But isn’t that just their choice? Could families who really wanted to see each other figure out some other time of year to get together? My extended family gathers for my Aunt’s birthday as she’s the matriarch.
Online shopping has put a huge dent in brick-and-mortar sales, which is why they have to compete by being open holidays, etc.
What? No. Are people assholes if they go out to eat on the weekends? What if they go to a bar after work? If you’re on the clock you must be okay with it, otherwise why are you at work?
Most people, when relatives visit from far away, do actually prefer to see them more than a couple of hours a day. The relatives usually prefer that too. I don’t think I’d care to travel to see my relatives if I knew they would be working most of the time I’d be there.
And do you really think there are people dying to trade shifts in order to work on Thanksgiving? My sister is a doctor, and she can tell you it’s horrible trying to find someone to trade shifts with you for a holiday.
I live in a different country to my family, but I am home for Christmas every year. I’m not American, but you can take the importance it has to me as equivalent. Yes, I could take a few days off and see my family at a different time. But the thought of being alone, after the hypothetical working day, at Christmas, without my family, our traditions, the atmosphere…let’s say I’d be thoroughly miserable. I think it’s sad that you cannot imagine that it would be a good idea to have one day without always having to think about money. The world won’t end if you can’t buy a pair of new pants or whatever Target sells for 24 hours.
Did I miss it or are we still waiting for someone to explain why it’s Ok to go to the movies, but not shop on Thanksgiving?
Nope, we are still waiting.
Unfortunately, I live 4 hours from my brother and his family. Five hours from my parents and grandparents. Six hours from my youngest aunt and her family. Seven from my uncle. Between the distance and the dissonant work schedules, enjoying each other every day isn’t a feasible option. We manage to gather everyone three times a year if we’re incredibly lucky. Thanksgiving has traditionally been a time when we could all get together without anyone having to use vacation time to come home. I didn’t so much mind cutting into that time when I worked at an emergency vet clinic, and I don’t mind the years we can’t make it home because DoctorJ is on call. The sick and injured need to be helped, regardless of the date on the calendar. But I would resent like hell having that time cut into so that someone can save $10 on a blender on Thursday instead of Friday–nobody’s gonna die, or be stranded, or have to sleep outside, or anything else unpleasant, from waiting an extra 12 hours to buy small appliances.
Kids are off school on Thanksgiving. Getting together at other times would mean pulling kids out of school.
Anybody remember this thread?: Going to the movies on Christmas or other big holidays makes you an asshole.
Summer break, fall break, winter break, President’s day weekend, spring break. It’s not wrong to want to get together on Thanksgiving. I’m just saying there are lots of opportunities other than Thanksgiving break. If people truly want to see each other, they will arrange it.
I’m not offended by anybody’s decision to shop or go to a movie on Thanksgiving, nor the next day, either. The situation has created an artificially busy and crowded shopping experience. That’s why I stay home, not because I’m worried about somebody thinking I’m an asshole.
Throughout my working life, I occasionally had the opportunity to work a holiday, and I usually took it, for the overtime pay.
If what they want is that the business close on this day, it obviously helps them not to shop there. The owner has less incentives to stay open.
But it isn’t as if people are sitting innocently in their homes learning a chosen trade when troopers storm in and conscript them into jobs at Walmart or Target. They weigh the costs and benefits and decide to apply for the job or not. To pretend they have no choice and are the hapless victims of their meanie employers is to completely deny them any degree of autonomy at all. If you are resentful to be ringing up a blender instead of enjoying time with your family, then take the opportunity that has been shoved in your face and start making better choices so you can live a life you will like better.
If your county jail had no guards and they forgot to lock the cells and the gates, most people would have the sense to leave, not stand around griping about the lumpy pillows and bad food. Last I checked, no big box store is keeping the workers on lockdown.
I do kinda wish I knew which places paid time and a half or double time on Thanksgiving. Even among grocery stores and such. I figure there are probably plenty of people that have no family feast, or who are readily able to shift their family feast and happy to do so if there is an incentive and that most employers would preferentially schedule those who volunteered.
So the boycott succeeds, the store fails, and the workers have no shitty jobs? While I agree this could likely be better for them in the long run, they could just refuse to work and get fired to get the same result.
Typically, families can gather only on major holidays because they are the only times when most are likely not to work. If it’s already a problem to organize a meeting on a major holiday, it’s easy to see how it would be even more difficult on some random day when the majority is likely to work.
Yes, because obviously, if all people stopped shopping on Thanksgiving, stores would immediately fail.
Besides, in cases of successful boycotts, stores change their policies when it begins to hurt the bottom line. They don’t just keep it until they go into bankrupcy. What’s exactly the point of keeping a policy that’s intended to make you money if it turns to, in fact, cost you money?
Who said anything about making the store fail? The point is that if there’s no demand for stores TO BE OPEN SPECIFICALLY ON THANKSGIVING, then there’s less motivation for the stores TO BE OPEN SPECIFICALLY ON THANKSGIVING, and then maybe next year they won’t BE OPEN SPECIFICALLY ON THANKSGIVING, and the employees can enjoy having a holiday off. The other 364 days of the year are business as usual.
If you’re going to argue about this, at least try to have the same argument everyone else is having.
Where are you getting that from? They want the business to be closed on that day. As some, indeed, are doing.
Costco, Publix Lead Charge As Stores Refuse To Open On Thanksgiving Day
These Retailers Say No to Thanksgiving Madness
Two Dozen Retailers Won’t Open on Thanksgiving–And They’re Shaming the Ones That Will
Costco isn’t the only store closed on Thanksgiving day
Etc.