“There are many people like me who share custody of their children. After I drop off my daughter at the court-ordered 6 pm, getting a few good deals on Christmas presents for her seems like a far better use of my time than passing by shuttered stores and returning to an empty house.”
For a few years now I’ve noticed the same criticisms about stores that start Black Friday shopping early by opening on Thanksgiving. Critics call shoppers on Thanksgiving “horrible human beings” and “part of the problem.” These criticisms don’t recognize how they are part of the endless moral preening that conservatives are sick of; they deny the power of the free market, shoppers, and workers to make their own choices.
If these shoppers and workers were at home instead, there is a good chance they wouldn’t be enjoying a Norman Rockwell glow from their family activities. These earlier hours are likely only preventing the father of house from screaming at the Chicago Bears while his wife nags him to help with the dishes.
The teenage daughter is probably off texting to her friends about her lame family, and the youngest child is oblivious to the world and playing Minecraft.
So it’s smugly self-righteous to assume that early Black Friday hours are a horrible scourge on blessed family time. And let’s be real, not everybody enjoys spending copious amounts of time with extended families anyway. Many individuals would welcome a chance to free themselves from their drunk Aunt Bethel and awkward dinner conversations to make or save some extra money.
So it’s smugly self-righteous to assume that early Black Friday hours are a horrible scourge on blessed family time.
There are many people for whom money is very tight, and working an extra ten hours over the holiday weekend is the difference between paying the rent and getting some presents, or just barely paying the rent. Many people thank God for the extra hours so they can provide Christmas presents for their family. There are many others that might not work in retail, but who would rather sacrifice a little bit of holiday time with their families in order to provide a better Christmas for them.
They wouldn’t be able to afford some of the things their kids want without shopping for the best deals at the earliest moment. They should have the choice of sacrificing some holiday time with their family now, in order have better holiday time later without being guilt-tripped by the anti-shopping crowd.
Many other people dislike waking up early, but would prefer to spend some of their evening hours shopping, so they can instead spend more time on Fridays, still part of the holiday weekend, with their family.
There are many people like me who share custody of their children. After I drop off my daughter at the court-ordered 6 pm, getting a few good deals on Christmas presents for her seems like a far better use of my time than passing by shuttered stores and returning to an empty house.
There are people who don’t want to work and would rather be at home with their families. That is unfortunate, but they are still getting paid. With so many people un- and under-employed in this sluggish economy, many people believe the inconvenience of holiday hours is a small price in exchange for a paycheck.
Maybe those who don’t want to work but are forced to can use their unwanted hours as motivation to work harder and get a job where they don’t have to work on Thanksgiving. One of the driving forces to get me away from working in the food service industry was having to work during weekends, the dinner rush, and holidays.
Given all of the above benefits of working and shopping on Thanksgiving, I hope to see less complaining about stores opening early on Thanksgiving this year (and please stop the insipid Facebook memes). I think it is a pretty great opportunity for most involved, and, given the day, opportunities for which we should express thanks.
Go shop on Thanksgiving!
