Cutting Thanksgiving short to start selling for the holidays

Count your blessings, then get to work.

That may be Thanksgiving for more retail workers this year as stores desperate to pull in buyers on the first weekend of the holiday shopping season push their openings earlier and earlier.

Unhappy workers who say it ruins their Thanksgiving celebrations are trying to persuade companies to back off, but retailers say they're stuck: It's what customers want.

Reporting to work at 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day spoils what is supposed to be a day spent with family, said Anthony Hardwick, who works part-time at a Target store in Omaha, Neb., corralling carts.

As of Wednesday, his online petition against Target Corp.'s plan to open at midnight on Black Friday had drawn more than 100,000 signatures from retail workers and the public.

"The folks that work at Target are going to be working all night overnight on one of the most hectic retail days of the holidays," Hardwick said. "They need to be well-rested for that, so they have to miss out on Thanksgiving."

Merchants are competing for shoppers on a weekend that can be critical for their annual sales and profits, and a growing number fear opening at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m., as they have in recent years, may be too late in this challenging economy.

Midnight openings have proliferated this year, with Target, Best Buy Co. and Kohl's Corp. all announcing them for the first time.

While some retail workers are grumbling, others said they're simply glad to be employed.

"Retail is retail. People want to shop, and if they want to shop, we have to be there for them," said Mary Huskey, who has worked at a Wal-Mart in suburban St. Louis for 21 years.

"I'm just thankful that I have a place to work."