It’s the holiday season and with that, there is one thing on everyone’s mind; shopping. As buyers rush to save big and win, it is the employees who suffer. With the rise of online sales, retail stores  find it harder and harder to get customers through their doors and so they have resorted to opening early on Thanksgiving to best their online competitors.

As we near Black Friday and the official tip-off to the holiday shopping season, stores have begun to announce opening times, as  more big name retailers will open their doors on Thanksgiving Day.

JC Penney announced they will  open their doors at 2 p.m., Old Navy at 3 p.m., with Best Buy, Macy’s, Target and Kohl’s following at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving, while Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart will open at 6 p.m..

All will open before or while most families will gather around the table for dinner or to watch the football game. For the employees at thousands of these retail stores nationwide, Thanksgiving dinner will have to wait, as they will be in stores, most an hour or more in advance of the stores’ opening time, preparing for the first wave of consumers waiting outside.

Unfortunately, employees have no choice but to come into work or lose their jobs.

Retailers need to make money to stay in operation and save the jobs of the employees called in on Thanksgiving, but the effect of opening on Thanksgiving puts the buyer in a moral dilemma.

For stores opening early, such as Target and Best Buy, families, especially parents with lower incomes, have to decide whether to stay at the table or go out and wait in the lines to get their child the new XBOX or video game from Santa. It is a decision no parent should be forced to make, and there is a simple solution that retailers are apparently blind to.

Open stores on Black Friday.

When you start Black Friday on Thursday, the name has no meaning. Thanksgiving is a time for family and being thankful for the things we already have, and it’s time companies realize that. Do the right thing and open doors at midnight, let the millions of underpaid employees enjoy Thanksgiving with their families before you put them through working the extended holiday hours put in place from Black Friday through Christmas.