Is nothing sacred? Does Thanksgiving now have to go the way of Christmas and revolve around the retail industry? The decision of major retail stores to open at midnight flies in the face of everything Thanksgiving is about. 
It’s the one day of the year that’s supposed to revolve around families. Even though I’m not American I’ve been here plenty long enough to know the meaning of this special time. In fact what makes Thanksgiving so special is that American, Chinese or Greek, it really doesn’t matter where we come from, we all have something to be thankful for and we all have this time to celebrate that fact. It’s a unifying time that all of us who live here can enjoy.
And then this happens. The retail industry arbitrarily decides to curb celebrations for countless families throughout the US. Just imagine some of those conversations in living rooms this year…
“Thanks for flying hundreds of miles in bad weather and with flight delays to spend time with me. Sorry that I can’t really get into the spirit of things, I need to leave for work in a couple of hours.”
This is a conversation I could understand for fire fighters or doctors, but retail workers?? Is it absolutely vital that the buying public gets that new gadget at midnight, or could they wait until 6.00am?
Since I’m going to assume we can all do without that gadget for another 6 hours I’ll consider the argument for retail workers won.
How about we take it one step further and think about the ramifications of this decision on retailers. It doesn’t even seem like a sound business strategy to me. I think this is a short term strategy that is likely to have negative repercussions down the line.
What makes Black Friday special? Well, as an “outsider” I probably have a different perspective than someone who was raised here. I do know it’s unique. Different. Not the the same as any other day. And most importantly there’s a ritual involved. Families follow the same routine every year. The phenomena of Black Friday is that it is reliant on the anticipation experienced before the event. Anticipation. It’s all about that. I’ve seen eyes shining with excitement at the prospect of getting up at 4.00am to shop. (That seems a little odd to me, but like I said, I wasn’t born and raised here). Common sense tells me if you take that anticipation away and offer instant gratification it’s game over. Black Friday will lose its status and become just another day to shop. That’s my take anyway. Time will tell. It always does.
What do your think? Is this the demise of Black Friday? Will we soon have 365 day shopping? I hope not.
Hi Denise ~ I think the entire idea of lining up for sales at the mall is weirder than weird. (I had to add “at the mall” to that sentence since I confesss to lining up at the crack of dawn for plenty of estate sales). It’s also a relatively recent phenomenon as far as I can remember – at least on the day after Thanksgiving.
In Massachusetts the insanity was curbed somewhat because the Blue Laws prevented the midnight openings.
Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving – and get to sleep in on Friday!
Insanity is the right word Liz. I think I must be getting old or something, this kind of stuff makes me crazy. Lucky Massachusetts not to have to deal with it!
I have to admit that getting up at the crack of dawn for anything at all is foreign to me, I’m not much of a morning person. (Pretty good at answering emails in the middle of the night though.:)
You have a Happy Thanksgiving too!
It reminds me of the Boxing Day sales in the UK, that was just as insane. I really feel sorry for the retail workers, having been in that industry a long time ago, it’s a tough job to do for little pay, but to rob families of just one special day is a crime. And all to get the money in to make a profit. That’s a ridiculous concept anyway given the price slashing just to get buyers in the door, loss leaders takes on a whole new meaning.
I wish there were byelaws in all states preventing anyone opening until 6am, although for me that’s too early anyway. 8am would be more civilized.
Happy Thanksgiving, maybe you’ll get the patter of little feet?
Weirdly I haven’t spent too many Christmases in the UK Corinne. I don’t remember much about Boxing Day sales. I spent 20 years in Germany before moving to the US and they shut down for two and half days at Christmas. (Christmas Eve is part of that with gifts being exchanged on Heiligabend). I know things have changed there since I left, I’ll have to ask my friends on FB just how much and whether they have any stores open on those days now. I doubt it though. They fight tooth and nail to keep quality time for families. They’re not a consumer driven economy so that helps too.
As far as those tiny feet are concerned. Text messages every day from my son with updates. Nothing yet, my grandson is apparently in no rush to meet us at all!