retailers destroying Thanksgiving?

Sears, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart all have plans to open their stores at 8pm on Thanksgiving day. Target will open at 9pm.

My personal opinion is that this is unfortunate for employees, and it's bad for our culture. Are we a nation devoted to family? Or are we a nation devoted to consumerism and money above all else? Are we headed for a slippery slope where eventually the stores will be open all day on Thanksgiving? I know that for a lot of folks Thanksgiving is more about football than turkey (this is depicted cleverly in an old episode of Cheers), so perhaps the holiday isn't so sacred to everyone.

In principal, I oppose government regulation of this sort of stuff, although Blue Laws have been around for centuries. (From Wikipedia: in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, car dealerships continue to operate under blue-law prohibitions in which an automobile may not be purchased or traded on a Sunday.)

Instead, I hope that everybody boycotts these greedy merchants and it backfires. But Americans love a good bargain, so say goodbye to Thanksgiving.

Quote: reno

Sears, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart all have plans to open their stores at 8pm on Thanksgiving day. Target will open at 9pm.

My personal opinion is that this is unfortunate for employees, and it's bad for our culture. Are we a nation devoted to family? Or are we a nation devoted to consumerism and money above all else? Are we headed for a slippery slope where eventually the stores will be open all day on Thanksgiving? I know that for a lot of folks Thanksgiving is more about football than turkey (this is depicted cleverly in an old episode of Cheers), so perhaps the holiday isn't so sacred to everyone.

Thanksgiving is about my favorite holiday. I always liked that when you had to go out the stores and places looked deserted, a day off from retail before the big season. Of course Macy's in Manhattan was open and a few others, but for the most part it was a day off for 80%+ of the USA. Alsa, I agree this will soon be no more.

The answer is just don't show up that day. I doubt they will get the message. The USA has indeed been on a secular path since the 1970s. Traditional families are now just around 50% of households so it is not as big of a "family" day as it once was. More and more people are too lazy to cook even one big meal a year. We lost most of the rest of our holidays long ago. Labor Day probably fell first, then the others one by one. The "day off" is what mattered. I had a woman worked for me complained that Independence Day should be subject to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, to which she didn't believe how upset I got.

Thanksgiving was a weird holdout. Only uniform holiday set to not give a lonng weekend. I liked that, as a day to celebrate what capitalism brought you by taking a day off from it, but not to make just another long weekend.

Welcome to the Brave New World.

Quote: reno

Sears, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart all have plans to open their stores at 8pm on Thanksgiving day. Target will open at 9pm.

My personal opinion is that this is unfortunate for employees, and it's bad for our culture. Are we a nation devoted to family? Or are we a nation devoted to consumerism and money above all else? Are we headed for a slippery slope where eventually the stores will be open all day on Thanksgiving? I know that for a lot of folks Thanksgiving is more about football than turkey (this is depicted cleverly in an old episode of Cheers), so perhaps the holiday isn't so sacred to everyone.

I recall that WM opened last year at about 8:00p.m. locally, but the Black Friday sales didn't actually start until 2:00a.m. Their reasoning, or so they claimed, was that so people don't get trampled/injured in the mad rush for the Black Friday sales stuff, so you could go in earlier than that and just put it all in your cart and wait until 2:00a.m. to purchase it, if that's how you wanted to do it. I didn't shop there on Black Friday anyway, and actually, I'm not entirely sure that we did any Black Friday shopping last year just because it is such a PITA. I suppose if I get out of work right around the time these stores open, then maybe I'll stop in for a deal that is good enough.

I don't buy WM's line because people aren't going to get trampled around here. I recall, two years ago, Sears was having the best Black Friday sales by far and there was a cluster of only, maybe fifty people waiting to get in. I hope nobody was dissapointed. I imagine everyone was expecting a mad rush to get in there, run to the desired item, throw some elbows...maybe shoot someone...and instead, I'm there holding the door open for everyone. LOL Again, I only went that time because I hung out at work a little longer than usual, I'd never actually wake up to do something like that, sleeping until my norma wake up time holds much higher value...not that I sleep much, probably three-four hours/night, on average.

At the same time, I'm not really concerned what the stores do. They have the right to open at whatever time they want, the people have the right to choose to shop or not to shop (and if the open is not profitable, then they will not open at that time next year) and people who are scheduled to work have the right to either show up or not show up, and in the right-to-work State of Ohio, the employer has the right to either fire them or not fire them. Just people exercising their rights to do as they like to do. If staying home all day on Thanksgiving is worth losing your job, by all means, go ahead.

I, for one, will be at work, and as manager, I could simply schedule myself off if I wanted to, but Thursday is not my usual day off, so I will not unless nobody else at the desk wants it off.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday-

Beer, food, football, family & friends; and I don't have to buy anything for anybody.

No shopping on my schedule, ever. Thurs night is reserved for a trip to the casino with high school buddies.

Can't beat it with a stick.

Quote: reno

Sears, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart all have plans to open their stores at 8pm on Thanksgiving day. Target will open at 9pm.

My personal opinion is that this is unfortunate for employees, and it's bad for our culture. Are we a nation devoted to family? Or are we a nation devoted to consumerism and money above all else? Are we headed for a slippery slope where eventually the stores will be open all day on Thanksgiving? I know that for a lot of folks Thanksgiving is more about football than turkey (this is depicted cleverly in an old episode of Cheers), so perhaps the holiday isn't so sacred to everyone.

Forget AZ's comment of "about", Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday, the only one which I give a rip about, the only one I demand to have off. Early morning consists of tackle football with all my old high school friends, mid day brings a quick woods outing or stop at the crick, and afternoon/evening is a gathering of all the family for grandma's turkey feast.

For as long as I live, some form of the above will exist. The joining of friends, the sharing of experience, a family meal, and giving of thanks. Thanks to be able to be together, thanks to be able to still get out and do something like football, fishing or hunting, thanks to have made it another year alive, and thanks to be here today. I hate rampant consumerism as much as anyone, but never will I ever let it determine what I personally do. Have a 90% off sale and I'll just buy it retail. Keep my building of employment open and I'll just call off. I can't boycott Walmart as I probably couldn't afford to live without it, but I sure as hell won't be there on Thanksgiving.

Slightly OT, isn't it strange that the one day where you traditionally give thanks for all you have and appreciate the immaterial things you own, is followed immediately by the completely savage display of selfish hyper-consumerism that is Black Friday?

This year we will be open 24/7 for all the holidays. I work 10 pm to 6 am, so I'll be spending time with my family during the day.

Quote: reno

My personal opinion is that this is unfortunate for employees, and it's bad for our culture. Are we a nation devoted to family? Or are we a nation devoted to consumerism and money above all else? Are we headed for a slippery slope where eventually the stores will be open all day on Thanksgiving?

1) Keep the government out

2) I mean keep it all out. Not just refrain from mandating store closings on major holidays, but get it out of business altogether. As things are now, with "mandated" benefits, payroll taxes and such impose high labor costs on most employers. Naturally they find ways to a) minimize these costs (for example by limiting the number of hours worked) and b) maximize the revenue (for example by opening and offering good deals when people have a lot of free time and little to do).

3) Not everyone wants to or can go home for Thanksgiving or other holidays anyway. Not every year. So if they can make some money out fo their time, why meddle? Concurrently, not everyone celebrates in the same way, either, and in some cases not even on the same day.

Thanksgiving is an odd holiday in that it is a day devoted to food. Sure, you can say it's for us to say how thankful we are for this and that, but that part of it lasts about 30 seconds and then it's "Let's eat!"

For 364 days a year all we hear is how Americans are getting fat and how childhood obesity and Type II Diabetes is rampant and how heart disease is on the rise because of our fat-laden diets, and then we give everyone the day off from work ... so that they can spend the whole day eating biscuits and stuffing and pies and then lay around on the couch watching football for the next 6 hours.

As for the retail part of it, that whole Black Friday thing has changed in the last couple of years from being a chance to save money on a few things to being a family adventure, where people see who can wake up earliest to be first on line and get the most stuff. It's like a game show where the contestants are everyone in the whole country.

Black Friday has also gone from being a one-day affair to being a season-long event. We now have "Pre-Black Friday" sales, "Black Friday Preview" sales, "Black Friday Isn't Over Yet" sales, and yada yada yada. Maybe eventually the overkill will work against the retailers and people will get so sick of all the hype that they'll go back to shopping normally.

Thanksgiving is one of those non-holidays for me. Much like almost EVERY other holiday. Independence Day is one of my favorites, cause it's in the summer an d just grilling burgers, fried fish, and Sterzings (local SE Iowa potato chip brand, they're AWESOME) and Halloween is by far my favorite, because you really don't have to do much to get the feeling of enjoyment, just buy some candy and watch a movie. If you're more ambitious, buy a costume and carve a pumpkin. But the holiday really feels like it lasts for the whole month of October.

We used to have Thanksgiving at my grandma's EVERY year when I was growing up, but since she passed away it slowly burned out as being a big family thing.. first my aunt hosted, then my mom hosted, but there's never any set plan anymore. A lot of times I don't do much of anything. Last year it was just my sister and parents and I at a nice restaurant. Then to a bar for a "dualing pianos" show, which was great. But not much else.

It definitely seems like Black Friday has really taken off the past 5-10 years. Of course it's all about the commercialism. That's what "makes this country great" right? Well I think this constant purge of our paychecks on useless shit is really stupid, but it continues. I can't remember the last time I bought a "consumer" product. I only have one pair of jeans! I guess I've become a little bit of a minimalist. Since I don't participate in Black Friday, nor Thanksgiving, I could give a shit less..

I don't do Thanksgiving either, or Christmas either for that matter. I have no family where I live, no children, food doesn't excite me in the least (I eat to live, not live to eat), and I hate football.

I'll be going to the casinos for Thanksgiving (and probably Christmas Eve too). This way my friends don't feel obligated to invite me to their houses where I never feel quite comfortable, and I don't have to make excuses for why I would rather stay home. Besides, I eat turkey every single day -- sliced turkey sandwiches, turkey bacon, turkey pastrami, turkey and dressing Lean Cuisines -- that the last thing I want on Thanksgiving is more damn turkey.

I don't understand why people still go to these Black Friday sales. Over the past few years I've heard more and more stories about stores putting out flyers with these great, fantastic deals on electronics, and then when you get to the store you find out they had only 3 of them in stock and that's it, no rainchecks and no substitutes. Why do people put up with things like that?