Walmart guaranteeing Thanksgiving deals on certain electronics - Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic

By Jason Carr
Fox 2 News Reporter

NOVI, Mich. (WJBK) -- When you hurry into Walmart on Thursday and join the sped up madness, the store is guaranteeing you'll be able to get deals on certain electronics if you're in line and in the store between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.

"An Apple iPad with a $75 gift card, an Emerson TV and a LG Blu-Ray player, all those will be guaranteed.  If we run out from 10:00 to 11:00, they'll be guaranteed and you'll get a voucher at the front end for them," said Walmart Market Manager Joe Barendse.

Already shelves are stocked with hot toys and workers are still preparing.  The flyers have been printed.  All hands of deck.  Nothing left to chance.

About that whole making your employees work on Thanksgiving thing, Novi Walmart Store Director Aaron Quimby said, "We're actually going to be feeding them all hot meals.  We've catered out for them on Friday.  And the way we did the schedules is so all of our associates still had time to spend at home with their family, whether it was the lunch-main dinner time or the evening dinner time."

So Walmart's not being totally draconian about this.  You either work the morning or the night so you have time with your family and they're going to have that free meal.

However, the UAW still sent out a letter saying "workers at Walmart are planning mass actions around the country on Black Friday to stand up to their employer.  UAW brothers and sisters, Walmart workers need your help."

The temperature of the workers that we spoke with were tepid.  They're not about to stage a revolution, but you could tell that they would most likely rather be at home with their families.

It's worth noting both managers we talked to are working the holiday just like the rank and file.  However, the media is not allowed inside Walmart from Thursday through Sunday.

When I asked Quimby if that was because of stampede concerns, he said, "Our number one goal is to get customers and associates in and out of the facility that evening.  Everybody's seen the amount of traffic that goes into stores that night, and for me at the end of the night when I go home if everybody's safe that's a successful night for me."

For more information on the Black Friday sales at Walmart, visit www.walmart.com.