Not everyone participates in the retail holiday known as Black Friday. But none of us can deny that the discounts and promotions on offer are a marketing and sales tactic that works. Each year, retailers across America work to bring their accounting books into the black on this day, the symbolic beginning of the holiday shopping season. Most shoppers and sellers end the day satisfied and happy, both having taken full advantage of the bounty of the free market.

But once again this year, on display next to the Black Friday sales, happy customers, and in-the-black retailers, will be another sales tactic — one that doesn’t work, and in fact is more of a public nuisance than a successful advertising pitch. Gathering outside Walmarts in Washington, D.C., and other cities will be Black Friday protestors sponsored by a group known as Organization United for Respect, aka OUR Walmart.