Black Thanksgiving

The road to Christmas used to follow a natural progression. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, then a steady march into Christmas. Quite simply one event led to the next. This is not the case anymore. Nowadays as soon as Halloween is over, the stores go into full blown Christmas mode. The lines between the events are really murky. Look no further than Thanksgiving and Black Friday. It used to be EVERYTHING was closed on Thanksgiving and hard core shoppers would wake up in the wee hours to battle other shoppers for Doorbuster deals on Black Friday. It was a nice system if you happened to be into that sort of thing (which I am not!). This year for the first time, many retailers are opening up on Thanksgiving evening. This means people who are serious about lining up early for the good deals will have to line up early in the afternoon on Thanksgiving. There goes the holiday! Nothing is sacred anymore. I guess we now have to rename Thanksgiving. I'm calling it what it is... Black Thanksgiving. I'm putting a call out to everyone I know. Say no to shopping on Thanksgiving. Preserve the sanctity of the day. If nobody shows up to shop, the retailers won't have the incentive to open their doors. However, if people show up en masse, where will the madness stop? Will stores open up on Thanksgiving morning, thus eliminating the holiday completely? And what about the poor schleps who have to work at these retail stores? Do you really believe these folks want to give up their Thanksgiving holiday to sell you a cheap television or listen to you complain after the store runs out of the item you sought? I highly doubt it. I'm guessing these folks are being told to work on Thanksgiving or risk losing their jobs. Listen folks, I'm pro capitalism all the way. I fully support businesses working hard to earn your business. But opening on Thanksgiving is crossing the line and just plain wrong. I hope these stores open their doors to a completely underwhelming public response. The pessimist in me doesn't really believe that will happen. I believe there will be plenty of materialistic, deal seeking shopping junkies lining up on Thanksgiving. It's just sad.