Will Shoppers Quit Kmart Cold Turkey?

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

Or will they hit the store aisles while their turkey cools? In our consumerist society, the retailer’s decision to stay open for 41 hours straight beginning 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day might pose bigger problems for HR than PR.

We want more hours. We want fewer hours. We want our turkey, and time to eat it, too. Oh, the mixed messages we get from our part-time retail staffers.

Kmart is receiving a lot of public flak for its decision to open at six o’clock in the morning on Thanksgiving Day—and remain open for the next contiguous 41 hours (that’s 6 a.m. Thursday until 11 p.m. Friday, for those of you counting). The media has blown up with stories of disgruntled associates and offended customers. Last year, they say, the retailer had the decency to shut down for 180 minutes on Thanksgiving afternoon to allow its associates to go home and pull their turkeys out of the oven.

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