As people gear up to feast within the next couple of days with family and friends, much chatter has been heard about certain retailers opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day to give patrons a chance at shopping a day earlier. The names of these places will remain unmentioned but to any reader who has been keeping up with the news, I am sure the stores come to mind. We will all have a different opinion about the morality or the justice behind opening a business on Thanksgiving Day, forcing hundreds of thousands of employees to work rather than spending the night with their families.
Having said that, the beautiful thing about America and its capitalistic ways is that, if people are upset that these corporations will open during this holiday, people can make sure that it never happens again by not shopping. I don’t fault the corporations for opening on a day early. Personally, I have worked holidays before and will probably work holidays in the future. Does it bother? Not really. But that’s just me. However, as someone who looked forward spending time with my parents during the holidays, this does irk me. Businesses are in it to make money and if people want to go shopping a day early, this is definitely a smart business move.
As consumers, we do have power to decide the outcome. If we never want to see retail employees have to work the day before Black Friday, all we have to do is not go shopping. If the sales are so low that it wasn’t worth paying the extra labor and other expenses, next year these stores will remain closed on Thanksgiving Day. The consumer can make or break this little experiment. If we don’t shop, we will be part of the solution (depending on what side you stand on). If we do shop, then we are part of the problem (depending on what side you stand on). I feel bad for all those families who were planning to spend time together Thursday but who will have to settle for dinner like any other day. I, for one, will not shop at any of these retailers on Thursday; veryone else can decie based on their conscience. I for one rather spend my day reading a book, playing with my niece, heckling my younger siblings or having coffee with my parents than fighting crowds to save a few bucks.
