open thanksgiving day??

ive been seeing and hearing ads that stores will be open all day or part of the day on thanksgiving day for "pre-black friday sales". my opnion is thats just crazy. i think people need to be homw enjoying the day with their families. i can understand kroger and gas stations and places like that. but why does kohls have to be open?

 

Pre-Black Friday sales? Good Lord, where's my debit card!

In the spirit of consumerism, let's all rush through our dinners, shove Granny and Grandpa in a taxi back to the retirement home, climb in our SUV's still drunk on cheap dinner wine and fixin's, and head for the mall. It's never too early to start paying homage to the retail god.

 

Let's face it... the ideal of a relaxing family dinner for Thanksgiving (relaxing for all but Mom, I know) and enjoying being together as a family is really vanishing these days. With families being further apart geographically, blended families, more and more stores being open (meaning more people working that day), the intent of a national holiday is becoming more and more dilute.

We've always made it a custom to drive 1,000km to have Thanksgiving with my sister-in-law, making a weekend of it (our Thanksgiving is in October, when it should be ). When my oldest son started university, he was given the option of not travelling with us. Surprisingly, he insisted he was coming, despite have complained for the last 18 years we were ruining his weekend. +1 for him.

It takes some commitment to instill a feeling of family in your kids, and I think fewer and fewer people are doing it.

 

...and people wonder why I hate Christmas...

 

I wait to spend my money until the very last minute when all that's left on the shelves are torn open packages of tube socks, doggie Christmas treats, and badly dented boxes of wine glasses that rattle.

Makes shopping so much easier when choices are limited.

 

Ugh... I stay home and refuse to buy anything the day after Thanksgiving (well, if I have to work, I obviously have to do that, but I make it a point to get gas and cigs the day BEFORE Thanksgiving, so I don't have to buy anything.)

I've always kind of made fun of Thanksgiving, but I DO enjoy getting to see extended family that I don't normally see (when I can make it home. Looks like I won't this year, but we'll have dinner with Lordeden 's family.)

Thanksgiving is for food comas and football. Not shopping.

 

Because it's a business that wants to make money. They obviously saw an opportunity for increased profits and decided to take it. Makes sense to me.

 

How would you feel if it was you? i personally dont have to work on turkey day.

But for some reason the dealer where i work at is having a blackfriday sale. i really dont understand what the point of having a sale in service is because if it aint broke then they aint gonna fix it. i see the point of sales because some people might be getting a new car or something to that affect. (I would take one)

 

I'm not open on Thanksgiving. I'll be with my family and cooking. Work is important, but spending quality time with my family is more important. I feel terrible for people who have to work on a major holiday like Thanksgiving.

 

Well, if people would stay home from the stores, then they wouldn't have any reason to be open on Thanksgiving.

 

I think they'll end up taking a loss on this one. Sort of baffles me where they see the opportunity in the first place. Black Friday is a holiday in itself (sort of) and much the same way folks would have a hard time getting their heads around celebrating Thanksgiving on Wednesday, those who look forward to Black Friday would not want to spoil the ritual by doing it the day before.

I can see some who hate the madness of Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving, but will they come out in droves? Will the sales be enough to cover labor and overhead never mind make a profit? If it doesn't, it won't be back next year.

 

Rampant consumerism.
You can always count on it.
That said, I hope it fails miserably.
I have always refused to shop when I know there will be an ass-load of pushy people and lines, glorious lines. No surprise. I don't and never have fathomed what 'fun' there is in shopping.

I used to think Sunday blue laws were 'quaint.' Now I see the point of 'regulating' people's shopping behaviour because they won't do so themselves. It's like eating--we just stuff ourselves silly.

 

How would I feel if it were me? I'm not the best person to ask because I love working stat holidays. I'm working Christmas and Boxing Day this year, and I worked on Canadian Thanksgiving this year as well. Love that stat pay.

I doubt they'd be doing it if they would take a loss, they must have market research showing the potential profit if they're making the change. But I'm not a businessperson so I may be wrong here.
--- merged: Nov 17, 2011 10:55 PM ---

This is actually contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada. It's not the state's role to dictate to businesses when they can or can't be open, and it shouldn't have the power to do that. *exceptions seem to be surrounding the sale of liquor*

 

I worked retail and customer service for many years before I finally got sick of it and quit. Thanksgiving and Christmas Day killed me - all day long people saying "Gee, it sure sucks you have to work today!". I always wanted to reply that if their ass wasn't there, mine wouldn't have to be either.

I don't patronize businesses on Thanksgiving or Christmas. I can't think of any good reason for businesses to be open - obviously they do it to make money, but with a smidgen of planning, you can avoid running out of gas, smokes, or cranberry sauce on those days. If people would do that, retail workers could spend time with their families on those days.

 

You don't have to convince me that Canada is more sensible than the US or they used to be, anyway. Yeah, 'you'* are pretty effing silly with your BEER stores.

Has anyone taken a look at the percentages of people not shopping brick and mortar stores lined up with the percentages of people that shop online?**
Beyond the state of the States economically, stores are trying to lure/entice/bullshit people into returning to the great good fun inherent in walking around for hours not finding what you need.

*Canada

**sorry, not today for me. If it isn't really apparent, I am cranky.

 

Thanksgiving is my favorite family holiday. It definitely helps keep us close as a family.
I'm glad that none of us work retail, and I really feel bad for people who do.
We are surrendering so much of our humanity and quality of life to consumerism.

 

Not in favor of it either but retail is facing an ever increasing threat from Internet only stores like Amazon. It's stupid though, the last thing I want to do is go shopping on Black Friday or worse, midnight on Thanksgiving.

Bah Humbug.

 

If I can play devil's advocate, how is Amazon a threat as a large chunk of its sales are via retailers?
We have gone too far forward to go back to the good old days and retail selling through brick and mortar stores is the old way for many products.
Trying to encourage store-buying is a lost cause, in my opinion. It is not a bad thing either as far efficient use of energy. What uses more, a shopper driving here and there to get the best bargains or the same shopper forgoing time, energy and fuel wasted and simply clicking about for the best buy? The purchased product will come from a warehouse and be bulk delivered by one vehicle with dozens (hundreds?) of other products bought by other people who did not drive anywhere make their purchase (granted, energy will be expended trucking or flying the product to a distribution center but that's part of the retail scenario as well).
That said, people like novelty so this bright idea of selling on Thanksgiving day beginning at midnight might fly--this year.

 

You're right Amazon isn't the best example. But Internet only sales have to be hurting brick and mortar sales. In fact, Amazon hasn't done any favors the the big box bookstores.

 

As an aside, I also chose to work Christmas this year because it is usually a really tough time of year for our clients, so it is nice to have some of the regular full time staff on shift so they at least have some friendly faces they know to spend time with them. I would probably think differently if I had to work retail on a major holiday.