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The Commercialization of Thanksgiving—and So Much Else
Crisis Magazine ^
| November 27, 2014
| JOHN M. GRONDELSKI
Posted on 11/27/2014 8:00:42 AM PST by NYer
Thanksgiving is rapidly competing with Christmas as a candidate holiday for the next cultural war. We know, of course, that December 25 is the holiday that dare not speak its name, having been transmogrified into winter holiday lest delicate ears be offended by C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s. Thanksgiving, so far, has managed to retain its name of religious origin (though we tend to speak publicly about what we are giving thanks for rather than to whom). The cultural war over Thanksgiving is being fought over: when can the sales begin?
Black Fridaythe day after Thanksgivinghas, over the years, become the unofficial launch of the Christmas buying season as well as the barometer of holiday mercantile prosperity. In more recent years, the holiday buying spree has annexed Cyber-Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, where on-line sellers hope to rack up some of the dollars traditional merchants had a shot at Friday. A few places, in a sop to mom-and-pop, have urged the Saturday after Thanksgiving be reserved for patronizing local businesses.
The Thanksgiving controversy has arisen over when Black Friday starts. Commercial hype began urging shoppers to show up Friday at 7 am for early bird discounts. Not to be outdone, other stores began selling at … six
five
four
three
midnight.
In recent years, some places have even seen Black Friday creep into Thanksgiving. Some merchants had pre-Black Friday sales at 10 pm, others 9 pm. Recently, to accommodate Thanksgiving early birds who downed their turkey in the afternoon, a few places began opening at 6 pm.
A couple of jurisdictions have pushed back by enacting local ordinances banning commercial activity on Thanksgiving itself. Some businesses mount opposition and often pit one town against another: in economically lethargic America, Smithville is just as likely to swipe shop-shuttered Jonesvilles customers as stand in solidarity, singing Over the River and Through the Woods. Setting jurisdictions against each other is an effective way eventually to breach the dyke: it only takes a few holes before the flood overcomes the barrier. It happened with Sunday blue laws: if recalcitrant jurisdictions didnt tire of defending against Constitutional claims of establishment of religion, they found themselves under pressure from some local businessmen watching customers cross the city, county, or state line. And the arguments for Thanksgiving closing are usually not so much religious as sentimental, with an occasional dash of social justice thrown in.
The social justice argument points out that stores which open on holidays (or Sundays) deprive employees of rest and time to be with families. The retailer GameStop, for example, justified its decision to stay closed on Thanksgiving by saying: We have a phrase around here that we use a lotits called protecting the family. We want our associates to enjoy their complete holidays.”
Despite the rhetoric of choice that often drives proponents of 24/7/365 marketing, employees often have practically little choice about showing up to work. One upstate New York mall even threatened to fine its stores that did not open at 6 pm Thanksgiving evening; if the mall is open, stores should be.
If an employer does not put subtle or not-so-subtle pressure on workers to work on the most important sales days of the year, the employees themselvesoften low wage, economically marginalized peoplewill feel a need or at least a pressure to show up. Lower wage and especially part-time employees (the latter, some argue, a growing cohort because Obamacare incentivizes part-time hiring already have little, if any, guaranteed time off. It is an unspoken likelihood that such Thanksgiving workers will receive little, if any, premium compensation, e.g., time-and-a-half and holiday bonus. While most full-time employees have some sick leave provisions, most part-timers do not, and there is no federal guarantee of any paid sick leave for any employee. (The Family and Medical Leave Act guaranteed unpaid sick leave in certain circumstances. A few states have enacted laws guaranteeing every worker a minimum number of sick days. In sum, for many low-wage employees, choice notwithstanding, the only time they are guaranteed a day off with rest are those increasingly fewer national holidays with a concomitant social consensus that they be celebrated without commercial activity.
But apart from the social justice aspect of forcing employees and even businesses to work on Thanksgiving, there is also a broader community social justice issue. America, as any community, requires traditions and celebration to bind it together. Our social glue is becoming increasingly thin. Most of our federal holidays have been increasingly hollowed out of cultural activity and replaced by commercial activity. Presidents Day and Columbus Day are primarily known for sales. Memorial Day launches the summerand summer saleswhile Labor Day closes it, just in time for Back-to-School Sales. Martin Luther Kings Birthday still has to catch on as a broadly celebrated holiday. Christmas and, to a lesser extent, New Years, continue to be observed, the former often in pseudonymous fashion as Winter Holiday, the latter still not fully displaced by those who would criticize January 1 as representing but one cultures start of the year. The only two national holidays that continue to be observed in a primarily historical/cultural fashionas opposed to being the next sales opportunityare the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. These two quintessentially American holidays have largely managed to stay aloof from bald commercialization on the day itself, remaining family days. They are under assault.
And be not deceived of the cultural aspect of that assault. Thanksgiving, after all, originated from a people who recognized their survival had depended on the solicitude of Divine Providence. For those whose vision of Church and State is more akin to the Berlin Wall with its intervening death strip, the fact that Americas origins lay in a people who acknowledged their dependence on God is an embarrassing fact that is best passed over. Celebration of that common religious cultural heritage could call into question the hypersensitive allergy to all things religious found in some peoples caricatures of the First Amendment, so it is best that this religious cultural heritage be supplanted by something secular. Commerce is a useful substitute: the Left is satisfied by changing the subject from religion, while certain quarters of the Right can find their laissez-faire free marketism-cum-choice given free rein. Les extremes se touchent. Lots of people can make their Profession of Faith in Shania Twains lyrics:
We live in a greedy little world/that teaches every little boy and girl
To earn as much as they can possibly/then turn around and spend it foolishly
Weve created a credit card mess/We spend money we dont possess
Our religion is to go and blow it all/So its shoppin every Sunday at the mall.
And every Thanksgiving, too.
And for that employee who wants the day off? When Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carole in 1843, it was intended at least in part as a satirical criticism of the unfettered capitalism of Victorian England. Indeed, when The Westminster Review reviewed the book, it criticized Dickens for painting Scrooge in such black termswas he really not the founder of the feast, without whom the Cratchitt Family would not have dined even on its goose, size and cheapness notwithstanding. Presumably, such store clerks should give thanks for their turkey by going to work! Charles Dickens even had an answer for such lazy neer-do-wells who might have entertained ideas of a whole evening off.
Youll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?
If quite convenient, sir.
Its not convenient, said Scrooge, and its not fair.
But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier the next morning.
Or by 6 pm Thanksgiving night in Cheektawoga, New York.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: christmas; shopping; thanksgiving
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John M. Grondelski (Ph.D., Fordham) is former associate dean of the School of Theology, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ.
1
posted on
11/27/2014 8:00:42 AM PST
by
NYer
To: Tax-chick; GregB; SumProVita; narses; bboop; SevenofNine; Ronaldus Magnus; tiki; Salvation; ...
Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope all of you are safe at home, unburdened by the shackles of work, today.
Ping!
2
posted on
11/27/2014 8:01:54 AM PST
by
NYer
("You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears." James 4:14)
To: NYer
So stay home. No one has a gun to your head.
If you work in retail, you may be required to put in some hours.
Restaurant and movie theater workers have known for decades.
To: Larry Lucido
To: Larry Lucido
So stay home. No one has a gun to your head. Perhaps not; in some places, though, they are shoving a hand into the merchant's pocket.
One upstate New York mall even threatened to fine its stores that did not open at 6 pm Thanksgiving evening; if the mall is open, stores should be.
5
posted on
11/27/2014 8:16:25 AM PST
by
NYer
("You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears." James 4:14)
To: NYer
I don't see where the essayist is making a valid point that Thanksgiving itself is being commercialized. He is just restating the obvious claim that the Christmas season is expanding and gobbling up Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving has its own sales and sales gimmicks, e.g. free turkeys as loss leaders to get people to buy all the trimmings at a particular store, etc.
I used to be a traditionalist with regard to Thanksgiving and tried to get my family to celebrate with homecooked food at home, but I've lost that battle and we often now go out for Thanksgiving dinner. If the essayist wants something real to worry about vis-a-vis Thanksgiving he should note that it's much easier to find an open restaurant on Thanksgiving than Christmas.
To: Larry Lucido
You do understand "culture war?"
Thanksgiving was proclaimed as a day to give thanks to Almighty God. It is now treated as a time to fuel up on a big dinner to sustain you while you shop your head off. The focus is supposed to be on God, not mammon, but far too many people have had their priorities flipped because the culture has changed.
Losing a culture war is not a trivial thing. We lost the culture war on abortion, and now as a nation we have tens of millions of murdered babies to show for it.
7
posted on
11/27/2014 8:17:57 AM PST
by
Wyrd bið ful aræd
(Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor, Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.)
To: NYer
The thing is, the holidays are what you make them. You can choose to make it extremely commercial or avoid it all together.
8
posted on
11/27/2014 8:24:23 AM PST
by
dhs12345
To: Wyrd bið ful aræd
That’s why social conservatism is more important than fiscal conservatism. Both are crucial, but a lot of people (Libertarians) propose jettisoning social conservatism so that we may better achieve fiscal conservatism. It is a fool’s bargain. The Culture War is where everything is won.
9
posted on
11/27/2014 8:25:05 AM PST
by
ClearCase_guy
(Democrats have a lynch mob mentality. They always have.)
To: NYer
You make a decision yourself how you will live your life.
At my house, Thanksgiving is the high point of the year. It is my favorite holiday. Christmas, with its emphasis on shopping, really is easily commercialized and has been commercialized to death.
Thanksgiving, though, is hard to commercialize. Its just a meal, your family, and a prayer. Don’t want to lose the culture war? Stand up at the head of your dinner table and give heartfelt thanks. Its important to do it, and its important for your family to see you do it.
Its easy to blame society and the culture when you yourself have given up. But it all falls back to you. You decide and you build the culture you want to live in, and build it at your house. There are plenty of people who have no place to be on Thanksgiving who will be glad to show up at your table if they know they are welcome, so always cook extra.
10
posted on
11/27/2014 8:28:55 AM PST
by
marron
To: NYer
In the retail world the “sales associates” often work ONLY for commissions, typically 2 to at most 6 percent of retail price.
Bob Cratchitt had it better.
11
posted on
11/27/2014 8:36:42 AM PST
by
lightman
(O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, giving to Thy Church vict'ry o'er Her enemies.)
To: marron
After reading all the comments,I think this one expressed it best.....Thanks marron
12
posted on
11/27/2014 8:41:14 AM PST
by
oldtech
To: Wyrd bið ful aræd; NYer
I’m staying home. Unless I decide to see a movie. Or run to the gas station (fortunately I filled up yesterday). Or run to a convenience store for half and half (forgot to get it yesterday). Or maybe I’ll skip the relatives and have the Thanksgiving plate at Ram’s Horn (not likely, but it’s always been an option).
Lots of places will be open today that have been open for decades. No one seemed to object then.
There are culture wars, but this isn’t one of them. I’ll pick my battles.
To: ClearCase_guy
Both are crucial, but a lot of people (Libertarians) propose jettisoning social conservatism so that we may better achieve fiscal conservatism. It is a fools bargain. That's not quite true: Libertarians believe that, as a rule, government shouldn't be used as proxy to force behaviors (with implicit or explicit threat of violence or property-theft).
In the end, passing all sorts of laws will do nothing to address the problem, which resides in the heart — this is because the law cannot save, it can only condemn, and that is the fundamental reason why Jesus came to die for our sins: to do what the Law could not.
14
posted on
11/27/2014 8:55:56 AM PST
by
OneWingedShark
(Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
To: NYer
>> Some merchants had pre-Black Friday sales at 10 pm
Friday-of-color is coming...
To: OneWingedShark
Christ is my savior.
Government is not.
Jesus saves me.
Government shapes a better society by favoring marriage as something between one man and one woman, and by declaring abortion to be a great wrong. And in other ways.
16
posted on
11/27/2014 9:01:58 AM PST
by
ClearCase_guy
(Democrats have a lynch mob mentality. They always have.)
To: NYer
I never hear anyone upset for the people in Detroit and Dallas that have to work every year for the football games.
17
posted on
11/27/2014 9:12:41 AM PST
by
NotSoFreeStater
(If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice)
To: Larry Lucido
For those in the medical profession, holidays are part and parcel expected. Someone needs to be in the ER for the burns, the babies, the car wrecks. Someone must be at the nursing home to care for the residents.
Shopping for Christmas can and should wait.
18
posted on
11/27/2014 9:15:43 AM PST
by
tbw2
To: marron
19
posted on
11/27/2014 9:17:03 AM PST
by
MNDude
To: tbw2
I don’t shop for Christmas because I think that commercializes it (see, I can “outholy” ALL y’all!).
But for those who want to shop, it isn’t any of my business when they do so. Should we shut down Internet shopping for today? Someone is up keeping the Internet running.
Now, I don’t have ANY problem with anyone who wants to disparage Thanksgiving shopping.
I presume those people will also avoid these non-emergency venues and services:
Gas stations
Convenience stores
Movie theaters
Restaurants
ATMs (someone has to keep them running)
Did I mention movie theaters and gas stations?
If you go to ANY of the above, you have to shut up about any other Thanksgiving day services.
(Notice I didn’t say hospitals. Sick people may avail themselves of emergency services).
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