. I think it’s that you get 1.5 times more your normal pay for holidays at the company I worked at. Which was fine, but then they started taking off several holidays that used to be on the list of days you’d get the bonus on, like Easter, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s, 4th of July, etc. Seemed to be that the only ones left were the major two or three, Thanksgiving, maybe Black Friday, and Christmas Eve. :/

I might be wrong with what exact holidays they took off the list, but it became pretty miserable hoping that at least if you were working a holiday you’d get that bonus 1.5 but then show up to work and have yet another holiday where all the workers are peeved cause it wasn’t the case. Frustrating. Workers definitely deserve the x2 or x3, probably depending on the holiday (like Christmas and Thanksgiving if they have to work could be the triple? The rest can be double) especially if companies are knocking holidays off of their list of holiday bonus days.

Edit: accidentally said Halloween instead of Black Friday, and Christmas instead of Christmas Eve.

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (2 children)

I'm sure this just means the store is closed, not that their employees are off. Just gives them an opportunity to setup for midnight sales without having to deal with customers

[–]marcjwrz 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Yep, that's how it is in Massachusetts normally.

Fuck black Friday. That garbage shopping day ruins the holiday for so many people.

[–]disequilibrium0 1333 points1334 points  (92 children)

This isn't a very historic change. "Target opened for the first time on Thanksgiving Day in 2011. Best Buy opened for the first time on turkey day in 2013"

[–]vault151 223 points224 points  (15 children)

I definitely remember this. Black Friday used to be Black Friday only, stores were always closed on Thanksgiving. It’s like they’re going back to the things used to be, and should’ve stayed that way imo, but now they want a pat on the back for it.

[–]ApatheticAbsurdist 90 points91 points  (11 children)

It used to only be black Friday. Then they started early shopping hours (opening at 8am instead of 10am or maybe rise and shine 6am hours). Then they started doing mid night openings, which they did for years. Well then a 10pm is only 2 hours more, so let's move it earlier. It's been a slow creep.

[–]west-egg 61 points62 points  (10 children)

And now they proclaim BS like “Black Friday all month long!!!” which makes it painfully obvious the whole thing is a sham. “Black Friday” has basically no meaning anymore.

[–]Cha-Le-Gai 7 points8 points  (6 children)

Black Friday in July or March (or whatever 1st/2nd quarter month it was) is just as silly.

[–]thing85 19 points20 points  (5 children)

Amazon's "Prime Day" has always been a load of shit.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (1 child)

I got a graphical tablet display last year for a really good price. There are some good deals, but it's mostly luck--if the 2-hour fire sale on the docket happens to be something you were looking for.

[–]nrith 567 points568 points  (41 children)

Some redditors probably don’t even remember way back then.

[–][deleted] 175 points176 points  (28 children)

Some were still on the bottle

[–][deleted] 196 points197 points  (19 children)

I wasn't back then but I am now

[–]Lost-My-Mind- 63 points64 points  (18 children)

I mean, how can you NOT be drinking in 2020?

[–]DoctorStrangeBlood 14 points15 points  (0 children)

We call those the before times. Toilet paper floweth like streams and people laid bare their faces to the Lord and His creation. Woe to those who hasten its return before its due time.

[–]UF8FF 8 points9 points  (0 children)

What’s funny is I worked at Best Buy 07-08 and so I’m thinking “hold up, they don’t open on thanksgiving....”

[–]ThatITguy2015 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Time sure flies when you’re blind shit-faced drunk.

[–]Juswantedtono[🍰] 17 points18 points  (5 children)

6-9 consecutive years of opening on Thanksgiving isn’t nothing. If the pandemic hadn’t stopped it this year, it probably would have become permanent

[–]SlowRollingBoil 3 points4 points  (4 children)

It'll be permanent because retail workers don't matter to corporations that want to make money.

[–]eeyore134 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Yeah, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills where people think this is some sort of amazing stance. They'll still be open Friday and they'll still have deals that will drive way too many people out to shop during a pandemic. Some places say they're doing earlier deals, but it's going to be a mess. They need to make it a month long sale starting 2 weeks before and going 2 weeks after. Then they need to physically limit the number of people in the store and force them to wear masks. Then I'll be impressed.

[–]Atalung 42 points43 points  (5 children)

Now Walmart employees (like myself) and everyone else need to threaten mass callouts when they try and revoke it next year. Walmart now offers protected time off nationwide, if even 20% save enough to callout on Thanksgiving it will hurt

[–]st1tchy 24 points25 points  (1 child)

You would need a lot of people that are willing to lose their jobs, which won't happen. When I worked at Best Buy, calling off on Black Friday was an immediate firing, no questions asked. That was back when they opened at 6am on Friday. None of this Thanksgiving day crap.

[–]Atalung 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Calling out might but protected time off is covered

[–]ApatheticAbsurdist 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Though I'm pretty sure at least Best Buy was doing midnight openings on Black Friday for years before that.

[–]Nmcph8224 289 points290 points  (48 children)

The post office is going to be wild this year.

[–][deleted] 215 points216 points  (31 children)

As a mailman, it has been one wild ride already. Parcel volume is through the roof since everyones home ordering online.

[–]TikiUSA 107 points108 points  (12 children)

You are appreciated! I leave snacks and drinks for my delivery guys because it's so hot in the desert.

[–]subjecttomyopinion 81 points82 points  (0 children)

seemly depend cats direction smart payment society paint weather employ

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[–]redshoewizard 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah, and with a new Post Master General who was appointed by Trump now in charge, expect tremendous delays in first class mail/letters for the upcoming months. This man has no background with the Post Office, although he does have a logistics background but that doesn't stand close to how much of a beast the Post Office is compared to what he has handled. I highly recommend everyone to read about what changes he is making to your Post Office, and the unnecessary stress he is putting on carriers in larger cities all to "cut costs" forcing them to work faster in this summer heat. I don't even want to think about how bad this holiday season is going to be.

[–]tiredmale 301 points302 points  (27 children)

Black Friday during a pandemic is going to be interesting.

[–]tbonecoco 105 points106 points  (10 children)

Amazon's stock will keep climbing.

[–]Woogity 96 points97 points  (6 children)

People will be dying just in time for Christmas.

[–]shortandfighting 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Death, the best Christmas present of all.

[–]Bigspotdaddy 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Black Plague Friday

[–][deleted] 27 points28 points  (2 children)

I'm afraid after this year we may have to rename it to Black Friday.

[–]RespectTheTree 164 points165 points  (20 children)

Bezos can only get so hard

[–]Chicken65 119 points120 points  (7 children)

Ok sure, Thanksgiving DAY but won't there still be crowds the next morning?

[–][deleted] 53 points54 points  (5 children)

That’s what I said to my spouse! I would be more impressed if they closed the day after too. There will be line ups waiting for the midnight Black Friday events.

[–]yamaha2000us 164 points165 points  (16 children)

None of the manufacturers can produce enough product for the holidays. No one has money.

The 70’ are back Baby!

[–]halcykhan 40 points41 points  (7 children)

Still plenty of people making money, they are just going to shift the products sold and quantities/margins targeted

[–]yamaha2000us 11 points12 points  (6 children)

The low end margin Black Friday stuff gets shoved aside for medium to high priced items. Just think of all of the DVD and game releases that are not available. It will be last year’s releases again.

[–]halcykhan 7 points8 points  (5 children)

It’s going to be “work from home” tech garbage. “Better” routers, cable organizers, office furniture, monitors, headsets, etc. And puzzles will back in stock

[–]cloudstrifewife 11 points12 points  (3 children)

As a puzzler I am eagerly awaiting the day that puzzles are back in stock at normal prices.

[–][deleted] 10 points11 points  (2 children)

But I don’t wanna wear bell bottoms and have excessive amounts of bush!

[–]yamaha2000us 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Oh baby, you make me all tingly...

[–]hohenheim-of-light 6 points7 points  (0 children)

They're just closing Thanksgiving day, not for black Friday.

[–]JustAMoronOnAToilet 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Right then, someone find Keith Moon and get him a Rolls-Royce and a swimming pool. Maybe he'll, uh, wake up. Also fuck it get Roger a TV and a long lead as well.

[–]ShinmaOC 16 points17 points  (1 child)

It's rare that a headline will genuinely shock me, but this one did. Until about a year ago, I worked at the largest Walmart in my state, and the third largest in the country. I wasn't there this last November, but I do remember the year before, our managers saying our in-store Black Friday sales were down over 80%, and there was Corporate talks about not doing a special event weekend, maybe even a return to half-day Thanksgivings. Closing completely just blows my mind. I know exactly what those suits will do to increase their profit margins (including over $2 billion in "Overhead Reduction" in 2017, i.e. closing stores and firing everyone in them). Closing even one more day a year is like breaking the First Seal of Revelations.

[–]groundedstate 92 points93 points  (6 children)

Who gives a shit about Thanksgiving day? How do they plan on dealing with crowds of swarming morons on Black Friday?

[–]PutRedditNameHere 33 points34 points  (2 children)

Workers being able to spend time with their families is nice. But it will still be crazy come Friday.

[–]T-980 36 points37 points  (0 children)

That's not the point. The point is that they are closed on Thanksgiving. You know... You make a loud noise over to the left, nobody will notice the bullshit on the right. Lol

[–]HoldenTite 32 points33 points  (3 children)

Doesn't matter.

Black Friday will destroy all the work we put in up to Nov.

[–]SaxyOmega90125 9 points10 points  (3 children)

Are these stores still going to open at 6am on Black Friday?

[–]pomegranate_ 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Midnight on Black Friday would be my guess

[–]kvossera 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Good. I’m both delighted by this and frustrated by this, delighted that they’re committing to this and frustrated that it’s taken a pandemic to get stores to close on thanksgiving.

[–]AlongCameRoofus 359 points360 points  (73 children)

Uh...it's the day after that's problematic (you know, Black Friday). And I wager they won't be closed that day. This is a meaningless, bullshit gesture and nothing more than free publicity.

[–]jhairehmyah 40 points41 points  (3 children)

Since the early 2010's "Black Friday" has been "Black Friday and Thanksgiving starting at 4pm".

This is a meaningless, bullshit gesture and nothing more than free publicity.

A large subset of the population is getting bored with the "event" that is Black Friday on Thanksgiving, so it is good publicity for this pandemic to be an excuse to roll it back. I mean, if Macys had never broken the ice and opened on Thanksgiving, then perhaps no one would've followed suit. Maybe that ice will re-freeze and we'll stick to online on Thanksgiving.

That said, my partner works for Best Buy, and with busted supply chains, they have very little stock to sell. Its possible that the crazy deals the big stores are known for can't happen this year due more to supply chain than anything.

[–]michael1026 11 points12 points  (1 child)

"Crazy deals" never really happen. They just sell things for close to retail price and act like it's a "crazy deal". Trust me, they'll have things to sell.

[–]Flame_Effigy 432 points433 points  (44 children)

It's not meaningless for the workers who get to spend time with their families for once.

[–]Velkyn01 94 points95 points  (13 children)

I hope this trend continues in the future. People should be able to just wait a day to go to Best Buy or Target instead of forcing retail workers to miss out on time with their loved ones.

[–]InnocentTailor 57 points58 points  (11 children)

Cyber Monday is becoming more dominant over Black Friday, so maybe the virus might kill the latter for good.

[–][deleted] 34 points35 points  (6 children)

If COVID managed to count Black Friday among its casualties, things would be ever so slightly better.

[–]InnocentTailor 10 points11 points  (2 children)

It will just mean Amazon and eBay will be picking up the slack.

[–]gzilla57 9 points10 points  (1 child)

As bad as they are, people aren't trampling each other to death for Amazon packages.

[–]Cha-Le-Gai 5 points6 points  (0 children)

As a millennial I'm pretty offended Covid took our generation's job of killing off these industries. Fuck this virus. First it came for elderly, now this.

[–]rex2k10 54 points55 points  (11 children)

Haha you think they’re get the day off? Itll be closed for the public and business but not for the staff who are gonna be working that thanksgiving in order to be ready for Black Friday

[–]Valuesauce 25 points26 points  (3 children)

exactly this. anyone thinking otherwise has never worked retail.

[–]cudipi 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Exactly. I’ll have to go in at 9pm to set pallets on the floor and do Christmas conversion. I won’t even be able to see my family because I’ll be sleeping to prepare for the irregular overnight shift.

[–][deleted] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

When I worked in retail (and this was a few decades ago now), I would always mentally pencil in weeks around the holidays as times where I would be working pretty much non-stop.

Every year, I would complain about being scheduled for 56-60 hours/week, and every year I would get the "but we need an employee of your caliber to be here!" routine.

[–]walrus40 23 points24 points  (8 children)

I bet their family members appreciate it.

[–]BombSolver 15 points16 points  (1 child)

Corporate hivemind is funny to watch play out

[–]manilovethisshit 10 points11 points  (9 children)

These stores don’t deserve praise. They eroded what little respect they had for their employees by initially requiring them to work on Thanksgiving.

[–]Ianebriated 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Good for them, sad it took a pandemic. Although they wouldn't have done this if people hadn't shown up to buy stuff on thanksgiving day, so we're kind of to blame for that.

Although I've always found it funny what is acceptable to be open on Thanksgiving, and what isn't. I like the folks working the parade, convenience store employees, NFL players, announcers, people who work at the stadium (tickets, concessions, janitorial, sound, lighting, camera, security, parking) all of that is fine and tradition...someone working at Best Buy, that's a travesty.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (4 children)

I'm a Bby employee for about 7 years. They've treated me really well, my wife started working there. They've handled this crisis actually really well and I would say better than most companies I've seen.

They've really taken care of the employees tbh, as much as they can

[–]SonicBroom51 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Weird. Costco has done this for YEARS.

[–]JSongProvision 11 points12 points  (2 children)

This could be the end of Black Friday and thank fucking god. I worked for best buy for a decade and there's nothing that crushes the holiday spirit like insane customers , long hours, low pay, and blackout on vacation.

I'm sure employees everywhere are shedding some happy tears for this, though I'm sure there's still plenty of people there supporting their multi-channel ops

[–]Jellybean-Jellybean 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Great. Now how about closing on voting day?

[–]LoxodontaRichard 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is really weird but all of the top comments are nearly carbon copies of what I read when the last article about Walmart and Target closing popped up a few days ago.

[–]twoquarters 3 points4 points  (0 children)

How about normal hours on Friday?

[–]Madrid_Supporter 3 points4 points  (1 child)

I miss when Black Friday started at like 5 AM Friday morning and the deals were actually worth it.

[–]groov2485 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Ok, these post are ridiculous. They are closing THANKSGIVING DAY, not the day after that is Black Friday. So they are going back to post 2010 land where people actually got to spend time with family or whatever for Turkey Day (with the exception of gas stations, some groceries store and Walgreens.)

[–]Warglebargle2077 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Good, now stick with it full time. Fucking ridiculous making retail staff deal with this level of nonsense.

[–]tang123 2 points3 points  (0 children)

this is not news, who cares