Thanksgiving
A Baby Boomer Point of View
Back in the day not ONE store was open on Thanksgiving because the general feeling was this was an American holiday when just about everyone believed it was meant to be spent with friends and family either watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in person or on TV, playing football and board games, and eating a traditional turkey dinner together. What a difference several decades makes: Thanksgiving 2014 will see at least a dozen major retailers opening their doors ahead of midnight on Black Friday.
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K-Mart is leading the pack with their 23 year-old "tradition" of opening the doors to shoppers at 6 a.m. today, a full 24 hours before Black Friday technically starts. Not far behind are Radio Shack and Walmart, both opening at 8 a.m. way ahead of when it's time to even put the turkey into the oven.
Consumers will then have the better part of the day to spend shopping those early bird retailer's deals before the next stores, The Gap and Old Navy, open for business at 4 p.m. Then, the floodgates of store openings occur at 5 p.m. when Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, J.C. Penney, and Toys 'R Us welcome shoppers, to be joined only an hour later by store openings by Kohl's, Sears, Macy's and Target.
Not only is it sad that thousands of retail workers won't be able to enjoy a leisurely day and Thanksgiving dinner with those they care about because they have to work. It's even more troubling that shoppers will willingly leave their families to shop for mundane material things instead of spending precious time together on the holiday that's all about gratitude and thankfulness for all we already have, especially the important people in our lives.
Don't get me wrong, there will be plenty of people shopping on Thanksgiving. Not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving and even those that do recognize Turkey Day have the right to choose the way they'll spend the all or part of the day. It's just not for me. I like to focus on one holiday at a time and enjoy it in real time. So I will refrain from shopping at many of those same retailers until Friday morning and hope that there are still some great deals to be found.
How do you feel about this topic? Will you be shopping on Thanksgiving Day? Why or Why not? Please share your comments.
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