A Social Boycott: Networking To Roll Back Thanksgiving Store Hours
How mighty is social media? Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are claiming more scalps — meting out justice to Bill Cosby, SeaWorld and Uber. But one real test of social-media is the online drive to get stores to close on Thanksgiving Day.
For now, the stores are “winning” — but only by losing.
It's fast becoming an old story — the power of Facebook and Twitter to topple governments and outwit PR “experts.”
Cosby ignored gruesome rape allegations for years — but TV execs couldn't ignore a viral video and virulent Twitter memes. NBC quickly (and wisely) backed away from a new Cosby sitcom. TV Land even canceled old re-runs.
SeaWorld has bled visitors — and watched its stock plummet — since the Twitterverse amplified a small-scale “Blackfish” documentary on captive whales.
And after BuzzFeedBen informed everyone that Uber honcho Emil Michael had threatened to blackmail reporters for doing their jobs, customers started deleting Uber's app from their phones — forcing Uber to apologize.
So even huge chains like Walmart may be worried about social media's newest target: retailers who open Thanksgiving Day.
The movement against “Black Thursday” doorbusters is exploding.
Brian Rich, 32, of Idaho, has run Boycott Black Thursday on Facebook for three years. He'd racked up 103,914 “likes” by last Friday — up from 7,000 last year.
Jordana Bishop, 40, of Massachusetts, runs a rival site, Boycott Shopping on Thanksgiving Day. She's “been pretty busy” as fans have doubled in the past year, from 6,000 to 10,699. “I try to like every post” that people add to the site, she says.
Bishop maintains a “naughty and nice” list. Good: Men's Warehouse, Sur La Table, PC Richard. Bad: Old Navy, GAP, Walmart.
The goal is simple: Get enough people to eat rather than shop on Thanksgiving, and retailers won't think it's worth it to stay open.
“We are not anti-capitalism,” says Rich. He's not encouraging people to keep their wallets closed. Rather, folks can “have a good old-fashioned holiday at home” and shop on Friday.
So far, retailers aren't quaking in fear. JCPenney, Kmart and Sears are all opening earlier this year — Kmart at 6 a.m.
Why? Retailers know that boycotts are hard — and that there's a real difference between Cosby and Kmart.
NBC knows that once viewers have started firmly to think of Cosby as a sexual predator, they'll always think of him that way — especially as no one knows how many more alleged victims are out there, what they'll say and when they'll say it.
By contrast, when Thanksgiving is over, nobody thinks about stores having forced their workers to work on the holiday.
Especially since it's a lot of work to remember, on Christmas Eve, who was open on Thanksgiving — Crate & Barrel (no) or Williams-Sonoma (yes) — and then refrain from shopping at the latter if it's more convenient.
It's entirely different from a family's one-time decision not to go to SeaWorld because your tween daughter won't stop crying about whales.
As for killing Thanksgiving Day sales?
Social media is strong — but so is human desperation. Howard Davidowitz, chairman of the Davidowitz Associates retail consultancy, says retail boycotts have a “zero” percent chance of success.
“It's not gonna do anything,” he says, because “retailers are in a war for market share.”
Kmart knows that if it closes, it will lose that dollar to Walmart. “It would be one thing if the pie was increasing” in terms of people spending more money. “But Toys 'R' Us is losing a billion dollars. Sears is losing $2 billion.”
As for customers? “More people have dropped out of the labor force than have found new jobs,” he notes.
Poorer shoppers are desperate — even for illusory savings.
Retailers aren't deterred by the fact that only 18.3 percent of long-weekend shoppers want to shop on Thanksgiving Day, down from 23.5 percent last year. So they won't blanch at losing an extra point to boycotters.
But retailers' “victory” — if it holds — is a hollow one.
Boycott Black Thursday and Boycott Shopping on Thanksgiving Day's biggest groups of users are women aged 25 to 45. Bishop's demographics are the same.
“You're talking moms who spend money at Christmas,” says Rich. His fans include “lots of moms frustrated that their teenager has to work” on the holiday.
Over the past decade, Americans have come to resent, distrust and dislike politicians, bankers, CEOs and even church leaders.
It's not a good sign for anyone that retail chains are so desperate for sales that they're willing to risk adding their own brands to the list — just to try to stay in business another year.
This piece originally appeared in New York Post
This piece originally appeared in New York Post