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.
Me, I buy at walmart.
My wife shops, I mostly just buy stuff and not very much at that.
A small percentage of the population—EMTs, hospital staff, cops and firefighters, etc.—have always had to work on Thanksgiving and Christmas. In many cases they volunteered for the holiday shift. Sometimes they didn’t, but in either case they represented a tiny, necessary, respected, perhaps pitied group. The expectation was that only a few self-sacrificing few would be consolidating ties with family and cherished friends.
But when the largest employer in the US opens on Thanksgiving, its competitors quickly follow suit, and suddenly it’s the norm for everyone to work on Thanksgiving. Remember, it isn’t just the actual retail staff that works when retailers are open, but a much larger network of support, and adjacent retailers, delivery people, service personnel. Mom is no longer laying a handsome feast before her admiring family on Thanksgiving; she is out viciously battling the crowds for some wholly unnecessary junk. The family gathering dissolves.
Do you, my fellow conservatives, not see that this is dangerous? Within the space of a few years, the centuries-old tradition that is fundamental to American culture has been destroyed. Until recently it was an inviolable tradition that families and friends would gather to give thanks, work together, enjoy each other. It was a beautiful custom because it provided a sort of forced unification: one couldn’t procrastinate about seeing elderly relations or the sister’s new boyfriend or the cousin’s baby. It reminds us who we are.
This is not about some struggling small business trying to make it in Obama’s economy. Walmart is going to sell just as much Chinese garbage if it opens on friday. This move destroys family cohesiveness by erasing the very expectation that we will all be together for one day, even if we are not Christians.
No, profit is just an excuse for this exercise. This is one more nail in the coffin of American culture.
Yeah I “buy” there too.
But there is plenty I don’t buy.
None...overtime is paid for hours in excess of 40 hours. What’s your point!!!
But that's the point. You can't make time for you and your family if half the family is working.
Man is not made for work alone. Yes, exceptions can be made for public safety, etc.
Instead of the whiny do nothings who wait for things to be given to them.
It is called American exceptionalism.
If people want to work on Thanksgiving, then great!
As a capitalist, we have to respect the decisions of the business owners. I nerved heard a complaint when movie theaters decided to open on holidays. I guess it is all about bashing Walmart. Makes me sick to see this kind of bashing. God bless those businesses who made the decision to look out for the business. People will still have time to eat.
I can get it when left wingers bash Wal mart, but not I don’t get it when Freepers do. Besides no one forces anyone to shop at Wal Mart. Also many times it depends on the management of the individual stores. Some are better then others.
Exactly. I remember delivering newspapers early Christmas morning because my boss, the jerk, switched his day off with me so that he could have Christmas off.
Actually, it was very “Zen” moment for me. There are special times in ones life that are remembered forever. Such as the lady who ran out to me from her warm home with a plate of cookies that early and cold Christmas morning.
Or the nice talk that I had with the young gentleman with a large scar of his face who had attempted suicide the year earlier. He had found his faith and had become a Christian.
We have gotten some socialist FREEPERS lately that bash anything capitalist. It is strange but I guess they feel that businesses are bad or mean. Soon they will be bashing the CEO....oops they already began.
That is so awesome and to think that FREEPERS would want to take away those life changing experiences from you. I just shake my head at how sad people have become especially supposedly conservative ones.
No, we don't have to respect the decisions of business owners. You misunderstand the meaning of the word respect. I absolutely do NOT respect the decision of any business that requires employees to work on Thanksgiving day.
God bless those businesses who made the decision to look out for the business.
Right, because that is what GOD cares about. The business? The bottom line? Really? Is that what you believe? Is that your faith?
People will still have time to eat.
Oh well thank you sooooo much for letting folks know that they will be able to eat sometime in or around Thanksgiving day. Maybe on their break, right?
The beauty of the market economy, is that consumers can reward or punish companies that do things counter to their beliefs.
FR is a CONSERVATIVE site, which is different than simply pro-business. If a business is a whore that jumps in bed with Obama and the Dems out of self interest, which many, many business gladly do, than they deserve bashing.
God what a sad post. You clearly are on the side of socialism. Well I guess not all FREEPERS are conservative. You still can become one if you change your thinking pattern about being a capitalist. It is not too late.
Oh get over yourself. I 100 percent am on the side of the business owner. You are clearly on the side of the Democratic Underground side who cares about the little people. You would fit in perfectly.
The author's point about the NFL is a valid one, but his other examples are silly. There's a big difference between a Wal-Mart that opens on Thanksgiving Day and a local gas station or towing service that is ready to respond to emergencies on the road.
Personally, I never shop on any day when I wouldn't want to be working myself. That not only includes Thanksgiving and some other civil holidays, but every Sunday and religious holiday during the year as well.
I’m honestly surprised that it’s even worthwhile for retailers to open on some of these holidays anyway. When I worked in the dry-cleaning business the industry had done a number of studies about opening on Sundays, and they found that it wouldn’t have any tangible impact on revenues. In effect, opening on Sundays just shifted some business from one day of the week (mainly Saturday) to another.
I remember being a little angry because of what my boss had done.
But I believe that God saw my frustration and with those two people on an early Christmas morning He reminded me of what was most important. It was truly a blessing and the best Christmas gift ever.
I hope this is all sarcasm on your part, because if not, you are ridiculous, and you clearly support the Democratic collaborators in the business community.
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