Black Holiday

Ah, Thanksgiving!  A day to relax or cook but either way, end the day enjoying your family.  It is a uniquely American holiday copied by the Canadians.  Then the sales started.  They were subtle when I was growing up.  There would be ads and sales.  There wasn’t much hype.  Then came Black Friday.  Suddenly every retailer was trying to outdo their competition.  There was nothing subtle about it.  We were bombarded with ads in the paper and on TV.  Soon the whole weekend was engulfed in the frenzy.  Enter the internet.  Shopping on line had grown as a percentage of sales every year.  Why?  Instead of running from store to store where something may be in stock and searching for it, you can sit in your pajamas and do your shopping with free shipping.  That meant there had to be a day for this.  Enter Cyber Monday.  Some companies have extended their sale to Tuesday in case you were busy.   Then the war started over who would open first for Black Friday.  It started in the morning around 5 or 6.  Then it moved back to midnight.  Finally Thanksgiving was desecrated.  Kmart was open all day.  Walmart and a host of others start their sale around 6 pm.  It was shameful.  People couldn’t have one day to spend with their families.  But there is a glimmer of morality in this money crazed holiday.  Some stores refused to open on Thanksgiving,; instead they cared enough about their employees to let them have the intended day of rest and time with their families.  One would hope that it would spur others to follow suit but I believe these other stores will stay open until sales dip to an unprofitable level.  So if you get drawn in by sales on Thanksgiving, DON”T GO.  There will still be fantastic deals the next day.  Let’s try to restore Thanksgiving to a holiday.