Stores open on Thanksgiving...a rant

[dougb1946]

Thanksgiving is an arbitrary date anyways. You can have a thanksgiving feast any time you want. I worked retail for a lot of years, and usually ate turkey on the Sat. following. Food was good, family was good, the world did not end. Now, I religiously avoid all stores that weekend.

 

[rburg]

You guys are all preaching your religion to the rest of us. Many prefer to do as we please. By the time evening wears around on most holidays, I need a good nap. If others want to go shopping, I just don't care. Let them. It has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, Christmas, or anything else. Many people must work on holidays. My wife was an RN so she worked almost all holidays and weekends. That part was due to a nursing administration that seemed to favor some employees over others. And it all turned out OK. Most folks only need to work their 8 hours that day. If they normally work more, they either get paid for it or get a lot of other days off.

For most of the last 20+ years before I retired, I got stuck working literally every holiday. Someone had to check the building each and every day. It only took an hour or so if everything was OK. It wasn't always, and there was one Christmas back in the 1990s when we had a big freezer go down. Everything in it had to be transferred to another box, and it was tons. So I did what I was told, I called the numbers for the emergency and got to work. In about an hour or so others began showing up. What seemed like an enormous job then became much easier. It would have killed me if the others hadn't come in (but it would have cost them their jobs.) We even had the company owner suggest that my routine of showing up at 7:00 AM be changed to mid afternoon. I told him I didn't care, he should just get someone else to do it. Or make the other "queens" do their fair share. Its bad enough to be told to work on a holiday, much worse to be told when.

So I don't shop, ever. It doesn't much affect me that others do. Those that don't want to work need to find another job. I know its tough, but you've got to do what it takes.

I've read that family violence is at its worst on holidays. I'm going to guess its because of too many hours of being forced together. All that by family that maybe expects too much of others. Or uses the confinement to torture their least favorite family member. Its OK for you to like it. Its Also OK for others to decline. You may be the reason they do that. Even if you won't or can't admit it. I see my family regularly. But not for entire days under pressure. Besides, I saw the one I like best all day today. He's only 1 year old. We had fun and took naps.

If you like forced confinement together, just make sure all the other inmates enjoy it too.

 

[Rastoff]

Beemerguy53,
Your children are not working to spite you or because they are being forced. They have chosen their profession. Further, you'll have them for the whole day anyway, it makes little difference when they go to work because it's late. Enjoy the time you have with them.

As for me, I'll be sleeping after eating a nice big dinner. We usually eat around 2PM and just hang out the rest of the day. On Friday, I'll be at home. You couldn't pay me enough to be part of those crowds.

 

[wyccad915]

yep, store greed if you ask me. But of course people will still go, they'll see a deal that is just too good and can't pass up on. By the way, I think I could guess those two stores if I had to.

 

[mkk41]

I dislike shopping when stores are empty!

I'm gonna kick back in the recliner after dinner with a nice glass of Knob Creek single barrel and a good smoke and drift off to sleep.

Hopefully I won't wake up till April 1st!

 

[the ringo kid]

It doesnt matter much to me either way. I never go on holidays as it is.

 

[Arik]

Irrelevant to me. I used to work in a field that required me to work most holidays. No biggy. I only ever asked to have mandatory New Years eve off. I got paid extra for it, we were given a turkey or whatever dinner. It wasn't bad and I actually had a better time than I would have at home. Our dinners were nice but they were just that....dinner. before hand everyone is doing something different and afterwards everyone does their own thing. No different than now. With coworkers I could at least crack a few jokes, drop a few F bombs...etc...etc...While family time is nice it's not something I can't live without

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[LVSteve]

I'm all for the department stores staying closed on the big holidays. Grocery stores, that's another matter. I have had to buy a turkey on Thanksgiving (or maybe it was Christmas) because we forgot to take the one we had bought out of the freezer. I also had a Cool Whip disaster the other year. I made sure that I thanked any of the staff I contacted for working that day.

Interesting that New Year sales started in the US so recently. I seem to recall that those sales were the big thing in the UK forever, along with Boxing Day (26 December).

 

[Kanewpadle]

While I agree with most of the previous posts, I don't feel bad for anyone that chooses retail as a job or profession.

As someone who has worked every major holiday I can sympathize with them.

But I choose to think of our armed forces working around the world, around the clock.

 

[yeti]

When stores force their employees to work on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Independence Day they are saying they don't care a wit about families or American traditions.

I don't go shopping on these days and I never will.
I also refuse to use any self checkout concept nonsense.

 

[Beemerguy53]

Beemerguy53,
Your children are not working to spite you or because they are being forced. They have chosen their profession. Further, you'll have them for the whole day anyway, it makes little difference when they go to work because it's late. Enjoy the time you have with them.

As for me, I'll be sleeping after eating a nice big dinner. We usually eat around 2PM and just hang out the rest of the day. On Friday, I'll be at home. You couldn't pay me enough to be part of those crowds.

I didn't start this thread because my son and his wife having to work on Thanksgiving somehow affects my seeing them; I started it to protest the rank commercialism that has become the dominant feature of this holiday season.

As I noted in my original post, I realize how important Black Friday is to so many merchants, but over the last decade or so we've seen stores opening earlier and earlier and earlier. First it was 8 AM on the day after Thanksgiving...then 6 AM...then midnight on Thanksgiving Night...and now they either don't even bother to close for the holiday at all, or else they open sometime in the afternoon or evening on Thanksgiving Day.

For three decades I was a firefighter married to a nurse; I understood and accepted that most holidays were, for us, just another work day. That goes with the territory in public safety professions. But somebody making relatively low wages in a mall shop or big box store shouldn't be expected to give up his/her holiday...that's just wrong, in my opinion.

Truth to tell, I don't really understand what the merchants get out of this. Are the sales they make on Thanksgiving itself sales they would not make if they remained closed that day? They would lose those customers altogether? Those customers wouldn't shop there on Black Friday? I don't get it...

There was a time when this holiday was about giving thanks to the Good Lord for our blessings, and spending time with our families...I miss that.

 

[Springfeildkid585]

At least these are night hours, I work for a certain national restaurant/retail establishment you might find just off many-an-exit on the interstate. Company policy is that everyone work thanksgiving so that we are all equally inconvenienced. It is claimed it is our busiest day of the year. I would point out that over half of the staff is comprised of students (like me) who attend the university in town, and many of us don't call this fine college town home. I managed to secure time off by explaining I had already purchased my plane ticket to go to Thanksgiving with my grandparents, but many of my co-workers aren't so lucky.

 

[RobbW]

Plus 1 and can we add July 4th Independence Day and Christmas to the list of days that it is in bad taste for a store to be open.

+2 and I make it a point never to shop on those days. I don't want to "vote" with my dollars to require employees to work on those days. I also liked the old "blue" laws of Massachusetts. They were in effect until surprisingly recently and required stores to remain closed on Sundays. Regardless of religious affiliation (or non at all), it gave workers a required day off, and gave storeowners the confidence that they weren't losing business to competitors.

 

[Rastoff]

As I noted in my original post, I realize how important Black Friday is to so many merchants, but over the last decade or so we've seen stores opening earlier and earlier and earlier.

I hear you. I'm always amazed at how Christmas garbage seems to come out earlier and earlier each year. This year was especially ridiculous to me as some of the stores around here had stuff out in September.

When I was in school, Christmas, Thanksgiving and Halloween were three distinct events. Now we seem to go straight from Halloween to Christmas and Thanksgiving is just a footnote.

I refuse to go to a store on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Neither will I buy from a store that attempts to extend the Christmas buying season. It's high time we got back to our roots and understood what's really important. Alas, it won't happen as long as people flock to the stores whenever they're open.

 

[4506517]

I am working Thanksgiving.

Is everyone upset because I have to work? Is it a "shame" I have to work on Thanksgiving? Last time my squad worked it was one drunken disturbance after another, coupled with auto accidents.

But wait.....I chose this career, didn't I? Knowing full well I had to work nights, weekends, and holidays, I chose law enforcement. Previous to this I worked corporate retail management. Chose that knowing nights, weekends, and holidays would be required.

My point? People chose or remain at jobs by choice. If you don't like working holidays, find another job. Here's a novel idea.....get an education/certification or learn a trade where they don't work those days/times.

Like everything else in America.....it is way easier to complain and whine about it rather than take responsibility to change your situation.

Welcome to the new America.

 

[Beemerguy53]

I am working Thanksgiving.

Is everyone upset because I have to work? Is it a "shame" I have to work on Thanksgiving? Last time my squad worked it was one drunken disturbance after another, coupled with auto accidents.

But wait.....I chose this career, didn't I? Knowing full well I had to work nights, weekends, and holidays, I chose law enforcement. Previous to this I worked corporate retail management. Chose that knowing nights, weekends, and holidays would be required.

My point? People chose or remain at jobs by choice. If you don't like working holidays, find another job. Here's a novel idea.....get an education/certification or learn a trade where they don't work those days/times.

Like everything else in America.....it is way easier to complain and whine about it rather than take responsibility to change your situation.

Welcome to the new America.

With all due respect, I think you've missed the point of this thread.

What I, and most of the other folks on here, are "complaining and whining" about is not that we or folks we know have to work on Thanksgiving...it is the conversion of this most American of all holidays into what is primarily a commercial event, one that dishonors and disregards tradition in favor of crass commercialism.

This will be my second Thanksgiving off in the last decade, and in my thirty-nine years of public service, over two public safety careers, I have worked far more holidays -- and kids' birthdays, and wedding anniversaries, and Labor Day picnics, and Independence Day parades -- that I have had off. As a public safety professional, I don't mind that; it goes with the territory.

However, I do object to the notion taking root in our society that events like Thanksgiving are about nothing more than making or saving a buck...

I hope you have a safe and non-stressful Thanksgiving Day...thanks for your service to your community.

 

[radar1972]

I never went to a store on Black Friday.
I d*** sure ain't going to a store on Thanksgiving.

I would imagine most of the folks here can remember when most all stores were closed on Sundays. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if the pendulum swung back in that direction again.

 

[Hodgin]

I agree 100 percent. There are essential services that unfortunately need to remain open, such as drug stores, hospitals, and so on. However, not even all essential services need to remain open. They could rotate. My daughter is a pharmacist at a hospital so she has to work some holidays but they rotate them.

This rotation of essential services could work in small towns but probably not so well in large cities.

 

[Gyrene6891]

To each his or her own opinion. Nobody has a real problem with emergency service personnel or the military working on a holiday, so why is it such a big deal when some other professions have personnel working on a holiday?

 

[Beemerguy53]

I never went to a store on Black Friday.
I d*** sure ain't going to a store on Thanksgiving.

I would imagine most of the folks here can remember when most all stores were closed on Sundays. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if the pendulum swung back in that direction again.

I share your sentiments. I have never understood the whole Black Friday thing...how much stress and trouble is saving a few bucks worth? Every year, we see news reports about people acting like wild animals at various stores, pushing and shoving and worse as they vie for some deal or another. And shopping on Thanksgiving? No way! As I've noted in previous posts, having a major holiday off is such a rare experience for me that I will savor every minute of it with my family and friends; shopping can wait for some other day.

In Germany, where I visit regularly, stores are closed on Sundays. You can buy gasoline, and you can get a meal in a restaurant, but that's about it; everything else is closed. It's a little inconvenient for those of us accustomed to American culture, but there is something very laid back and relaxing about it as well.