Posted on 11/22/2012 2:16:10 PM PST by NYer
.- The expansion of Thanksgiving weekend shopping to the holiday itself has raised concerns among both workers and clergy who worry that the change puts family time at risk.
Father Sinclair Oubre, Spiritual Moderator of the Texas-based Catholic Labor Network, said the store openings are a “disturbing trend” that is “an assault on the family.”
“We have almost completed the evolutionary process of having two classes of workers: those who get holidays off, and can stay with their families, and those who are forced to work, so that those who have holidays off won't have to stay with their families,” Fr. Oubre said.
Retailers such as Sears, Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Toys “R” Us and Gap are increasingly opening their stores on Thanksgiving Day. The following day, known as Black Friday, is one of the most profitable shopping days of the year.
Business analysts cite increased competition from internet shopping and some customers’ desires to shop on Thanksgiving as motives to open stores on what is traditionally a day off, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In 2011, retailers who opened on Thanksgiving Day earned 22 percent more over the Thanksgiving Day weekend.
Two popular internet petitions on the Change.org website are protesting the changes.
Casey St. Clair, a Target employee of six years from Corona, Calif., organized one petition to “save Thanksgiving” that now has over 370,000 signatures.
She said Thanksgiving Day off “really does give me that one day to relax and visit family I otherwise have no time to see.”
Introducing more business hours on the evening of Thanksgiving Day means that employees need to arrive hours before the store opens, she explained.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York criticized the new phenomenon of Thanksgiving Day shopping in a Nov. 20 essay in the New York Post.
“The stores, we hear, will open on Thanksgiving. Isn’t that a sign of progress and liberation?” he asked. “Sorry, but no — it’s a sign of a further descent into a highly privatized, impersonal, keep-people-at-a-distance culture, one that values having stuff and doing things over just being with people whom we love, cherish and appreciate.”
The cardinal said he will pray this Thanksgiving that God preserve “a culture where personal friendship, genuine conversation and family unity can be a high priority.”
“I’ll beg God to keep those values constant in our society,” he said. “Why? Because I’m fearful they’re disappearing.”
Dolan is right. We used to lament the commercialization of Christmas. In opening stores on Thanksgiving day, we have forgone what little respect still remained for the family.
Communist/Labor-Union propaganda masquerading as religious concern.
This, along with the Walmart Black Friday walkout, is being orchestrated straight out of the White Hut by Van Jones.
I wonder how our Military folks in Afghanistan feel about working on Thanksgiving, they have families too.
Obama voters.
If no one would go shopping, then the stores would not open.
The POTUS does not believe in God. Why should his voters? Why should businesses close on a day traditionally set aside for Christian Americans to thank God for the many blessings he has given us? These businesses do a lot of consumer research on what people will do and accept.
When I was a kid, the local mall was closed on Sundays. Then, just Picadilly (the cafeteria-style restaurant) opened on Sundays. Now, of course, everything is open. No surprise that stores are opening more and more on Thanksgiving Day. They will soon be open on Christmas, too, if they aren’t already.
I applaud stores like Hobby Lobby, Lifeway, and Chick-Fil-A for sticking to their principles and remaining closed on Sundays. Hold tight, guys! God will bless your faithfulness!!
Not a prig or anti capitalist. But back in the day there were blue laws(in NY) for shopping for less than necessary items on Sundays and many holidays. And things were better then.
Yes, even stores owned by Jews, and emergency services too.
/sarc.
You can choose to not participate
How would that look to the neighbors? /s
I worked public safety for 34 years. I worked many Holidays. As a paramedic we worked out shift sharing, etc so we could have dinner with family and the same with the PD. We did our best but I worked many holidays.
As a thought, right now several members of my family are shopping some of the deals. While in a small part it may be anti family, this time of year has become quite a family event. I would prefer less commercialization but I am not so against I would support any laws. I agree that if you don’t like it, don’t participate.
I am old enough to recall when there was no gas, no grocery, nothing on Sundays, EVRY WEEK. As another FReeper said, life was better then.
What happened to us trumpeting ‘family values.’ And yeah...I do support the workers at Walmart not working TONIGHT!
There are a lot of crazy things going on in this world and if people want to pull their families back together? Tell big bad WalMart...not today thank you for respecting my time with family...
Ya’ll a bunch of scrooges and grinches. What good is capitalism without family? And stuff the oh...troops, doctors, firemen stuff...critical necessary ....and I think if you asked some troops...they'd say they are fighting for TRADITIONAL Thanksgiving, they are not there for Walmart, best buy, or macy's....
Personally I think many here on FR who say ...tough-- too bad, somebody else will do your job...you are evil and I rebuke you.
My big question is: where have these people been the last bunch of decades? For all my life some businesses have been open on Thanksgiving. Convenience stores, gas stations, some restaurants, some grocery stores, once night time hits a lot of bars. There’s nothing new about this idea of some people working the holidays. The only thing that’s change is higher profile companies seeking Black Friday dollars are opening Thanksgiving.
And I sure hope the folks whining about people working today don’t watch any TV or listen to the radio. That’s all people working today too.
Just posted the following thread to the News/Activism Forum.
Obama drops God from Thanksgiving address for fourth year straight
We’re REALISTS that actually understand how the world works and HAS worked for a long time. Do you actually think just because a store is closed today means nobody is working? Do you think those displays that’ll be on the floor tomorrow put themselves up?
The fact of the matter is retail workers have worked Thanksgiving forever. The only thing that’s changed is which employees show up when.
And none of this precludes family. People that are stuck working today schedule around it. I’ve had Thanksgiving dinner with my sister-in-law the nurse on Friday or even Saturday before. The family that wants to get together will find the time, the family that doesn’t find the time was probably not getting together anyway.
“Traditional” Thanksgiving includes people working, you just never bothered to notice before. A “traditional” Cowboys football game is happening right now, that’s people working. A “traditional” Lions game happened earlier, people working. A “traditional” parade preceded that, people working. People work on Thanksgiving, not just critical infrastructure people, regular people. Some people like it, often times these jobs offer shift differential, and if it’s a tipping industry holiday customers tend to trip pretty well. All of this might have happened before without you interacting with them or thinking through the implications, but there they were, on the job, for probably your entire life.
Now that’s not true. I’ll have you know that Barry believes in himself.
It only is if families actually are stupid enough to go shopping. I went to church then ate thanksgiving dinner with friends. To h*** with corporate greed.
I don’t want or need any more clutter for my home, and regardless of price I will not set foot in a store on Thanksgiving Day. Tomorrow, I might shop online for things that are genuinely useful, particularly for emergencies, but those tend not to have impressive sales. My shopping has been curtailed for the past four years, and I am not buying anything non-essential until the communist thug is out of our White House. I will not support an American economy that serves only to enable and fund his communist takeover.
Exactly!!! No exceptions!!! (Though Jews do Thanksgiving, don’t they?)
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