We are the concerned workers from businesses within Thornes Marketplace and we are writing to make our community aware of what is transpiring inside our local mall.  While Thornes has claimed to be open to a conversation, they have refused action on worker demands and told us to direct our concerns to individual businesses.

Bag Day, a special holiday sale event specific to Northampton businesses, has historically taken place just before Thanksgiving. This was a single day event that drew massive crowds to Thornes to collect their bags and shop at many of the participating businesses inside. This year, Thornes dubbed this event “Yule Days” and extended sales to take place over the span of four days to “shop safely”. This is a public health crisis. We are living through a global pandemic and the Downtown Northampton Business Association’s executive director made a recent statement to the Daily Hampshire Gazette that “we would love the problem of somebody shopping all four days at one store.” In Hampshire County, we have seen a massive rise in cases over the past two weeks with no sign of stopping. Explicitly inviting a crowd to downtown Northampton is not only irresponsible but dangerous to us as workers, our families, and community members.

We want to make it clear that this is not an attack on Thornes’ building and maintenance staff. We deeply appreciate them and are in solidarity with them as workers. Our issues and these responsibilities lie with upper management and the owners of the building. We, as workers, believe we share collective air, so we share collective concerns.

The building owners’ lack of willful accountability is unsettling. We are now left with asking you, the community, to aide in keeping yourselves and us safe while shopping this holiday season. When coming into the Marketplace, we ask that you

1. Wear proper CDC guided PPE

2. Come individually rather than in large groups

3. We want you to order online.

4. We want you to order curbside.

5. We want you to ask your fellow shoppers to pull their masks up.

6. Ask the buildings upper management if all of this is still worth it. Can you shop small, safe, and local?

Sign this petition if you think that Thornes should support the workers inside of the building and if you believe in a safer Northampton!