Business & Tech

Kmart Denounced for Early Thanksgiving Shopping Hours

The retailer – owned by Sears – will open at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Online commenters are urging Kmart employees to stay home and spend the holiday with family.

By Deb Belt

Call it Thanksgiving creep. More national retailers are moving up the time that they open the doors on the holiday to capture Black Friday Christmas shoppers.

But the earliest – and most controversial time announced to date – is by Kmart. This week the discounter, owned by Sears, said its stores will open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving and remain open for 41 hours in a row until 11 p.m. on Black Friday, reports NPR.org.

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But online critics are calling the company a Grinch for its aggressive approach to the start of the Christmas shopping season, and many commenters have urged Kmart employees to stay home with family.

"Everybody thinks your executives are horrible people," a man named Christopher Sweet wrote on Kmart's Facebook page. Another critic, Ted Talevski, appealed to the workers: "This is a message to all Kmart employees! Do not go to work on Thanksgiving Day!," according to the NPR website.

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Kmart responded that the company will try to staff its stores with seasonal workers to allow employees who want to be with friends and relatives.

In the NPR post, Amber Camp, who says she works at Kmart, posted via Facebook that her bosses "are planning on all the employees to have some time so we can actually spend time with our families on Thanksgiving."

The corporate parent Sears stores will work a less aggressive schedule, opening from 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving night to 10 p.m. Friday.                           

"Kmart has opened at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving for the past three years," reports CNN Money. "Last year, however, stores closed for a few hours at 4 p.m. to let shoppers and employees get to their Thanksgiving dinners."

Christmas-themed stores opened in malls across the region in late September and October, mall representatives told Patch.

In addition to malls, customers also reported seeing holiday merchandise in stand-alone department and specialty stores in Maryland, including Hobby Lobby, which put out Christmas crafting supplies starting in JulyDollar General, which publicized a “Christmas in July” sale, and Kohl’s, which has experienced backlash from customers on its Facebook page for its early Christmas displays.

Several people said they were frustrated by the bombardment of Christmas before they could even enjoy Halloween.

“Hate it with a passion,” wrote Christy Kehler Ryan on the Catonsville Patch Facebook page.

“Way too early!” wrote Kathleen Anne Hall Lapchak on the Catonsville Patch Facebook page. “We need to go back to Christmas being after Thanksgiving like the old days. No one can enjoy the seasons anymore!"


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