While families carve up their turkey and break out the stuffing at Thanksgiving dinner, haggard employees will be opening their shop doors – all because retailers don’t know when enough is enough.
In recent years, the biggest shopping day of the year has slowly begun to test the bounds of “Friday,” with shops opening earlier and some companies, like Walmart turning the day into a five-day period called “the New Black Friday.”
This is the beginning of a dangerous trend, as a day that traditionally serves as both a celebration of holiday shopping and a warning about the overpowering influence of consumerism extends its grasp.
It’s a trend that benefits nobody – no individual, that is. Retailers may see their wallets bulging even more, but shoppers, their families, employees and store managers all suffer the consequences.
At shopping malls like the Walden Galleria, which plans to fine stores that don’t open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, the individuals running the store have to decide whether to pay the penalty, or give into the troubling trend.
Avoiding the fine means requiring employees to work on Thanksgiving, denying them time with their families and forcing them to stand in front of a cash register instead of sitting at their dinner table.
Working in retail is already recognized as one of the more thankless jobs out there, paying little and requiring a lot.
The denial of the holiday serves to further the gap between minimum wage workers and Americans higher on the pay scale, who don’t have to worry about working on a holiday.
And it’s not just the employees who suffer as a result of this development – shoppers aren’t happy either.
What was once a tradition jam-packed into a single day, known for its intensity and fast-paced shopping has now been diluted into a longer period, mitigating the idea of Friday as a holiday in its own right.
Shoppers now face a consumerist catch-22. They can shop on Thanksgiving, which for many is an unappealing prospect that not only interferes with holiday traditions, but also affects their family members. Or they can wait until Friday to hit the mall, knowing that other deal-seekers have already worked their way through the big sales.
Thanksgiving – like Christmas – deserves some level of sanctity. It’s a day to be shared with family and friends, to enjoy the presence of loved ones and ideally escape from everyday worries.
Black Friday is a tradition, but it shouldn’t interfere with the rituals of the day that precedes it, all because of retailers’ ultimately self-centered ambitions.
For the mall landlords and company CEOs who insist Black Friday should start on Thursday, here’s an idea – get up from your surely-resplendent holiday feast and start serving customers yourself.
email: editorial@ubspectrum.com
