There is a phenomenon at work during the holidays. That is everyone gets the day off. Hence all the stores are closed, and I can’t get my groceries or materials for my house repairs, even if I wanted to… So, I am greatful for the sacrefices that the native americans and the pilgrims made so that we can have our current lifestyle. It would be better, though if some people took thier vacations a day earlier or later, and everyone would still be able to do something on thier holiday. Does anyone else feel the same way?
I understand that Thanksgiving is mainly a “family gathering” holyday. If businesses, etc… closed on different days, people wouldn’t be able to celebrate it with their relatives, would they?
I don’t understand. How hard is it for you to plan this into your schedule and work around it? It’s not like it’s a surprise. Thanksgiving happens every year, last Thursday of every November.
We could all have a turkey day holiday alphebetically - Andersons on the first, Bensons on the 2nd etc. That would help keep families together. Might wreck havoc on the football/TV schedules, though. :dubious:
Be thankful the ATMs and the supermarkets aren’t closed for close to a week the way they are here during the New Year holidays, and in May during Golden Week. My first year I got stuck with little food in the house and only about $50, which had to last me for 5 or 6 days. It’s kind of creepy when a metropolis the size of the Tokyo area turns into a virtual ghost town for a while.
Frankly, Ficer, what you’re proposing boils down to requesting that other people should rearrange their lives so as not to inconvenience you.
Two days out of the year - Thanksgiving and Christmas Day - just two days out of three hundred and sixty-five, you can live without being able to go to a store. If you’re not celebrating and you want to work on a project, great! But make sure you have what you need ahead of time. You know ahead of time that these two holidays are coming. You can prepare.
(Personally, my goal this year is not to enter a store for anything non-perishable between the 21st and the 27th of December. Actually I don’t intend to enter a store at all, as my husband, who is much better with crowds than I, has already volunteered to stop on the way home from work one of those days to replenish our supplies of fruit, bread, and milk. He’s a keeper! )
Like most working people, I work during the week. I have two jobs which keeps me very busy during the week. So when a holiday looms nigh, I view that as an opportunity to get ahead on some things. But I cannot get ahead on my groceries, and personal issues, because everyone else, including the supermarkets and hardware stores, has the day off.
I want everyone to have thier day off.
I am not the only person with a job and a business to run. I am not the only one who feels this way. I belive that 20% of America is in the same boat as me. So, with a growing demographic of small business owners/workers, it seems like a hardware store and grocery store could stay open. Never-the-less, the whole country shuts down.
You know, some places are still open. Many pharmacies are open in case you need emergency medicine. Most of the grocery stores around me were open on Thanksgiving until early in the afternoon, when they let their employees go home and shut the store. There are some restaurants open because they’ll make beaucoup money from people that don’t want/like to cook. The waitstaff that chooses to come in on that day will make enough money to justify it, too.
But why on earth should a hardware store be open on Thanksgiving? Do you know who works those jobs? Low-level retail, probably minimum wage or close to it. You really want to dump on these people that already have almost no say with regards to their schedules? The two days a year they know they’ll have off? So what if they got a different day off work; the rest of their family will still be celebrating on Thanksgiving proper, or Christmas day. Just because you weren’t able to plan ahead and buy your materials the day before?
I’ve had to work a 10-hour shift on Easter, before, in a drug store so people could come buy stale bread and deoderant. I wasn’t given a choice. Yeah I could’ve quit, but I’m not leaving a job I need over that. I’m not even a Christian but I was still annoyed, because my family was at home having a big dinner and I was stuck standing around in an almost empty store. I got heated-up leftovers and missed the relative’s visit. Most people who came in commented that at least I was being paid double-time. I wasn’t, I made minimum wage, it was my first job.
I run a business now too, and if I need to ship something or buy printer ink or paper or need paint I buy it early or wait until after the holiday. Really, it’s not that difficult.
Once again, I believe that 20% of America is in the same boat as me. That is, middle class American, working a day job to live, and a night job that could expand into a career.
I don’t think America ought to change for me, I think that America ought to adapt to a growing trend inside America.
I don’t know about Baton Rouge but at least one of the 24-hour grocers around here was still open 24 hours on Thanksgiving. Kmart was open that day, too, to start their sale.
Actually, the fourth Thursday – it never falls on the 29th or 30th of the month.
The OP does raise an interesting point. Since not everyone is a Christian, there are many people who don’t mind working on Christmas, and several businesses (especially in such multicultural cities as New York) that are poised to serve the public on that day. However, the whole country pretty much celebrates Thanksgiving, so the only USA people who can “escape” the ramifications of this fact are those who find themselves near the Canadian or Mexican border.
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