Posted on 11/17/2013 4:59:33 AM PST by Kaslin
Did you hear the tragic details? You know – that dreadful news about Americans working on Thanksgiving Day, and the efforts to boycott the companies for whom they work?
“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.”
It’s awful, isn’t it? People being productive on a holiday, providing their services to customers and making money in the process - what has happened to America?
I understand people feeling as though the historical and intended purpose of Thanksgiving Day is getting lost in our current cultural milieu. And I understand how it may feel as though retailers are simply exploiting the holiday, diminishing its actual significance, and using it for their own selfish purposes.
But before you re-post the avatar, or click “like,” or vow to “punish” the stores that will be open on Thanksgiving Thursday, why not consider a few details? In a culture given to people emoting, lashing-out – and boycotting – perhaps we’d all do well to think for a few moments.
If you’re convinced that working on Thanksgiving Day is a grave sin, then consider your own plans for that day. Might you be planning to spend some time watching football? If so, I wonder if you’re outraged at the NFL for exploiting our sacred holiday.
And what about the players – and the play-by-play broadcasters – and the tv producers and technicians and stadium parking attendants and security officers? If you’re watching football on Thanksgiving Day, all those other folks are working and NOT spending time at home with family. Don’t they deserve a day off, like you do?
And if you’ve decided that retailers should not do business on Thanksgiving Day – well, I presume you think that’s true of all retailers, including gasoline retailers – right?
Certainly you wouldn’t want a gas station employee to be away from their family on Thanksgiving Day just so you can be afforded the selfish convenience of filling-up on your way to your celebration - right?
And so what if you have car trouble or a power outage or – God forbid – you’re the victim of a crime, an accident, or a natural disaster. You won’t expect anybody to answer the phone if you call 9-1-1 or the towing company, because you won’t allow yourself to interfere with somebody else’s family plans – right?
Could it be that this backlash against retailers is yet another case of selective outrage in America? Retailers are the target of people’s anger right now, but most of us don’t really want everybody to avoid working on Thanksgiving Day, or any other day for that matter.
And 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-five 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.
And guess what? All this “holiday shopping” zealotry is not new. Converging Thanksgiving Day, the “holiday” season and retail shopping all together 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 successor 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. The recent developments with Target Stores, Toys R Us, Macy’s and Bed Bath and Beyond amount only to the latest chapter in a long American story. 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.”
Instead of being outraged with retailers who are trying to make money, have you considered being thankful that millions of our fellow Americans are willing to work on Thanksgiving Day, and in all different lines of work? And how about being thankful that our economy is still so incredibly functional that most of us have plenty of products from which to choose on the store shelves, and we can shop – or not shop – on most any day of the week?
Instead of outrage, let’s give thanks. That’s the best possible way to observe the holiday.
Reverence, respect, gratitude, principles, sacrifice, duty...all foreign concepts to the progressive liberal. Money is more important to them.
This article is a little too Business Socialist for me...especially since WalMart now offers special benefits to gays and hires Illegal Aliens to work their stores via contractors...which means your regular employees get shafted
Years ago, I worked for 7-Eleven, and they had a great holiday work plan: Stores got an extra 100 to 200 dollars to encourage employees to work holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas). Worked like a charm...everybody liked earning a few extra bucks...managers had plenty of folks willing to work. This was back in the 1980’s...so the money was quite more enticing then
I have a hard time believing that FDR did anything to benefit business in America. He was as economically inept as Barack 0bama, which was a major reason the Depression lasted as long as it did.
I am working half a day on Thanksgiving. I work at a nursing home. I don’t mind at all.
The whole concept of the government forcing holidays on anyone is pure union driven socialism. Look at the original purpose of these holiday’s. I worked in emergency services for over 35 years. Holidays didn’t happen with the calendar. If you lack the ability to set aside time to be thankful or to remember our Lord, that’s your problem, not the union’s. Holiday’s are time that you make for you and your family. Forced observance is a fake concept.
Which is why I gas up the day before. The author of this article is a smug d-bag with an attitute.
And while I wouldn't waste the day watching some dumb game, no, I don't have the same sympathies for NFL players or public sector employees.
As I recall from my time in retail (nine years), Sears was open on Thanksgiving Day, but only from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, at least at the store I worked at.
Oh, the memories of working Black Friday, which I did for every one of those nine years. I volunteered, because we earned commission on top of hourly. Black Friday was good indeed; the first couple times I was somewhat frazzled, but after that, piece of cake.
I generally work harder than usual on Thanksgiving since that’s one of the few days during the year that I cook. But I enjoy it for the most part.
Growing up in a Southern state, I can remember all stores closed on Sunday....and restaurants wouldn’t sell liquor.....
My first real job was minimum wage washing dishes in a hospital. No Holidays there but it was time and a half.
I worked every Holiday I could because $1.76 X 1.5 = $2.64
If the company was forced to be open those days, I always volunteered to work holidays if I was planning to be in town. I did it so others could take time with their families. I planned accordingly and my family never minded having the meal or opening presents on a different day.
That Black Friday things gotta go. Pure racism.
Well, unless the EBT card system malfunctions and there’s no limit on the cardholder’s purchases.
Then, it’s Christmas in November.
I can remember in Alabama, 1976....nothing open on a Sunday except restaurants and gas stations. I can remember going off to the Air Force, and coming back around Xmas four years later, and finding local stores open on Sundays. Amazing.
Today? Everyone has a schedule that is iron-clad a month ahead of time....hitting certain stores, and eating lunch at some special spot. It’s a family tradition.
My only belief in this open on Thanksgiving day business is that it ought to happen at 1PM and shutdown by 8PM. Clerks could eat a early meal with the family and enjoy part of the day.
I guess that it is news that no Holidays are full non-work days. Most areas, supermarkets come to agreements on who will be open for the various Holidays to ensure that folks who did not plan ahead don’t get left in a lurch.
In Pennsylvania, we had “blue laws.” Stores weren’t open Sundays. We also didn’t have stores open 24 hours. Most closed by 9:00 pm.
My father was friends with the manager of the A&P supermarket. Around 8:45 pm on Saturdays, Dad would wait somewhere near the supermarket’s front door. The manager would come out to get him. Saturday night, the manager wanted to sell off baked goods — they would be stale by Monday. So Dad would go in and buy up bread, pies and what not for half off or more.
Firemen, nurses working on the holiday are necessary. Supermarkets? Double-time and a half wages can make it voluntary. NFL? That’s THEIR problem. I wouldn’t play in Dallas or Detroit for THAT reason(can’t play anywhere). Executives at Walmart enjoying the holidays while the workers can’t. U meen people can’t shop on Friday? I will say this: People will feel like victims and these issues re made-to-order for DEMOCRATS. They speak out against the Walmarts out there and benefit accordingly.
It’s nothing new that some places of business have to stay open on Thanksgiving. Hospital workers, in particular. But it’s still a day to remember our blessings for living in a great (if troubled) country and gathering together with family and friends. Luckily, I’ll be home cooking!
Two Guys from Harrison finished the Blue laws.
So we should give thanks that we can go to Walmart on November 28th and buy a lot of Chinese crap rather than having to wait until the 29th?
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