Retail workers and shoppers are once again pushing stores to stay closed on Thanksgiving Day instead of starting Black Friday on Thursday, as many plan to do.

Southwest Minneapolis has no big-box retail stores, but nearby stores on Minneapolis' East Lake Street, in Richfield, in Edina, and in St. Louis Park serve its residents.

As previously reported by Patch, Target will launch its Black Friday sale at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, while Sears and Walmart have announced plans to open at 8 p.m. Meanwhile, Best Buy is continuing the midnight openings it started last year.

Critics say Thanksgiving Day openings prevent employees from spending the holiday with their families. Opposition is growing on online petition website Change.org. “C Renee,” a woman who says she’s been a Target employee for six years, started a petition asking the retailer to “give Thanksgiving back to families and not open on Thanksgiving evening.”

“I have worked at Target for six years and I really enjoy my job,” she wrote. “Thanksgiving, though, is one of the three days us retail workers get off a year: a day most all of us spend with family we only get to see on that day.”

Monday afternoon, Target worker Casey St. Clair delivered her Change.org petition—which garnered more than 350,000 signatures—to the retail giant's corporate headquarters.

"350,000 shoppers have signed my Change.org petition, and they're all saying the same thing: Thanksgiving should be about family, not shopping," St. Clair said in a statement emailed to reporters. "Black Friday is one thing; turning Thanksgiving from a family holiday into a consumer spectacle is another."

The signatures don’t appear to have had much effect, though. Last year, more than 200,000 people signed another petition from a Target employee.

But what do you think? Should stores open on Thanksgiving Day? Should they open early on Black Friday? Or should they just stick to regular store hours?

Vote in Patch’s poll and then share your thoughts in the comments below.