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Blackballing Black Friday: Target, Best Buy employees protest the earlier thanever, Thanksgiving-threatening sales

Each year, Black Friday draws hordes of bargain shoppers anxious to get a headstart on holiday gift-buying.
Photo by John Partipilo
Anthony Hardwick started a petition to push back Target's open time to a morereasonable 5 a.m.
Photo via Change.org

It's Thanksgiving week. As families around the United States make travel plans and perfect recipes for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, retailers are gearing up for a supersized Black Friday.

Sometimes it seems that the much-too-early start, the crowds, the blatant consumerism and the competitive rush sometimes bordering on outright violence outweigh the epic deals on electronics and toys. This year, some retailers announced that stores would open their doors at midnight, eliminating at least one of those deterrents.

But some retail employees aren't so enthusiastic about this cut into their holiday time. Anthony Hardwick, a Target employee from Omaha, Neb., initiated a petition to "Save Thanksgiving" and push back the store's opening time to 5 a.m.

According to Hardwick,

A midnight opening robs the hourly and in-store salary workers of time off with their families on Thanksgiving Day. By opening the doors at midnight, Target is requiring team members to be in the store by 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. A full holiday with family is not just for the elite of this nation — all Americans should be able to break bread with loved ones and get a good night's rest on Thanksgiving!"

The petition has received more than 190,000 signatures, but that's not slowing down Target's midnight opening plans. The store is even getting a lead on the early holiday sales with a four-day sale of pre-Black Friday deals.

Target isn't the only big retailer sullying the sanctity of the holiday. Best Buy employees are complaining, too.

Toys "R" Us will open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, and remain open 26 hours straight. Walmart opens at 10 p.m., with staggered specials throughout the night and into Black Friday.

Do you think that retail employees deserve Thanksgiving night off? Will you be hitting the deals at Black Friday turned Thursday?

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Unhappy holidays

Porch pirates swipe nearly $2B in packages from Texas homes this year

Porch Pirate Person in Glasses Steals Packages

Getty Images

The Grinch isn't the only one stealing Christmas these days.

’Tis the season for porch pirates. If past trends are an indicator, the Grinch will swipe close to $2 billion worth of packages delivered to Texas households this year, with many of those thefts happening ahead of the holiday season.

An analysis of FBI and survey data by ecommerce marketing company Omnisend shows porch pirates stole more than $1.8 billion worth of packages from Texans’ porches last year. Porch pirates hit nearly one-third of the state’s households in 2024, according to the analysis.

Omnisend’s analysis reveals these statistics about porch piracy in Texas:

30.1 million residential package thefts in 2024.
An average household loss of $169 per year.
An annual average of 2.9 package thefts per household.

“Most stolen items are cheap on their own, but add them up, and retailers and consumers are facing an enormous bill,” says Omnisend.

Another data analysis, this one from The Action Network sports betting platform, unwraps different figures regarding porch piracy in Texas.

The platform’s 2025 Porch Pirate Index ranks Texas as the state with the highest volume of residential thefts, based on 2023-24 FBI data.

Researchers at The Action Network uncovered 26,293 reports of personal property thefts at Texas residences during that period. The network’s survey data indicates 5 percent of Texas residents had a package stolen in the three months before the pre-holiday survey.

The Porch Pirate Index calculates a 25.8 percent risk of a Texas household being victimized by porch pirates, putting it in the No. 5 spot among states with the highest risk of porch piracy.

The Action Network included online-search volume for terms like “package stolen” and “porch pirates.” Sustained spikes in these searches suggest that “people are actively looking for guidance after something has happened. Search trends serve as an early warning system, revealing emerging-risk areas well before annual crime statistics are released,” the network says.

Tips to avoid being a victim
So, how do you prevent porch pirates from snatching packages that end up on your porch? Omnisend, The Action Network and Amazon offer these eight tips:

Closely monitor deliveries and quickly retrieve packages.
Schedule deliveries for times when you’ll be home.
Use delivery lockers or in-store pickup when possible.
Ask delivery services to hide packages in out-of-sight spots outside your home.
Install a visible doorbell camera or security camera.
Coordinate deliveries with neighbors or building managers if you’ll be away from your home when packages are supposed to arrive.
Request that delivery services hold your packages if you can’t be home when they’re scheduled to come.
Illuminate the path to your doorstep and keep porch lights on.

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