“We liked it when it was just Black Friday,” said Tonya Johnson of Springfield. She was lined up outside Target about two hours before the box store opened Thursday with her husband and his mother. “Now it kinda takes away from spending time with your family a little bit. We had to do our dinner earlier.”
Kmart and Meijer were the first two stores in the area to begin offering deals at 6 a.m. Thursday.
Most major retailers waited until evening to open their doors.
It’s a trend that has grown the past few years, with 44.8 million people shopping on Thanksgiving Day last year, up 27 percent from 2012, according to the National Retail Federation.
But local shoppers noted the crowds seemed smaller this year. At Kohls there was no line at all about an hour and a half before opening time, just a few people sitting in vehicles in the parking lot.
“(The line) was significantly shorter, compared to what I’m used to,” said Phillip Graham of Springfield, who lines up early at Best Buy every year.
“People want to celebrate with their families. That’s the majority of the reason no one’s out here,” Graham said.
State Rep. Mike Foley, a Democrat from Cleveland, has introduced a bill that would require workers be paid triple wages on Thanksgiving and would allow them to bow out of working the holiday shift without penalty.
Foley said the idea for his bill came from a Cincinnati woman who said both she and her 82-year-old mother had been scheduled to work their retail jobs on Thanksgiving.
“I was offended by it,” he said. “Can’t there be one day that’s carved out of this consumerist, materialistic society we’re living in?”
Mary Kathryn Habodasz of Urbana was waiting in the car with her family for Kohl’s to open and said they rescheduled Thanksgiving dinner for Saturday. Her mother had to work at Walmart on Thursday starting at 5 p.m. and the rest of the family wanted to get in on some of the shopping deals.
“As long as they keep it later in the evening I think that’s good,” Habodasz said.
Some local shoppers said they support measures benefiting workers.
“If the worker don’t want to work on Thanksgiving it should be their right and they shouldn’t lose their job over it,” said Rhonda Ashby of South Charleston, also lined up at Best Buy. But she said the store has the right to be open whenever it wants.
The list of local stores that opened Thursday included Walmart, Meijer, Kmart, Target, Kohl’s, JCPenney, Sears, Big Lots, Dollar General and Office Max.
“They’re going to be here and we’re going to be here so I don’t see a problem with it,” said Will Proemm, who drove from Columbus to be first in line at Best Buy. “They’re getting paid to be here and I’m standing out here eight hours longer than they are,” he said.
As the holiday shopping season rolls on Friday through Cyber Monday, the NRF is expecting sales to increase 4.1 percent over last year.
The average shopper plans to spend $804, up nearly 5 percent over last year’s actual average spending of $767, the NRF said.
Sales in November and December can account for as much as 30 percent of a retailer’s annual sales.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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