I'm with them. I think this rush to get people away from their families and into the stores is just wrong. And, apparently, these early shopping hours do not even help the bottom line sales. According to the Wall Street Journal, the early store openings just take sales away from the first week or so of December (while shoppers wait for the next round of discounts to be taken) and have not had the effect of causing shoppers to spend any more money than they have in the past 5 years.
So who is responsible for this invasion of holiday tradition? Overeager consumers who will run out to shop on Thursday night instead of waiting until 5 am on Friday? The stores which open earlier and earlier (now a whole day earlier) to accommodate them?
It just reeks of bad behavior on both sides. But maybe I just don't get it...what is the thrill or allure of "early" shopping?
8 comments:
Greed. The desire to get more junk at a cheaper price. I won't buy into that. I'll shop local small businesses if I shop at all, or online for the things I really need if they aren't available locally.
You couldn't pay me enough to shop on Black Friday, or Black Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
I have no idea what the draw is. I stay as far away from stores as I can until the whole madness is over. But I also stay away from stores in general.
I've never bought into the Black Friday nonsense and tend to avoid the Evil Empire the rest of the year, too. Since moving back to a small town, I've discovered that I can find 99% of what I need locally -- no need to drive to the House of Satan up the road -- and most of the time it's the same price or cheaper than the big box stores.
I love that the party of family values doesn't care about the employees' family time.
Well put Jennifer, but you don't understand - it is not THEIR families it is the 47% families! Big difference.
This is a terrible trend and I hope it reverses soon. I intentionally refuse to step foot in any store of any kind on Thanksgiving or Black Friday. I'll happily support small businesses the rest of the weekend, but Thanksgiving is a day for family, not shopping, and I'm simply not fool enough to go anywhere on Black Friday.
I haven't been out on the roads let alone shopped on black friday in many a year. I'm lucky, though. I can make time during the week thanks to my considerate boss (me).
While I do appreciate many workers' need to shop while they can I am also opposed to destroying a time honored tradition of Thanksgiving evening off. For many of us Thanksgiving evening means lounging around letting the food digest not hustling from the table to the job. Retail employees have to work family-unfriendly hours as it is ... please preserve one of the few guarantees left.
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