Posted on 10/20/2013 4:52:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
Did you hear the big news? American retailers are carrying out a “war on the American family.”
Seriously. That’ s how some media hosts and pundits are characterizing the fact that many American retailers are planning to keep stores open on Thanksgiving Day.
And then there’s social media that all abuzz about the shocking, horrific developments. “Because I believe in family, I pledge to NOT shop on Thanksgiving” the much-shared Facebook “avatar” reads. “If I’m shopping, someone else is working and not spending time with their family. Everyone deserves a holiday.”
Well, how about this: if I’m shopping in a store – on Thanksgiving Day or any other day – then, yes, somebody else is working. And given that roughly one-third of the entire population of the United States is not working at all right now; and that the country’s labor force participation rate is at a thirty year low; and that the consumption of the federal Foodstamps and Medicaid welfare programs is at an all-time high – I’m thinking that if somebody is ambitious enough to work, even on Thanksgiving Day, then that’s a good thing.
Beyond that, this ginned-up crisis is foolish, for several important reasons:
A) This is not new: converging Thanksgiving Day, the “holiday” season and retail shopping has a long history in the U.S., dating as far back as the 1920’s with President Herbert Hoover. Given that he and his predecessor President Franklin Delano Roosevelt both governed during a market crash and the “Great Depression,” they both saw the overall economic benefits of robust retail sales. FDR is generally credited with forging the so-called black Friday “tradition,” and retail businesses has been perfecting it ever since. And, in case it matters, Hoover was a Republican and FDR was a Democrat – so the whole holiday shopping craze, distasteful as it may be to some, is actually very “bi-partisan.”
B) Even though the fussing is happening today, Thanksgiving Day shopping started last year: I don’t recall seeing or hearing the “war on the American family” last year. But national retailers Aeropostale, Banana Republic, Big Lots, CVS, Family Dollar, The Gap, Kmart, Old Navy, Sears, Sony, Starbucks, Target, Toys'R'Us, Walgreens and Whole Foods were just a few of the businesses that began newly expanded Thanksgiving Day operational hours in November of 2012. Why is this suddenly offensive now?
C) Participating in Thanksgiving Day shopping is optional: Maybe another way to say this is “what part of ‘free’ do you not understand about the ‘free market?’” So many Americans – even many “conservative” Americans – don’t even think of what a profound blessing it is that we are not forced to purchase retail goods at a particular store or on a particular day of the week (at least not yet, anyway). Our consumer choices and freedoms contrast dramatically with the ways in which people once lived in the former Soviet Union, or as people live still today in places like North Korea and Cuba. If shopping on Thanksgiving Day is distasteful to you, then plan now to NOT do it. But seriously – is it a worthwhile expenditure of energy to protest those who might wish to shop on Thanksgiving Day, or those retailers who might wish to serve the interests of those would-be shoppers?
D) Retail is an important part of the U.S. economy, and winning in retail is already difficult enough: Because of lots of really bad public policy decisions that Americans have enabled their state and federal government agencies to make over the last many decades, for at least the last ten years or so we’ve been in this horrible situation where consumer spending is often the biggest energizer of the entire national economy. America is mostly adverse to chopping down trees for timber or drilling oil for the global market (Canada, New Zealand and Australia, by the way, have been quite happy to fill those niches while we’ve sat on the sidelines), and we don’t manufacture nearly as much as we could, so consumer spending has taken a dangerously prominent spot in the overall economic picture and retail success is more important than ever.
Add to this the fact that both conservative and liberal Americans seem to love retail boycotts. Liberal Americans boycott Starbucks because the company won’t prohibit customers from legally carrying private firearms in to their stores, while conservative Americans boycott Starbucks because the company’s CEO supports homosexual marriage. Liberals boycotted Whole Foods earlier this year because their CEO stated the obvious – that Obamacare is destroying the employment market – and conservatives have boycotted Costco because the company extends employment benefits to same-sex partners of their employees. The fact that Starbucks, Costco and Whole Foods are all egalitarian companies with some of the most generous compensation packages among all service industry employers doesn’t seem to matter. Many Americans seem to have a high need for being outraged and retailers are frequent targets of their emoting. Do we really need to create more of this on a day that is so important to our families?
E) There are far more egregious things about which to be outraged: You’re looking for something to rage about? How about a President who promised cheaper, more plentiful healthcare for all, yet whose signature “reform” law is driving healthcare costs upward and doctors and nurses out of their jobs? How about a Congress that exempts themselves from the Obamacare disasters, but won’t give the rest of the American population a reprieve? Do these injustices even belong in the same sentence with “shopping on Thanksgiving Day?”
Is Thanksgiving Day shopping really a problem in the grander scheme of things? Really?
Yeah, I agree with successful businesses like Chick Fillet and Hobby Lobby. Both close on Sunday so their employees can spend the day with their families.
You work to live, not vice versa.
Fat cat’s wives can buy their cashmere sweaters first thing Monday or Friday morning. Right after they milk the cows ....
I spent decades in retail and I do mean decades as in a career retail person first working in a toy store at age 15 and working my way through until a District Manager of 10 store locations. From going to work the evening of Thanksgiving to either decorate the store(yeah I'm that old) to setting the Black Friday sale to Christmas Eve's where I didn't get off until the last cash register was balanced for the night, but even then I loved every minute of the holiday season.
Now that I am much older, I do loathe the thought of going out for that first of the holiday rush...but for many younger folks it is just that ...part of the holiday.
So what do I make of this campaign? It is just another attempt, another attack on the traditions and values that we as Americans have practiced for decades. It is part of the cultural destruction and psyche of the nation.
I’ll see her today and ask. Thanks.
It’s just that when the narcotic effect of the turkey kicks in and I’m, well—stick a fork in me: I’m done for the day!
Just another step to dilute the true meaning of Christmas...because people see it in a religious way, keep the stores open on Christmas Day for those who who don’t believe in Christ and make the “Christians” work. True Christians will worship Christ and celebrate His birth on that day regardless of attempts to rename the season as “happy holidays” or open the stores and require work on THE celebrated Day.
All for the love of money and hatred for His Son and His followers.
No it was the other way around. The author should have checked to make sure.
This is just speculation, but could it be retailers just got tired of the Black Friday stampede and resulting liabilities for injuries?
I agree, it’s speculation on your side
Fat cats’ wives aren’t the ones standing in line and elbowing through crowds on any holiday rush. That is a decidedly underclass to middle-class phenomenon.
first clue is the use of the phrase “globalist corporations”...
this phrase is used by psuedo republicans who lean towards the HARD left...
the use of this phrase would put you squarely in the middle of the rino pack...
and the way you word your post is highly suggestive of a liberal troll...
add in the fact that you are a newbie, and we just uncovered a liberal psuedo communist troll..
go away
BS
The phrase is used by disgruntled followers of isolationist Pat Buchanan and the little man from Texas who thought he heard a giant sucking sound.
I don't know about Macy. But I do know that Nordstrom opens its doors most days at 10am. Workers begin to arrive at 4am to get things started for the day....
I understand that these holidays its “optional” to work that day but I wonder exactly how “optional” it really is.
Or how long it will be “optional”
Macy’s is a private business and it can do whatever it wants, but I hope they don’t get a single costumer.
My father in law was in a similar position except he started higher up the ladder.
I can recall where even after the last register was emptied and the doors locked, “special” customers would call and he had to go back.
That was really a while back
Work on Thanksgiving Day in a retail store? Sure! Why not? Gotta’ be one of the slowest days of the year (except for preparing for the rush on the following day....).
You people disappoint me. I would NEVER work on Thanksgiving but for too many people that is not an option. Cows milked? My grandma did it one sunday in her church dress-took 2 hours-6 cows. Firemen/cops? It comes with the job b4 you get hired-understood? Don’t forget many get holiday pay which means no shortage of VOLUNTEERS. At the local Lucky’s supermarket ALL manages work the cash registers for 10 hours-non volunteers. They don’t want to pay the workers double time and a half. Makes me want to laugh.
All I’m saying is that there is an element of evil in this robber baron mentality the fat cats put on the rest of us. Last who does the Warren Buffets/Bill Gates types support?
you, sir are indeed correct...
pat buchanan is a moron... :)
That war was already fought and lost by the people.
When I was a kid very few businesses were open on Sundays. The few that were had very limited hours.
Most all stores were closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even Hospitals, Police and Fire operated with fewer staff.
Now everything is open for business 24/7/365.........
We lost our souls.......
I used to work retail. Not only will the employees be staying much longer after the store closes the night before, but they will be there 3-4 hours before it opens again. This is the Black Friday norm.
You confuse analysis with belief.
My family no longer gets together on Thanksgiving and watch the Uncle gorge himself because many have died and others are far away.
America is not over the river and through the woods it once was. Most Americans seldom journey more than 25 miles from home
Townhall.com desperately needs some editors. Their writers are clearly not up to the task. Earlier this morning, another TH writer I read on FR couldn't grasp the difference between principle and principal. With the aid of technology, we are rapidly devolving toward the Tower of Babel for the English language.
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