Traditionally, the term "Black Friday" means the point in the year that U.S. retailers start making profit, as in they go from being in the red, into the black. While I suppose technically that's what Black Friday still means, for thousands who work in the retail sector it means dealing with the type of scene one usually needs police or military training to handle. That's part of the reason why thousands of Wal-Mart workers across America are held a walkout in their stores today, thus avoiding all potential stampedes, shootings, and chemical attacks that now seem to accompany, what should be, a pleasant day of shopping.
Concerns were already being raised in the midst of the madness last year, not just because of the escalating violence, which will undoubtedly see some Best Buy in Toledo get nuked in 2015 as people riot over $100 X-Boxes, but because of the instance of these stores having to open at 5, 4, even 3 am on what's supposed to be a holiday weekend. The trend has gotten even worse this year, with stores opening at midnight, meaning employees have to report to work on what's supposed to be a national holiday.
Now one can certainly make an argument that people who work in retail choose that life, and thus they lose the right to complain, but working at a big box store isn't the same as, say, joining the army. And no one as a kid says that they want to be a greeter, or move skids around in a stock room, when they grow up. But even if they did, are they not entitled to the same time off? Even Scrooge gave Cratchet the day off and that's before the ghosts fixed him.
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