By: Katrina Penaflor Managing Editor
I’ll start by saying I have nothing against Black Friday shopping.
I don’t see anything wrong with people crowding into busy stores to find a good deal on electronics, or clothes, or whatever they’re looking for.
Black Friday shopping is great, as long as it stays black Friday, with the emphasis on Friday, as in the day that comes after Thursday.
My problem comes in with how, over recent years, the shopping day has crept its way up to Thursday.
This trend of black Friday shopping starting early has become extremely popular in the retail market, and although there are plenty of stores who are against Thanksgiving as a shopping day, like Nordstrom, H&M, and Costco, there are plenty of places that still support it.
I see Thanksgiving as a day to be grateful, a time to spend with friends and family enjoying a short reprieve from our hectic day-to-day lives, all while enjoying some delicious food.
I don’t see it as a day to leave your regular festivities and shop endlessly for discounted clothes, or, to take the viewpoint of many store’s employees, have to come in to work.
Last year I found myself in that situation.
While holding a retail job, I was scheduled to come in at 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day to help deal with the hordes of enthusiastic shoppers. I had to leave my Thanksgiving dinner with family to go to work at a place that I felt had no real need to be open on a holiday.
Yes, there are plenty of places that need to keep their doors open on Thanksgiving, I completely understand that, but I don’t see retail stores as any of those.
The shopping, in my opinion, can wait.
I always thought that was part of the fun anyway. At least for me it was. I would enjoy Thanksgiving dinner then wake up early the following day and go to stores that normally wouldn’t be open at 5 a.m.
I wish more stores like Costco would take into consideration how staying open on a holiday can affect their employees.
Sure there are plenty of people who chose to leave the house to shop that day, but think about the employees who get an eight hour shift from 4 p.m. to midnight.
If less people were enthusiastic about shopping Thanksgiving day, the majority of the stores would have smaller sales — which could potentially lead to them keeping their doors closed on a holiday in the future.
Black Friday shopping isn’t the problem here. It is black Thursday shopping that I believe has become the bigger issue.
