'Black Friday Creep' Spurs Online Petition Drives to Save Thanksgiving

The trend for stores to open earlier and earlier to take advantage of Black Friday sales—even to the point of opening in the evening on Thanksgiving Day—has prompted an online petition drive to give Thanksgiving back to employees and their families.

The original petition was reportedly created by a Target employee upset that the retail giant is opening on Thanksgiving and requiring employees to work instead of spending time with their families.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were more than 190,000 signatures on the petition.

(Check out the petition here.)

A press release from Change.org reported that they have seen dozens of new petitions pop up about Black Friday hours.

"Following a Sears announcement last week that the company would open store doors at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving evening, Change.org users launched more than 40 new petitions calling on retailers to allow families to spend Thanksgiving together and stick to Black Friday opening times," the press release stated.

The New York Daily News reported that "copycat" petitions have also been created asking Macy’s, Best Buy, Old Navy and Kohl’s to reconsider their plans to open at midnight on Thanksgiving.

Here are just some of the more than 40 trending “Save Thanksgiving” petitions on Change.org:
https://www.change.org/petitions/target-take-the-high-road-and-save-thanksgiving
https://www.change.org/petitions/target-don-t-take-away-thanksgiving
https://www.change.org/petitions/sears-holdings-stop-sears-stores-from-opening-thanksgiving-day

What do you think? Are Black Friday specials getting out of hand and starting to replace the Thanksgiving holiday itself?