Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the start of insane consumerism

I hope everyone in the USA who celebrates Thanksgiving had a wonderful day yesterday. And that includes those that had to go into work.

My husband works at one of the two large retail stores that has been in the forefront of the media's notice for opening on Thanksgiving for Black Friday sales. My email and facebook and Twitter have been inundated with requests to boycott or sign petitions against my husband's employer. I refuse to do so, and here is why. He wouldn't have had to go into work at 7:00pm last night if there was no demand to do so. But there was, and he did, and he was compensated very well for his time there. He had a few hours of overtime, overnight differential, Black Friday bonus pay... It worked out very well for us for him to go into that shift. Not to mention he was able to spend the day with the family eating and resting and having a great time with our daughter. He didn't miss out on the holiday at all.

We had a great day. We went to a very nice buffet with other members of the family. And we were served and supported at that buffet, by people working on Thanksgiving. Every one of those people would work one day, three turnovers, at a very chichi restaurant where people tip generously. I don't feel sorry for them, they are going to make a very hefty chunk of change and the whole thing is over by 5:00pm. Plenty of time to spend more time with their families if that is what they want.

The idea that there is one singular day of the year where everyone must get together with their families and overeat and watch football and drink too much and it can only be the third Thursday of November just pisses me off. If family time is so important to you that you would start a petition on Change.org or badger local news outlets or send viral email spam about it, find another day. Not working on Thanksgiving is not guaranteed in any profession. Doctor's, nurses, gas station attendants, waitstaff, retail employees, mass transit employees... People work on Thanksgiving. People get paid to work on Thanksgiving. Lets be thankful for having jobs and paychecks and the ability to try and support our families. And then eat too much some other day.

Now as for Black Friday, my husband has explained to me that the reason the store he works for opened at the time that it did was because of "the Creep." Black Friday sales have been occurring earlier and earlier and in order to keep up his company opted for their particular open time. They also spaced out sale times to try and avoid stampedes. When he got home this morning, he was in a great mood. He had fun. It was hectic and busy and energetic and he didn't have a bad thing to say about having worked the start of the Black Friday sale. Then I asked if he had happened to pick up the one toy my daughter has been asking for, which his store sells, and he said "oh no, I wasn't going to do that, I'll go out later." I had to laugh because that was truly ridiculous.

I don't shop on Black Friday. Never have. Part of the reason I don't is I hate crowds and I don't have money. (The money thing is probably the clincher.) But mostly because I do very little holiday shopping to begin with and in general the stuff I like to buy for people doesn't go on sale on Black Friday. But I don't begrudge the bargain hunters that absolutely have to get their marked down TV or sweater.

In fact I'm pretty much turned off by the whole holiday shopping thing in total. I never know what to get anyone other than my daughter. And I don't have enough money at all to get what I would like to get everyone. So I'll do a lot of homemade crafts with my daughter and call it done.

Eventually.

But today I'm just going to rest.

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