The
period of giving thanks, spending time with family and friends, and caring for
the less fortunate has been heavily replaced with materialism and greed. For example, Schiavone (2014) talks about two
ladies camping outside of Best Buy in Beaumont California 22 days prior to
Black Friday sales beginning at 5:00pm Thanksgiving Day. She says, “Even though the deals for this
year’s Black Friday Shopping at Best Buy have yet to be released, two women
have started their annual camp-out experience in front of a local store. Vickey Torres of Cabazon and Juanita Salas of
Beaumont arrived on Wednesday 22 Days prior to the beginning of the infamous
shopping day on Thanksgiving night. “We
could have started later, but then we wouldn’t be sure to get first in line”,
Torres told patch on Friday, as she and Salas sat under the hot sun in front of
the electronic store. They only get a
few items at lower prices and its first come, first served. Torres and Salas said they’ve each camped out
in front of Best Buy for the last few years.
Each woman says they take turns heading home to shower and eat during
their stay. The women said they are
hoping to score a good deal on a TV this year.
As for people who might say that what they’re doing is bizarre, “Some
people say we’re crazy,” Torres said but that doesn’t bother her one bit.
Dobson
(2014) explained the mindset of those ladies camping outside of Best Buy 22
days before the sales begin. She says,
“Black Friday madness has already begun.
I don’t mean news stories of early Thanksgiving sales, jokes about Black
Friday, or the annual protests about the rights of workers to eat Thanksgiving
meals with their families. Two women in
Beaumont California are already camping out at Best Buy to score a 50-inch
television for $199. Alva Torres takes
turns sleeping at the store overnight and saving each other’s spot. Alva’s husband will take over if they both
have to leave. “The point is to get the
sales because everybody is on a fixed income and we don’t have that kind of
money to splurge”, Alva’s husband told ABC.
They have received a lot of mixed reactions from customers at the
store. “They say you’re dedicated. That’s cool.
Some say that you’re stupid”, Torres said. “They say they’re crazy, but then they come
and ask us can you save a spot in line, or can you do this for us? We’re not here for that. We’re not here for that. We’re here to get our stuff and that’s it”,
Alva’s husband added. “Yep… that’s
it.”
First
of all, those two ladies have too much time on their hands to be camping
outside of Best Buy in Beaumont California 22 days prior to their Black Friday
sale on Thanksgiving afternoon. That
means they are going to waste 22 days of their lives for a 50-inch television
for $199. Something is totally wrong
with this picture because there is no sale that great for anybody to waste that
kind of time camping outside any retail store just to be the first in line to
get items for a very low price. Second
of all, there is no guarantee that they’re going to get it at that price. This could be a setup for those ladies to be
used by a bait-and-switch tactic that most companies use. Vickey Torres and Juanita Salas could have
used those 22 days to work and make money or contributing to the community
through volunteer work. They are so
focused on a 50-inch television set which might not be there when the sales
begin. I was at a loss of words when I
read that article because it reinforces what I and others have been saying
about the materialism and commercialism of the Holiday season. This is an example of lack of prioritization
in which they spend 22 days camping outside of Best Buy in anticipation of a
Black Friday sale to get a deal on a television. I guess they forgot that they have to pay
bills and spend time with family and friends; furthermore, they think that it’s
more important to be the first people inside to save money on a television.
If
those ladies wanted a great deal on a 50-inch television, then they could have
went online and purchased it. They could
have had it delivered to their house for free.
There was no need for them to waste 22 days camping outside of Best Buy
just to save money on a television that is going to be on sale throughout the
Holiday season. That doesn’t make any
sense whatsoever because not only they are putting their lives at risk, but
they are loitering. It’s bad enough that
people camp outside in the cold just to be the first in line to take advantage
of a sale item; however, people waiting little over three weeks is just pure
insanity.
Many
retailers would have charged those two ladies, who are standing outside their
stores 22 days before Black Friday sales, with loitering fines or had them
arrested. Most retailers would not allow
people hanging out on their property because it poses a threat to other
customers and employees. I understand
that many sale items are worth the wait; however, waiting 22 days for a sale
item is very extreme. No retailer should
encourage that kind of behavior that is being exemplified by Best Buy in
Beaumont California in which they allow those two ladies to camp outside 22
days prior to their Black Friday sale. I
wouldn’t allow anybody to camp outside my future bar & grill restaurant the
night before the Friday Night Fish Fry on the first floor and the dance party
on the second floor. I would have kindly
asked them to leave if I caught them setting up their tents and sleeping bags
outside my establishment the night before.
Then if they don’t leave after I’ve kindly asked them, then I would call
the police and have them fined or arrested.
Loitering should not be allowed anywhere under any circumstances. Yet, Best Buy allowed them to camp outside 22
days prior to the Black Friday sale which is poor judgment on their part. Hopefully, the managers decide to take proper
action and ask those two ladies to leave the premises or fine and/or arrest
them for loitering on their property.
They
should be doing something constructive with their time instead of wasting
it. Vickey Torres and Juanita Salas
could have got a temporary job somewhere for three weeks just to make enough
money to afford the 50-inch television at full price. They could have done some volunteer work at a
nearby soup kitchen or food bank for 22 days.
There are many things that those two individuals could have done instead
of wasting time camping outside of Best Buy just to purchase a 50-inch
television for $199. I would rather camp
outside of a local soup kitchen overnight just to be the first person in line
ready to feed the hungry than to camp outside of a retail store in order to be
the first person in line just to purchase an item that is going to be on sale
throughout the Holiday season. This
mindset of two California ladies standing outside Best Buy 22 days before the Black
Friday sale is just ridiculous! I hope
and pray that Vickey Torres and Juanita Salas realize that there are more
things to do that are important. Hopefully, those two ladies will be able to
enjoy the television on sale and understand the true meaning of the season.
Boyd
(2013) talks about the commercialization of the holiday season in his
article. He says,
It has already
begun. Many people are beginning to play
Christmas music again, and some people have been listening to it since last
year. As Thanksgiving nears, Christmas
lights, ornaments, trees and decorations are popping up in dorms on campuses
and in cities across the nation. It’s
only November and people are looking forward to the Birth of Jesus Christ. This in essence seems to be an ongoing
problem. A growing number of people seem
to look forward to Christmas for the food, the gifts and social parties rather
than because of a deep-rooted appreciation of the real reason for the
season. The commercial materialism that
has destroyed the meaning of the season has gotten out of hand during the past
few years. What do we expect based on
society’s expectations? We value money
by keeping stores open all night including Thanksgiving Day. Either the economy has forced us into making
these decisions or the retailers use that as an excuse to further infringe on
retail employees’ time spent with families.
Last week, with the release of the PlayStation 4, many parents drove to
the store and purchased gifts for Santa Claus to bring on Christmas morning. And for those parents waiting to shop in
December, they can forget about purchasing the beloved gifts for their
children. This trend will only get worse
as commercial materialism continues during the holiday season. The development of this commercial
materialism has not only degraded the meaning of the holiday season but
destroyed it. Thanksgiving is being lost
in the shuffle of the hustle and bustle to get ready for Christmas. Thanksgiving is a tradition that started way
back when the pilgrims inherited this new land we call America. It was also a day of Thanksgiving that was
publically upheld by George Washington who declared this day for Americans to
acknowledge God’s presence, to obey his commandments, and to be thankful for
all he has done for us. Thanksgiving
today is a secular holiday, but many people still take time out to give thanks
to God for all his blessings. Many
people can share in the spirit of Thanksgiving as it gives us a time to reflect
on our blessings, living in America with liberty and justice for all. It is rather odd that the excessive
commercialism of a religious holiday, Christmas, inhibits us from properly
celebrating a secular holiday, Thanksgiving.
Black Friday, a day of shopping for deals with stores opening in the
early hours of the morning, brings all the materialism of Christmas without the
real reason for the season. But where
should it all begin and end? Do we even
know? Maybe the buying and selling is
not really the problem, but rather our focus should be on each person’s level
of responsibility and sincerity in giving.
It is important for people to remember the true meaning of the
season. For Christians, the excessive
commercialism of Christmas and the Christmas season has also degraded the
season the Advent which is a time of waiting in hopeful anticipation of the
Birth of Jesus Christ. The Christmas
season begins on the Christmas Day itself and continues for eleven days which
is commemorated by the popular song called the Twelve Days of Christmas. This is where the American retailers and
shops begin their after-Christmas sales on December 26. With a materialistic Christmas, we have to
receive first before we give, but the true meaning of Christmas is the
opposite. The most important quality of
giving a gift is that it comes from our hearts unconditionally and without
expectation. As we progress further into
November, let us first celebrate with friends and family what we have to be
thankful for before we enter into the Advent season, so that we can prepare for
the celebration of the birth of the Savior of the world on Christmas. Let us try to maintain a good balance, a
balance in which we can prepare for the Lord in a loving, joyful, and thankful
way. Continue the spirit of true
generosity and compassion. Kindle the
fire at Thanksgiving, building it into the season of Advent.”
Kelly
(2013) explains how commercialization tarnishes the Holiday season in her
article published in the Collegiate Times.
She says, “It is only mid-November and yet we are already bombarded with
Christmas. Everywhere you go there is a
pre-holiday sale, Christmas music blaring through overhead sound systems and
Christmas decorations hung up around stores.
Every year this trend is starting earlier and earlier, and this year it
was the day after Halloween. If you
walked into Kroger expecting half-off on Halloween candy on November 1, you
were most likely disappointed to find candy canes and other Christmas treats
there instead. The holiday season is
supposed to be a period of celebration, family, and giving, whether your
purpose is to celebrate the birth of Christ, the miracle of oil just the spirit
of the season. Our society has other
ideas. Rather than embracing the true
meaning of the season, companies are exploiting Christmas for commercial
profits. It used to be that Thanksgiving
was the starting point to lure customers in their stores for Black Friday
deals. Now Thanksgiving is being overlooked
along with other winter holidays. It is
no longer the notion that the holiday season starts after Thanksgiving. Instead companies are force-feeding us
Christmas at the end of October. Because
companies are using the Christmas tradition of gift giving for financial gain,
the wholesome nature of the holiday is being tarnished. By starting sales earlier, they are hoping to
draw customers in over a longer buying season and persuade them to dig in their
pockets 
regularly. This increased effort
by corporations to make material objects the focus and meaning of what
determines a good Christmas signifies that we, as a society, are missing the
point. From a Christian standpoint, it
is supposed to be a celebration of Christ: the man who gave up his life to save
our sins. From a secular view, it is
about taking time to be with family and loved ones. Recently Sarah Palin stated “I love the
commercialization of Christmas, because it spreads the Christmas cheer.” Spreading the Christmas cheer is one thing,
but using it as a tactic to get people in stores is another. As a society, we need to reclaim the month of
November from the retail giants and preserve the holiday which they cannot
market into a shadow of its former glory: Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a beautiful transition into
the holiday season. It is a
non-denominational celebration of the Plymouth settlers’ first harvest. It is an occasion to get together with family
and friends. It is a holiday with a
purpose of reflection and giving thanks to God for all of his blessings and
mercies. There is no better entry to the
holiday season and commercialization should not define it.”
regularly. This increased effort
by corporations to make material objects the focus and meaning of what
determines a good Christmas signifies that we, as a society, are missing the
point. From a Christian standpoint, it
is supposed to be a celebration of Christ: the man who gave up his life to save
our sins. From a secular view, it is
about taking time to be with family and loved ones. Recently Sarah Palin stated “I love the
commercialization of Christmas, because it spreads the Christmas cheer.” Spreading the Christmas cheer is one thing,
but using it as a tactic to get people in stores is another. As a society, we need to reclaim the month of
November from the retail giants and preserve the holiday which they cannot
market into a shadow of its former glory: Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a beautiful transition into
the holiday season. It is a
non-denominational celebration of the Plymouth settlers’ first harvest. It is an occasion to get together with family
and friends. It is a holiday with a
purpose of reflection and giving thanks to God for all of his blessings and
mercies. There is no better entry to the
holiday season and commercialization should not define it.”
Curcelli
(2011) explains more about the over-commercialization of the holidays in her
article published in the Saratoga Falcon titled, “Over-Commercialization
Strikes Holidays Again”. She says, “It’s
the middle of October, and it’s time for some Halloween shopping. But as you walk through the doors of Macy’s,
you see red and gold tinsel hanging on the walls. Seven-foot trees stand near each doorway with
round glass ornaments hanging on each branch.
Is it really Christmas already?
Over the years, the stores seem to be bringing in their holiday
inventory earlier and earlier in an effort to drum up more business in what is
almost always their most profitable time of the year. Junior Ashley Joshi thinks that stores are
starting to over commercialize the holidays, particularly Christmas. “The day after Halloween, all the stores put
out their Christmas displays and start the sales” Joshi said. Costco even had its displays out before
Halloween. Joshi also thinks that retailers
go a little overboard with decorations.
Freshman Abby Foss says that when stores start the Christmas season too
early, it detracts from the celebrations of earlier holidays, such as
Thanksgiving. Stores should know that
Christmas does not start in November, but in December. “So while everyone is scrambling to find
Thanksgiving stuff, many stores have already set up for Christmas”, Foss
said. Sophomore Drew Bryan says the
excessive commercialization of the holidays actually takes away from their
meaning. “The only thing I don’t like
about the holidays is all the advertising that is taken advantage of because of
the holidays,” Bryan said. They are
always advertising so people will buy presents for their kids or friends or
relatives, just so they can make money.
They don’t see the true meaning of Christmas. Sophomore Maya Srinivasan says “over
commercialization completely undermines the true meaning of the holidays, which
is to spend time with family and friends, not to benefit businesses.” Srinivasan also finds the early advertising
of stores to be irritating. “The early
ads are annoying because people don’t really get into the mood of the holidays
until closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Srinivasan said. “When I see a store’s holiday advertisement
too early, I feel like they are overly eager to sell their holiday merchandise.” Junior Sanjna Verma disagrees, however,
saying that all the commercialization actually makes the holidays more
enjoyable for her. “I like it,
personally, when it’s commercialized,” Verma said. “The holidays are always my favorite time of
year because everyone is so happy! Even
the media has over-commercialized the holidays, I honestly don’t mind.” Verma thinks that the holidays remind
everyone to take time to relax and enjoy themselves. “Everyone forgets to take a little bit of
time for them when they get older, so the holidays are a good reminder to have
fun sometimes,” Verma said.
Erickson
(2013) talks about the commercialization of Christmas in her article titled
“Commercialization of Christmas – Yes”.
She says, “What happened to the true meaning of the season, peace on
earth and good will toward men? Long
gone are the days of planning, anticipation and secrecy to make that perfect gift
for your loved one. Wool stockings
knitted during the autumn months; a set of carved animals created during the quiet
moments after the kids were asleep; woven baskets with a fresh baked loaf of
bread and a mason jar filled with homemade jam for your neighbors across the
way are long gone. Setting aside
personal differences and healing wounds given and received over the year in
order to start the new year out with a clean slate are often frowned upon. Where has the thankfulness for reaching the
winter solstice or the spiritual celebration of Christ’s birth gone? It all seemed much simpler then in comparison
to the stress, tension and competitiveness in our contemporary holiday
celebrations. Blood-pressures go up as
we manipulate our budgets to accommodate the wants and desires of our children,
family members and friends. Tension
thickens as we look forward with dread to the family’s holiday get-togethers or
the office Christmas party. Shoppers
line up outside department stores at three in the morning waiting to grab the
hottest gadgets from the shelves; pushing and shoving and cursing their fellow
shoppers. When did we as a society
transform from one of the simple gratefulness and spirituality to the
competitive and commercialized holiday of today? It’s been a gradual process accelerated by
retailers and the media that feed our disillusions of the definition of success
exacerbated by our need and desire for material items. Christmas has become so commercialized in
fact many people despise it. It has
caused us to lose focus of the true meaning of the holiday season. Originally a pagan festival to celebrate the
winter solstice, and modified by Christians to incorporate religious dogma, it
is the most commercialized holiday in the world. It has become so commercialized that is loses
the magic of the season and pushes us to our boiling points. What happened to waiting after Thanksgiving
to start the holiday shopping? Stroll
through any store the day after Halloween and you will find Christmas displays
emerging. Drive through any village,
town or city the weekend after Thanksgiving to witness the neighborhood competitions
of light shows on the lawns across the country.
Enough is enough! Do we really
need that huge expensive gift as a validation of how much we matter in
someone’s life? No! Do our children
really need a roomful of new toys when their closets or the basement is already
filled with all the toys they never play with? No! Whether we are struggling economically or
not, we need to take into account of what’s really important in our lives,
especially during the holiday season.
The commercialization of Christmas has been on the rise for years and
continues to get worse. Many of our
younger generations have no concept of the true meaning of the Christmas
spirit, whether it is the pagan celebration of the solstice of the various
religious celebrations of Christ. It’s
our responsibility as parents, leaders and role models to get back to basics
and end the craziness and growing commercialization of the holiday
season.”
I
agree with all four people on the fact that the holiday season starts earlier
and becomes more commercialized. However,
Medved (2009) claims that the commercialization of Christmas shows community
and giving. He says, “During the festive
holiday season, it’s become commonplace to be critical of the commercialization
of Christmas. Critics claim that there
is something wrong with so many Americans scrambling and spending large amounts
of money that the recipients may not appreciate. From a different point of view, the onslaught
of commercialism during the holiday season strengthens the connections of
inter-dependence and mutual reward that make community possible. The seasonal spending not only connects those
who give and receive gifts to one another, but represents the meaning of unity
through service, prosperity, and financial success. If retailers enjoy good business during the
holidays it’s a sign of strength and prosperity for the greater society,
negative numbers represent difficulty.
All the buying and selling is altogether voluntary, demonstrating the
operation of a free market that operates best when there is peace on earth and
good will to men. The market, in fact,
encourages precisely that sort of cooperation and respect. What’s negative about the prospect of
hundreds of millions of Americans taking great pains to select gifts to express
their love to friends and family? In
fact, the kind instincts demonstrated by the giving frenzy, and by the
ubiquitous figure of Santa Claus, may at least bring us closer to the message
of higher love that’s the purpose of the holiday season.”
I
respect Michael’s opinion as well. Many
people get excited when the first commercial airs on TV and when the Christmas
music on most radio stations after Halloween.
For example, 100.5 The River and Star 105.7 in Grand Rapids began
playing Christmas music during Halloween weekend this year. 100.3 WNIC in Detroit started the Christmas
music on November 6. Sirius XM Holly and
Holiday Traditions aired on November 11 (Veteran’s Day) on various Sirius XM
Satellite Radio receivers. There were
mixed feelings and reactions from a lot of people whereas some people loved it
others did not. In fact, there was some
outrage from people when 100.3 WNIC, 100.5 The River, and Star 105.7 started
their annual tradition of playing wall to wall Christmas music three weeks
before Thanksgiving. Some people think
that it is a wonderful thing that they have done because it gives them a sense
of hope and brings a sense of happiness to those people in the midst of all the
craziness in the world today. Even the
children love it too because it is their favorite time of the year. Most people get very outraged every year when
most radio stations play Christmas music the first week of November and the
Christmas advertisements air on TV the first week in November because it rushes
the holiday season. I understand the
reasons why most radio stations play Christmas music during the first week of
November all the way through Christmas Day.
I also understand why many retailers do their Christmas commercials the
first week of November for the same reasons; however, I disagree with the
notion of Christmas ads on TV in early November and Christmas music on most
radio stations during the first week of November because it rushes the season
causing it to lose its meaning and increases amount of stress among people as
the season progresses. I love Christmas
music because it puts me in a positive frame of mind and puts me at ease. I can’t listen to it either on the first day
of November or during the first week of November because it loses the magic and
excitement of the season. By the time
December rolls around, I won’t enjoy it as much because it gets repetitive over
time which gets bland and boring. Some
people are usually burned out on Christmas Eve because the holiday season
starts earlier every year which further destroys the magic, meaning, and
excitement of the season. Most radio
stations could have waited until after Thanksgiving to play around the clock
Christmas music because that’s when it officially begins. The holiday season is supposed to be the
magical time of the year; therefore, the Christmas advertisements and the music
should begin on Black Friday. Instead,
the season starts progressively earlier year after year which causes the season
to further lose its meaning, create more holiday stress among people, and takes
away the magic and excitement of the season.
There
are two holidays that come before Christmas and that is Veterans Day and
Thanksgiving. The holiday season should
not extend itself closer to Halloween because nobody is ready to celebrate it
yet especially after many people just celebrated Halloween. Rushing the holiday season will cause people
to not enjoy it as much anymore. When
many people start complaining to 100.3 WNIC not playing Christmas music on
November 1, I ask the question, why are so many people in a hurry to celebrate
Christmas? What about honoring those
veterans who continue to sacrifice their lives to defend our country? What about giving thanks for all that God has
done for us? Christmas comes after
Veterans Day and Thanksgiving not the other way around! It seems like the commercialization of the
holiday season has skewed our priorities in which we are extending the holiday
season before Thanksgiving and closer to Halloween. This is causing the holiday season to become
more meaningless, commercialized, and materialistic.
We
need to get our priorities straight especially at this time of year. In other words, we have to remember that
there are two major holidays that come first before Christmas. Those two holidays are Veterans Day and
Thanksgiving. Before we prepare
ourselves for the holiday season next year, let’s honor our Veterans first
because they are an integral part of our country. Those people continue to put their lives on
the line to protect our freedoms and defend our country; therefore, on Veterans
Day 2015, let’s send thank you cards to our men and women who serve our country. This is important because our country wouldn’t
exist without them. After that, let’s do
an inventory of our lives by either writing down the things that we are
thankful for or reflecting on the goodness of God. God continues to bless us daily and we should
thank him every day and especially during this time of year. Thanksgiving is a time to fellowship with
friends and family; therefore, we should be enjoying great food and football with
them.
Veterans
Day and Thanksgiving should be celebrated first before Christmas; thus, the
holiday season should not begin until after Thanksgiving. That means that Christmas music should be
played in small increments every hour and steadily increasing as Thanksgiving
comes closer or not at all before that time.
That also means that retailers should not be advertising their Christmas
sales until after Thanksgiving as well.
The holiday season should not be rushed at all; furthermore, it should
be celebrated at its designated period because it allows people to enjoy the magic
and excitement of the season. Many
people’s holiday stress levels will decrease dramatically if we celebrate
Veterans Day and Thanksgiving first before we prepare ourselves for the holiday
season. We can reclaim the meaning,
magic, and excitement of the season by not rushing it.
Greene
(2012) asks the question in his article on CNN.com titled, “Is Black Friday
edging out Thanksgiving?” He says, “The debate over whether the hand-to-hand
combat excesses of Black Friday represent a grotesque over-commercialization of
the holiday season has lost its meaning.
The point is no longer whether or not Black Friday gives the holiday
season a bad name; furthermore, the point is that Black Friday has now became a
holiday. It will arrive again this week,
even as Americans are still sitting at their Thanksgiving dinner tables. Black Friday with its door-buster sales, a
slew of frenzied shoppers fighting for position, employees nervously were
waiting for the onslaught has shrugged off the confines of its name and has now
established squatters’ rights on Thursday.
Target will open at 9:00pm Thanksgiving Night, three hours earlier than
the stores’ midnight opening in 2011.
Wal-Mart will begin its Black Friday sales at 8:00pm on Thanksgiving. Toys R Us will match that 8:00pm opening as
will Sears. Best Buy which will wait
until midnight to open its doors, seems almost like a dowdy throwback. The store employees around the country who
are upset that the schedules will separate them of a big part of their holiday
Thursday (many of them will have to arrive early before the customers) and the
citizens who fret that the lure of the deeply discounted sales will empty out
of their home-for-the-holidays family gatherings are probably fighting a losing
battle. Black Friday appears to be
victorious because it has taken on a role of the holidays it imitates. Like real holidays, it occurs on a
pre-designated day each year. People
anticipate it and mark the date. Across
the breadth of the nation they are absent from work to deserve it and when the
day arrives they get together and shop.”
He continues, “Black Friday does away with the middleman in the universe
of the holidays, it is the only one that exists solely to sell merchandise. It celebrates nothing; it commemorates only
itself. It is an annual festival of the
cash register. The term Black Friday is
open to debate, but it has come to prefer to the theory that retailers go into
the black into the profit side of the ledger during shopping season, which
traditionally commences the day after Thanksgiving. There is something about the mindset of Black
Friday that is widely criticized. The
Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death on Long Island in 2008 as shoppers
took the doors of their hinges and ran him over and stepped on him in their mad
dash to the stacks of items on sale; whereas, the woman in California last year
who unleashed pepper spray on fellow shoppers trying to purchase Xbox’s for her
children. Those kinds of images are
symbols of what’s expected to be a long night.
The new holiday would not have been in existence if people weren’t
embracing it. But you have to ask
yourself: When people, as they mature, remember the best holidays of their
lives, whether it a gift wrapped with love and affection, a deal they found, or
time spent with family and friends?
Breaking up the flow of a real holiday so you can make it on time to the
beginning of the Black Friday holiday season to be touched by the poignancy of
long lines at soup kitchens and food pantries; it is another to witness the
darkness bearing credit cards, waiting to bulldoze through stores hungry to
purchase flat-screen TVs and Blu-Ray players.”
Thurston
(2013) talks about the ongoing trend of some retailers encroaching on
Thanksgiving in her article in the Tampa Bay Times titled “Black Friday Gives
way to Thanksgiving Thursday for Many Retailers.” She says, “Forget Black Friday. This year is all about Thanksgiving Thursday. If you’ve been anywhere with a cash register
lately, you know retailers are ushering the holidays earlier than ever. The trend started a few years ago as
companies began experimenting with Thanksgiving hours at brick-and-mortar
stores and launching early Black Friday deals online. Consumers shouted out with glee as many were
eager to shop off their pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Thursday and sleep through
Black Friday. Two rounds of sales became
better than one. This year, most major
retailers will be open on Thanksgiving, creating speculation that Black Friday,
once the busiest shopping day of the year, could become obsolete. Macy’s started the trend by announcing in
mid-October it will open at 8:00pm on Thanksgiving. Kmart will open at 6:00am and stay open until
11:00pm Friday night. Last year, it
opened on Thanksgiving but closed later in the day. Some stores are making drastic changes to
their hours. JCPenney, a retailer
desperate for a strong shopping season, moved their start time from 6:00am
Friday to 8:00pm Thanksgiving Night.
Office Depot who usually disassociates themselves from Black Friday
added 8:00pm Thanksgiving night to 11:00pm Friday night and disregarded the
morning hours of Black Friday opening at 8:00am. We are aware that people shop for their kids
first, Toys R Us moved up their opening time for the fifth year in a row to
5:00pm. Thanksgiving, three hours
earlier than last year’s start. Best
Buy, a longtime ruler of Black Friday, upped its start time to 6:00pm
Thanksgiving night which is six hours earlier than last year’s midnight
opening. A few complained about having
to spend their holiday waiting on a few toy deals. But most enjoyed it, calling it quality time
with family and friends. According to
the National Retail Federation, last year 28% of shoppers were in stores by
midnight Black Friday, up from 24% in 2011 and just 10% in 2010. Retailers say they keep opening earlier
because that’s what customers want; therefore, they claim that they can shop
whenever they can get the best deals.
This year, stores have even more reason to speed up the holiday
creep. Because Thanksgiving falls late
this year on November 28, there are six fewer shopping days between
Thanksgiving and Christmas, the shortest holiday season in more than a
decade. That, combined with weak consumer
confidence, means stores have to be more aggressive luring their customers
in. The stakes are high. Holiday shopping is important for major
retailers, representing up to 40% of annual sales. One shopping forecast released by Adobe
Digital Index last week said the shortened calendar could cost $1.5 billion in
sales. Time will determine how important
Thanksgiving Thursday becomes for retailers and how early they will go. So far, few stores have stepped away from
opening their doors on Thanksgiving among protesters who complain about
employees having to work the holiday.
Too many people want to celebrate Christmas early.”
Chittum
(2013) explains how Thanksgiving shopping encroaches on retailers employees’
holiday spent with their families in his article in the Columbia Journalism
Review titled, “Shopping on Thanksgiving Kills Poor Workers’ Holidays.” He says, “In a country filled with work and
consumption, there’s been nothing to do or buy on Thanksgiving. Cook, eat, talk, nap, and maybe watch a
little football. And just about
everybody but the Waffle House and Walmart workers got the day off. That’s changing as Black Friday sales become
Thanksgiving Night sales. More retailers
than ever will open this year on Thanksgiving Day, a phenomenon that has led to
quite a bit of hand-wringing in the press and rightly so. It’s evident, though, that the hand-wringing
is primarily about those people who don’t have to work on Thanksgiving. But what about the workers, the underpaid people
who have to leave their families and friends to go to their jobs because people
can’t wait to buy things on Friday? They
call it the service industry because they serve you. Shoppers are not thinking about those people
and neither is the press.”
Lee
(2012) passionately explains how Thanksgiving is being commercialized in her
article in the Crimson White titled, “Thanksgiving Commercialized, now ‘Gray
Thursday.’” She says, “Just when people
thought there was at least one holiday that was not commercial, Black Friday
sales invade Thanksgiving or should we call it Gray Thursday? Thanksgiving is a holiday that has
traditionally been about spending time with family, eating turkey and dressing,
and taking the time to remember each and everything we are thankful for. It is a time for the hustle and bustle of
everyday life to pause for us to take the time to visit with our long-lost
cousins, meet our siblings’ significant others, play a few board games, and
pass out from eating too much dessert.
When all of the family has returned home and the turkey’s all gone,
Black Friday is a good time to start Christmas shopping and catch a few
deals. Some people put up their
Christmas trees and hang up the lights outside after waking up early in the
morning to purchase a new TV at low price at a local Wal-Mart. But for others, it seems Black Friday is
almost more important than Thanksgiving, especially now that it’s crept into a
day of thanks. The Old Navy in
Tuscaloosa, as well as several other businesses, was open all day on
Thanksgiving. Many more stores across
America opened as early as 8:00pm to begin Black Friday sales, even though it
was still Thursday and still Thanksgiving.
While some people were enjoying delicious food and laughter with our
loved ones, many employees across the nation were working, or preparing to
work, a very, very long night. Not only
does this take the fun out of waking up super early for Black Friday sales, it
destroys the meaning of the actual holiday.
It’s hard to be thankful for everything while you’re fighting people you
don’t know for a sale on material items.
It’s hard to be thankful and enjoy the holiday when you’re working all
day. It’s also really hard to have a
turkey-induced nap with no turkey.
Perhaps we should go back to the way things used to be, before Black
Friday became Gray Thursday and people missed Thanksgiving dinners to stand in
lines for the latest sales on the coolest electronics. Fewer businesses should be open, and more
people should spend time with their families.
Besides Christmas, it’s the only day almost everyone can take off and
spend at home, and it’s the only day especially for giving thanks. Maybe next year American businesses will
postpone the sales so no more people will be inclined to spend Thanksgiving
being thankful with their loved ones.”
It’s
a sad state of affairs when businesses put money first over families on
Thanksgiving. Retailers like Kmart,
Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Macy’s, and some other corporate retailers are
opening their doors on Thanksgiving night which takes away employees’ time
spent with families. Thanksgiving is
supposed to be a time where family and friends get together, break bread, and
fellowship with each other. Over the
past few years, it has been replaced by the glorification of the almighty
dollar. Do Target, Kmart, Best Buy, and
some corporate owned retailers realize that employees have families too? I can’t fathom the notion that some retailers
have to encroach on a sacred holiday that focuses on spending time with loved
ones.
Back
in the 80s, 90s, and the early 2000s, there weren’t any stores open on
Thanksgiving. Even a lot of grocery retailers stayed open until about 2:00pm,
to allow people to spend time with their family and friends. Back then a lot of retailers and businesses
focused on the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
That was when Black Friday started early in the morning and people woke
up at the crack of dawn to get started on their Christmas shopping. Now, some of stores are starting Black Friday
early by opening their doors on Thanksgiving night which focuses on materialism
and greed. That does not make sense at
all because Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and other corporate retailers have
money and it comes from their customers.
Three decades ago, nobody lost money by closing on Thanksgiving. Now, some retailers are worried that they
will lose money if they closed on Thanksgiving; therefore, they are making it
mandatory for people to work on Thanksgiving.
This is just deplorable that some of these corporate managers would
treat their employees like this; furthermore, they are saying that making money
is more important than enjoying great food and fellowship with family and
friends. I’m afraid that Thanksgiving is
no longer going to be a holiday anymore because more and more businesses are
going to jump on the bandwagon by starting their Black Friday sales
earlier.
Ton
(2012) explains what happens when some stores force employees to work on the
holidays in his article on the Harvard Business Review. He says,
Don’t be
surprised if Thanksgiving becomes another shopping day or just another workday
if you’re a retail employee. Once
retailers discovered that Americans were willing to get up very early the next
day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) and camp out in the parking lot in order
to get a shot at some good deals, it was just a question of which stores could
open earliest and get a bigger piece of the holiday shopping. If people are willing to line up at 6:00am,
why not get the jump on the other stores and open at 5:00am? Why not 4:00am? Why not 10:00pm Thursday night? But that was last year. This year, retailers such as Wal-Mart, Toys R
Us, and Kmart opened their doors at 8:00pm on Thanksgiving; Target opened at 9:00pm. If it turns out sales were good, these stores
will likely open even earlier next year and even more stores will take the
hit. Who actually benefits from this
craziness? Retailers get a temporary
sales boost from offering deep discounts.
But opening stores on a holiday often means they pay employees time and
a half. And it’s unlikely that opening
stores earlier makes people spend more for holiday shopping; they just spend
more that day and less on other days.
What about customers? $10 off on
Thursday is pretty much the same as $10 off on Friday. Anyway, you can get a lot of the same deals
online. And really, how good a bargain
is Gray Thursday at the expense of time spent with families especially when family
time is gone the way of the dinosaur.
One group is getting the worse of it: retail employees. Customers can pass up shopping on
Thanksgiving, but employees have no choice but to work on Thanksgiving. They have to show up hours before the
customers arrive and they are unhappy!
St. Clair, a Target employee, was so upset that she set a petition on
change.org to save Thanksgiving and go back to Friday morning opening. By noon today more than 370,000 people had
signed it. Gray Thursday is yet another
demonstration that retailers see employees only as a cost to be minimized and
as parts that can easily be replaced.
From the company’s standpoint, if Casey St. Clair doesn’t want to work
on Thanksgiving, there are plenty of others who will, especially when unemployment
is still so high. This view of employees
shows up in many other ways, from low wages to poor working conditions. In 2011, an average full-time retail
salesperson made $21,008 a year before the poverty line of four. Cashiers made even less. And in retail, so called full-time employees,
are not actually guaranteed 40 hours a week of work and pay because 94% of
retailers count anyone who works more than 32 hours as full-time. So their income can vary significantly from
week to week. Overall, retail wages are
so low that millions of employees can’t survive without public assistance. That’s not all. Retail employees’ schedules change all the
time, often when they least expect it.
So it’s close to impossible for them to have a normal life or hold on to
the second job they often need because the main one pays so little. Retail employees are often not given the
time, tools, and training to do a good job.
I’ve talked to employees who come to work early just to grab the
equipment they need to get work done before co-workers show up, because there
is not enough for everybody. And when
retailers make decisions such as opening stores on Thanksgiving, without taking
into account about how it benefits companies or their customers, retail
employees are once again reminded of how little their companies care about
their lives and well-being. What
difference does it make if a two parent household or a single parent household
hardly ever has time for a big family gathering? What difference does it make if a joyful
family tradition has to be cut down to size?
That’s not a business matter. Is
it any wonder that Wal-Mart associates and community supporters were mad enough
to protest about bad jobs in front of Wal-Mart stores on Black Friday? What retailers don’t realize is that their
lean and mean treatment of employees isn’t helping their bottom lines. If you study the longer term consequences of
treating employees this way as I have, you find that when retailers do not invest
in their people, their operations suffer and their stores are full of problems
such as products in the wrong place or with the wrong price, obsolete products
on the shelves, and long checkout lines.
These problems reduce sales and profits.
Many retail chains base their labor budgets on sales; so when sales
decline, so do labor budgets. Then
retailers invest even less in their people and the vicious cycle
continues. Everyone suffers. Companies leave a lot of money on the
table. Customers get bad service and
higher prices due to inefficiencies. The
employees suffer the most, but retail employees are a huge segment of our
society, so our society suffers as well.
A study conducted in the early 2000s found that Wal-Mart employees in
California were receiving $86 million in public assistance a year. If you’re a taxpayer, that’s your problem
even if you never set foot in a Wal-Mart.
One thing to be thankful for is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Companies such as Costco, QuikTrip,
Mercadona, and Trader Joe’s show us that even low cost retailers can provide
their employees with good jobs and their shareholders with good returns. If you haven’t done your Christmas shopping
yet, let me offer you one thought: If you’re wondering which of two stores to
walk into, take the one that treats its employees better. It’s better for all of us.
Molik
(2014) explains why it’s not a good idea for retailers to open their doors on
Thanksgiving Day in his report. He says,
“Retailers who hope to get ahead on the competition by opening on Thanksgiving Day
is a bad move according to a national expert in retail marketing and strategy
in the University at Buffalo School of Management.” “A far better strategy for increasing sales
(and maintaining high levels of customer service) is businesses to make their
Black Friday offers more attractive,” says Arun Jain, PhD, Samuel P. Capen
Professor of Marketing Research at the UB School of Management. “It’s a pity
that in a richest country in the world, we cannot reserve even a single day for
family, and there is a good chance it could backfire with consumer boycotts,”
he says. “If retailers wait until Black
Friday and offer good incentives, consumers will still come and their shopping
lists will still be warm,” he says. “And
shoppers will be greeted by happy employees who were able to celebrate the
holiday with their loved ones instead of being forced to work. Happier sales people are more helpful sales
people, which lead to higher sales and a more positive evaluation of the store
by consumers.” “Malls like the Walden
Galleria in Cheektowaga New York should force their stores to open early,” Jain
says. “Instead they should rise above it
all and make a statement about their values.
If management is concerned that customers will go to another mall, they
are forgetting that the Galleria has no competition in the Buffalo Niagara
area.” “This is an opportunity for
retailers to say what they believe in and respect their employees, their
families and this uniquely American tradition,” Jain says. “It would be more effective for malls to take
out a full-page ad announcing their intention to remain closed on Thanksgiving
with photos of the employees of their stores.”
I
agree with both authors because retailers encroaching on Thanksgiving are only
doing more harm to their company. I’ve
said this time and time again there is more to business than just making
money. It is about treating their
customers and employees with respect.
All they are doing is creating a negative experience for those Black
Friday shoppers and creating more employee turnover by forcing employees to
work on Thanksgiving. This is just
corporate greed rearing its ugly head because nowadays it’s all about the money
instead of the people. The whole idea of
retailers opening on Thanksgiving is just a bad business move which is going to
cause some retailers to lose money instead of gaining money; furthermore, they
are putting themselves at risk of going out of business because they are
focusing on the short term goals instead of the long term. That is the main reason why people are going
to be protesting on Black Friday.
WRIC
Newsroom (2014) explains the reason why people are planning to boycott
Thanksgiving shopping. They said, “Black
Friday has turned into Black Thursday, and a lot of shoppers aren’t happy. They’re lashing out at major retailers
online, threatening to boycott stores that are opening on Thanksgiving. Among their biggest targets: Kmart plans to
kick Thanksgiving Day off, opening stores at 6:00am and remaining open for 41
hours straight. Toys R Us starts its
door busters at 5:00pm. At Wal-Mart
stores (many of which are open all that day), the deals start at 6:00pm. Best Buy opens at 6:00pm, and then Macy’s
Kohl’s, JCPenney, Target, and Sears all open at 8:00pm. An “I pledge not to shop on Thanksgiving”
badge is circulating on Facebook and has been shared more than 959,000 times as
of noon on Wednesday.” “5:00pm on
Thanksgiving really?” wrote Jaime Etheridge Krauss on the Toys R Us Facebook
page. “A store who is devoted to
children and families opens when Americans sit down at the dinner table? What about your employees?” “Hey Kmart!
Because of you being open on Thanksgiving and totally disrespecting your
employees, our family will never spend money in your store!” wrote Frank Chip
Munroe. “Kohl’s has always been my
absolute favorite place to shop.
However, as much as it breaks my heart to say this I will no longer be
shopping at Kohl’s from this point on or any of the other retailers that are
opening on Thanksgiving. This is a day
for family and giving thanks,” wrote Kelli Williams Lord. “Macy’s I am disappointed in you for opening
your stores on Thanksgiving. Let your
employees have a day with their families!
It is not the end of the world to wait until Friday to start the sales!”
wrote Katie Buchanan Reynolds. “I always
wanted to believe that Target was somehow better than Wal-Mart in product, and
in policies. I realize that Target does
not share my values and will no longer get my business. Give your employees a paid day off!” wrote
Sean Pierce. “Even Ebenezer Scrooge
allowed Bob Cratchit to go home a few minutes early on Christmas Eve,” wrote
Dan Hall on JCPenney’s page. “When
you’re eating your Thanksgiving turkey this year, remember that you’re
employees are taking time away from their families to help satisfy your
greed.” “Of course, the real test of
shopper anger will come tomorrow night: Will the outraged shoppers be overrun
by people showing up for the deals? The
holiday shopping season was cut six days shorter this year because Thanksgiving
falls later on the calendar, and retailers are fearing sales could be flat.”
Covert
(2014) talks about a petition created by the daughter of a Kmart employee to
rethink their decision about making her mother work on Thanksgiving in his
article on Think Progress. He says,
Jillian Fisher’s
mother has worked at Kmart for 21 years.
But her mother still doesn’t know if she’s going to be called into work
on Thanksgiving this year, even with the holiday two weeks away. If she does, it would ruin her one annual
chance to spend time with her family members.
So on Wednesday night, Fisher began a petition on Coworker.org asking
Kmart not to stay open for 42 hours straight beginning at 6:00am on
Thanksgiving Day or at least give those employees who want to stay home with
friends and family the flexibility to do so.
It’s already passed the original goal of 200 signatures and was nearing
300 by Thursday afternoon.” “Last night
I looked and was happy that there were 30 signatures at 8:00pm.” She told Think
Progress. “It feels like there is
momentum.” “Last year, Fisher’s mother
called her daughter nearly in tears because she was told that she would have to
work what is called a split shift on Thanksgiving Day, meaning she had to spend
two chunks of time at work.” “She was
not going to be able to spend any real time with our family,” Fisher said. “To hear her on the verge of tears really
infuriated me, to think why are they doing this to people, they need time to be
with their families.” This is the one
holiday where the whole family gets together: her mother’s brothers, sisters,
nephews, nieces. “Thanksgiving is pretty
much the time of year we all get together,” she said. “It’s that frustration that sparked the
petition.” “I wanted to bring to their
attention to it because I know it can’t just be her,” she said. And if the signers are any assistance, it
seems like she’s not alone.” “I used to
work at Kmart and missed many holidays with my family. It is not volunteer work, it is required,”
reads one. “I used to work at Kmart;
actually, I worked there for five years, working all of their ridiculous
holiday hours. There are no volunteers,
and some Boston Market dinner did not make up for the time missed with my
family,” reads another. “Workers told
the Huffington Post last year that their requests to take the holiday off were
denied. Fisher stresses that it isn’t
her mother don’t want to work holidays or difficult shifts.” “She knows she works retail and has to work
the crappy hours,” she said. “But she
says that at least her mother’s store in the Pennsylvania/Delaware area,
workers hasn’t even been officially told of the store’s 6:00am opening. They’ve only found out through the news let
alone what the schedule might be for the holiday.” “She has no idea whether they’re going to be
required to work, no idea if they’re going to be hiring more people for seasonal
work,” she said. “There have been times
when the schedule wasn’t posted until Friday at midnight for a week that starts
on Sunday, so it could come down to the wire.”
“She could be hearing about it as soon as tomorrow or she could be hearing
about it in a week,” Fisher explained.
“She doesn’t know and nobody knows.”
“The store has also claimed that shifts will be staffed by volunteers,
but Fisher says that’s not the case at her mother’s store. There hasn’t been any sign-up sheet or calls
for people to opt in. And last year when
she told her manager to plan not to have her at the store for her second shift,
her mother was told she would get written up as a no show.” “It seems people are afraid of losing their
jobs or getting in trouble if they’re not going to do it,” Fisher said. “When asked about whether Kmart has told
employees of its early Thanksgiving hours, allowed some to volunteer, given
workers their schedules for that week, or will allow them to opt out of working
that day without being disciplined, a company spokesperson responded, “Our
stores do their very best to staff with seasonal associates and those who
volunteer to work holidays. All
associates are compensated time and a half pay for the hours they work on
Thanksgiving Day. We want to express
deep appreciation in advance who will be working Thanksgiving evening and the
day after Thanksgiving.” “Plans haven’t
been made yet for how the petition will be delivered to the company. But Tim Newman, campaigns director at
Coworker.org, said, “As more Kmart employees begin to sign the petition, I
imagine they will work together with their family members (like Jillian) and
other supporters to ensure that their message is heard by Kmart executives,”
adding, “with Thanksgiving approaching quickly, I’m sure there will be
additional activities organized soon.”
“Some similar petitions have popped up on Change.org, while a Facebook
group called Boycott Black Thursday has more than 80,000 likes. They are protesting the growing trend of
retailers opening on Thanksgiving, rather than waiting for Black Friday: this
year 12 brands have said they’ll be open.
In the meantime, Fisher’s mother keeps waiting to hear whether her
holiday will be ruined.” “My Mom’s
worked for Kmart for 21 years,” Fisher said. “She wants Kmart to let her know
whether or not she will be working so she can make plans.”
Covert
(2014) also did another article about Target threatening their employees to be
terminated if they don’t work on Thanksgiving.
He says,
Justin Mills, a
four-year Target employee, is very fortunate to get the day off after talking
to his manager. He was supposed to work
a split shift that day but the manager was nice enough to allow him to spend
time with his family. Given that the
store will open at 6:00pm, meaning that many employees will have to come in at
3:00pm or earlier to set up the store, not everybody can expect the same
treatment.” My management team did work
hard to meet people’s preferences, but not everyone will get what they want since
the store is opening early for a long period of time,” he told Think
Progress. “That treatment is the reason
why he started a petition on Change.org.”
“I decided to make the petition when I found out that other businesses
were opening at 6:00pm on Thanksgiving,” he said. “So far 12 national chains, including Target,
say they will open on the holiday with some stores even opening for the entire
day.” “I’m worried that Target would jump
on the bandwagon so I decided to make the petition that urged them to stay closed,”
Mills said. “His fears played out, and
while he will be able to spend the day at home with family and friends, many of
his coworkers have to work on Thanksgiving.
He was originally hired four years ago as a seasonal employee.” “When I first started, Black Friday started
around 3:00am on Friday. Every year, the
store opened earlier and earlier,” he said.
This year, he said, “There are many employees that have to work on
Thanksgiving.” In his petition, he
writes, “As a Target employee for 4 years, I haven’t been able to fully enjoy
the holiday season with my family. I
usually had to leave in the middle of my Thanksgiving dinner.” “As with Kmart employees, who say they are
banned from asking for days off around the holidays, Mills said that no one at
Target is allowed to request to have Thanksgiving off. “Management does take people’s preferences
for working that day, but nothing is cast in stone,” he said. “If management feels like they need you at a
certain time, you will most likely be scheduled then.” “Those who get scheduled but want to stay
home to celebrate with their families are screwed.” “On Thanksgiving and Black Friday, no one is
allowed to miss work,” he said. “We were
told that it could lead to termination.”
“He was on the clock for Black Friday, and even though he was very sick,
he worked his 10-hour shift “due to my fear that I would be out of a job.” “Kmart employees also say they have been told
they’ll be fired if they don’t show up and have shared photos of signs posted
around the store telling them they can’t request holidays off. A Target spokeswoman responded to Mills’s
allegations that workers risk losing their jobs if they don’t show up and no
one is allowed to take days off during the holiday season by saying, “There is
no blackout. The holiday season is peak
season, so we hire a lot of staff and hire a lot of temporary members as
well.” She added, “We absolutely reach
out to every team member to understand their preferences and build a schedule
around the needs of the business as well as the needs of the team.” “She said that the “large majority” volunteer
to work on the holidays, saying they love it.
A lot of people really seek to do that.”
“Mills’s petition clearly has waked a lot of people up. As of Thursday morning, it had more than
92,000 signatures. That success has
taken him by surprise.” “To be blunt, I
didn’t I think my petition would not be successful,” he said. “For almost a week, it only stood at 3
signatures. Then in one day, it had
increased to 500 signatures. I thought
that was amazing. When I woke up the
next morning, I was speechless; it increased to over 18,000. That was when I realized that my actions
could make a difference.” “It’s also
impressed his fellow employees. “Many of
my coworkers are very supportive and appreciate that I’m standing up for them,”
he said. “Many of them don’t like the
notion of working on Thanksgiving, so they are supportive and think what I’m
doing is awesome.” “He is unsure that
his petition will elicit a response from his employer. The target spokeswoman responded by saying,
“We as a business really take into consideration what we’re hearing from our
guests in terms of when they want to shop.
We’ve seen over the past several years a strong response to being open
on Thursday. We respect his opinion and
right to express it but we will be open on Thanksgiving starting at
6:00pm.” “But he’s hoping it can
influence those shoppers. On his
petition, he writes,” “Signing it alone is not enough; please do not fall for
the hook, line, and sinker. By adding
insult to injury, the meaning of Thanksgiving will fade into the sunset and it
will only be known as another shopping day.”
“Shoppers can instead shop the 17 stores that stood their ground and
closed on Thanksgiving.”
I
salute the person who created the Boycott Black Thursday page on Facebook
because it is not right for some retailers to take away employees’ time spent
with their loved ones. Not all retailers
have that mindset, but enough of them do.
This is deplorable for Kmart and Target to force their employees to work
on Thanksgiving and threaten to take their jobs away if they don’t come in to
work that day. Is it the end of the
world if some retailers to take one day off to allow employees to spend time
with their loved ones? It doesn’t make
sense for corporate retailers such as Target, Macy’s, JCPenney, Best Buy,
Staples, Kmart, Wal-Mart, Office Depot, Office Max, Big Lots, and Sears to open
on Thanksgiving and force employees to be away from their families just to make
money. Worse, they are already have
money and it comes from their customers.
Without them, those stores wouldn’t even exist. This is just corporate greed destroying a
sacred holiday about being thankful for the things we have and spend time with
our families.
At
Jason’s on the Lake Bar & Grill, I believe in family and my customers;
therefore, I will be closing my doors on Thanksgiving to allow my employees to
spend time with their families. I
believe that family comes first before profits.
I believe in putting my customers and employees first before anything
because my restaurant would not exist if it wasn’t for them. Nobody should be forcing anybody to work on
Thanksgiving; therefore, I’m glad that lots of people are standing up and
fighting for what’s right. Some people
will argue that nobody is protesting against hospitals, fire, and police
departments because they have to work on Thanksgiving; furthermore, a lot of
people should be protesting about them being open on Thanksgiving as well as
the retailers. That is an invalid
argument because hospitals have to stay open because people’s lives are at
risk; therefore, they have to make sure that people get proper treatment and care. If the hospitals closed, then many patients
would have died due to lack of proper healthcare. Then they would have got sued for that so why
would some people even make that comparison?
Emergencies can happen at any given moment; therefore, fire and police
departments have to be open that day. If
there was a fire at somebody’s house or somebody committed a crime on
Thanksgiving, then the firefighters and/or the police officers would have to be
on the scene. Some people could have
been severely injured by a fire or some people could have been shot and killed
by other people committing crimes if fire departments and law enforcement
closed on Thanksgiving. Healthcare
workers, firefighters, and police officers are there to save lives. Retail is not a life or death situation so
nobody should compare that with healthcare, emergencies, and law
enforcement. Hospitals, fire, and police
departments are emergency services.
Retail is not! So it doesn’t make
sense for some people to even make that comparison. Are we going to die without an XBOX 360, or a
flat-screen TV? No, because those are
wants. Are we going to die without food,
shelter, and water? Yes, because those
are needs. So let’s stop comparing
retailers to emergency services because they are not the same!
Kmart
and Target and some of these corporate retailers deserve to go out of business
for not treating their employees with respect.
Walden Galleria in Buffalo New York deserves to lose a lot of revenue
for fining other retailers for closing on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time to give
thanks to God for all he has done for us!
They can afford to close their doors on Thanksgiving because they are
opened the rest of the year. Those same
stores forcing their employees to work have to work on Thanksgiving have an
online presence as well. Did they forget
that people can shop online on Thanksgiving if they want a head start on their
Christmas shopping? They would have made
more money if they allowed their employees to spend time with their
families. The customers would have also
received better service on Black Friday and benefitted better if they closed on
Thanksgiving. I’m afraid that this trend
is going to get worse unless somebody decides to take a stand and I’m thankful
for the protest page on Facebook. If all
of us kept our money in our pockets on Thanksgiving and support other retailers
that care about their employees, then those twelve retailers opening on
Thanksgiving will get the message and then their employees will finally have a
chance to spend Thanksgiving with their friends and family. In other words, we can reclaim Thanksgiving
as a sacred holiday and the purpose of the holiday by protesting against the
unfair business practices of Kmart, Target, Macy’s, Office Max, Office Depot,
Staples, Sears, JCPenney, Best Buy, Kohl’s, and Wal-Mart.
Hussain
(2013) talks about the damaging effects of materialism in his article on Life
Paths 360 titled “The Damaging Effects of Materialism.” He says, “We are hasty and greedy by
instinct. We always remain in the hunt
to be the best. Our irresistible urge to
get the best for us has made us materialistic, making us machines with no
emotions or feelings. We are only
interested in making more and more money which contradicts our religious and
moral values. This irrational
materialism has damaged our moral, religious and spiritual values to a huge
extent. The love of money has made us
avaricious. We hardly realize the fact
that our desires are infinite. The more
we get, the more we want. The more we
have, the more we want. And for this
reason, we never have it all. The
tragedy of human history is decreasing happiness in the midst of increasing
comforts. If one only wanted to be
happy, this could be easily achieved, but we wish to be happier than other
people, and this is always hard, for we believe others to be happier than they
are. The tentacles of materialism have
firmly gripped us. This menace has
deprived us of our true, genuine and loyal friends. In the age of materialism, it is hard to find
sincere friends. Now, money and
personal wealth have been the requirement of our friendship. The more influential and wealthy we are, the
more friends we are surrounded with. In
fact, these all friends of ours are so-called and insincere. They stick to us until they get what they
want. Once it is achieved, they flee
from us. Materialism has drifted us away
from our religion. The religious values
are on the decline. We hardly care about
them; rather we have become indifferent to them. This I don’t give a rats’ behind attitude
towards are religious values is condemnable.
It has deprived us of natural beauty.
How true Wordsworth was when he said, “The world is too much with
us.” Excessive materialism has turned
our peaceful world into chaos. Now, we
witness terrorism, extremism, sabotaging, and other societal evils due to
increasing materialism. We have lost
inner happiness. Material luxuries have
failed miserably to give us true happiness and peace. It goes without saying that life with
luxuries without peace of mind and inner happiness is of no meaning and
value. Therefore, excessive interest and
urge of worldly success will serve no merit.
It further distorts our vision.
It must be borne in mind that this world is ephemeral. The success here means little, for the real
success is the success in the afterlife.
It is our responsibility to not let materialism control our lives and
blur our vision of true success in the life to come.”
Tuttle
(2013) explains the main reason why some stores are opened on
Thanksgiving. He says,
Macy’s has been
getting a lot of criticism for announcing that the store will open its doors to
shoppers on Thanksgiving for the first time ever. But because its retail competitors are doing
the same and because our shop-anytime-anywhere culture demands it, the
department store probably no choice but to follow suit. This past week, soon after the store
announced it would open its doors at 8:00pm on the night of Thanksgiving, the
masses began denouncing the move as greedy, misguided and unfair to the
employees being forced to work on a day reserved for family. “Please write an obituary because I think that
this death needs to be acknowledged,” one observer told Chicago’s Daily Herald
upon hearing Macy’s decision, giving voice to a sentiment felt by many. “It is the death of Thanksgiving.” Despite the outrage, neither Macy’s move nor
the death of Thanksgiving should come as much as a surprise. In early October, word was out that Macy’s
had circulated a poll among employees to see if they might be called into work
whether they like it or not. What’s
more, while opening its doors on Thanksgiving may be unprecedented for Macy’s
which has previously opened a few hours later at midnight. Several retailers are accustomed to the
tradition of launching Black Friday sales on Thursday evening. Last year, Wal-Mart, Target, and Toys R Us
were among the stores posting Black Friday deals on Thursday night, during what
might otherwise be considered a time spent with friends and family. Other retailers are already joining Macy’s in
announcing Thanksgiving openings. South
Florida’s entire Saw grass Mills Outlet Mall will join the bandwagon and stay
open for 26 hours, according to the Sun Sentinel. And within the days of Macy’s announcement,
JCPenney executives said they, too, would follow suit. The case of JCPenney presents the clearest
explanation for why retailers and department stores in particular are running
the risk of angering workers and alienating their loyal customers by opening on
Thanksgiving night. There are many
reasons why JCPenney is struggling with rumors of bankruptcy swirling and a
stock price at 30 year lows. One is that
shoppers didn’t respond well to the retailer’s attempt to stop playing the
usual nonstop promotion/door-buster/wacky-hour games practiced by the
competition. A year ago, then CEO Ron
Johnson decided that JCPenney would largely tiptoe around the madness, and that
Thanksgiving should be reserved for families.
Stores wouldn’t open at 4:00am on Black Friday, but more at a reasonable
hour (relatively speaking) of 6:00am.
While prices would be good, there would be no coupons or absurd,
over-the-top discounts. For the most part,
consumers reacted to the fair and square offers and policies by heading
directly to the competition. After last
years’ experience and with its back against the wall, JCPenney now has no
choice but to resort to the extended holiday hours and bait-and-switch tactics
it tried to steer clear of. Like many
retailers, JCPenney is not portraying its decision to open on Thanksgiving
night as one of desperation, nor as a greedy play to even encourage even more
consumerism at the cost of ruining American family tradition. Instead, company spokespeople say that
Thanksgiving hours and promotions exist simply to make customers happy. “Last year, we opened much later than the
competition and our stores saw a lot of frustrated customers tap our doors
wanting to shop,” JCPenney spokeswoman Daphne Avila said to the Dallas Morning
News. “This year, we decided we weren’t
going to let those opportunities pass us by.” In a press release, Macy’s also
pointed the finger at shoppers demanding Thanksgiving hours as an explanation
for this year’s change. “In response to
interest from customers who prefer to start their shopping early,” the company
stated, “most Macy’s stores will open on Thanksgiving evening, consistent with
many other retailers.” It’s convenient
for retailers to subtly, delicately pass the blame for the death of
Thanksgiving onto shoppers. Such an
explanation might seem underhanded if it weren’t largely true. The truth is that stores wouldn’t be open if
it wasn’t in their best business interest, just as stores wouldn’t launch
holiday-season deals in September if shoppers didn’t have an appetite for
it. Stores don’t need all consumers, or
even a majority, to like the idea of shopping as a justification to open early. All they need is a sizable number of fanatical
shoppers, and clearly, that taken care of.
The results of a new American Express survey indicate that more
consumers what to do their holiday shopping earlier. 27% said they’ll be done by December 1,
compared with 24% last year. Consumers
are also becoming more comfortable with the idea of shopping on Thanksgiving,
if not in person, than certainly online e-mail inboxes are sure to be flooded
with special offers on the morning of Thanksgiving because retailers know
nearly everyone has the day off.
“Thanksgiving has become a marquee day for online shopping,” Keith
Mercier, associate partner with IBM’s Retail Center of Competence, told Market
Watch, citing information indicating that Thanksgiving e-sales have grown 132%
over the past five years. Because of all
this, “it’s probably smart for Macy’s to be open on the night of Thanksgiving,”
Britt Beemer, founder and chairman of America’s Research Group, said to the
Chicago Sun-Times. Many shoppers
understand that stores like Macy’s and JCPenney are only doing what makes sense
for them, given the realities of today’s retail industry. If anything, some don’t think that
Thanksgiving is being ruined by retailers opening their doors, but by the
shoppers who play along and show up.
Sager
(2013) explains why Black Friday is an American phenomenon in his article on
the Progressive Cynic. He says, “Black
Friday is an American phenomenon, where millions of deal-seeking leave their
houses after Thanksgiving dinners in order to capitalize on special sales that
many shops run. It is a purely
consumerist phenomenon which kicks off the Christmas shopping season with the
largest single shopping day of the entire year.
For most of its existence, Black Friday has started at midnight on
Friday and continued on throughout the day.
People would rush out at midnight in droves in order to snap up the most
desirable gifts and best deals because these things would be gone later in the
day. Unfortunately, a combination of an economically
desperate population and amoral corporate profit-chasing has led to a situation
where the Thanksgiving holiday is being overshadowed by Black Friday. Christmas shoppers are desperate for deals
because they are in an unstable economic situation and this increased demand
has enticed corporations into opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day. Huge numbers of Americans workers’
Thanksgivings were cut short in 2013 when their employers forced them to
work. Large retailers, including but not
limited to, Wal-Mart, Staples, Best Buy, Old Navy, Toys R Us, Target, Macy’s,
Kohl’s, and JCPenney forced their workers to open stores as early as 6:00am on
Thanksgiving morning for the impending Black Friday shopping rush. While the exact number of workers affected is
unknown, it is easily in the millions.
Wal-Mart alone forced approximately 1 million people to work on
Thanksgiving night. In addition to
retailers, many restaurant chains (e.g. Pizza Hut) forced their employees to
work on Thanksgiving. The move by
corporations to open earlier for Black Friday not only affects workers, but
also their families. A ripple effect
begins with the workers and reverberates through family structures, depriving
people of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with their families. The creep of Black Friday into Thanksgiving
is by no means an entirely new phenomenon (e.g. Old Navy has been forcing its
employees to work on Thanksgiving since 2009), but it has gotten far worse in
recent years. The Black Friday shopping
creep is largely due to an increased desperation in the American public for
ways to save money. Corporations are
reacting to consumers’ increased need for sale prices with the rational and
amoral tactic of securing more labor and opening earlier they couldn’t care
less that workers might desire a holiday with their families, because they only
see the potential for dramatically increased sales. As demonstrated in the Mother Jones graph,
big retailers’ push to expand Black Friday began to accelerate during 2009, in
the immediate aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. After the crash, people had far less
disposable income (or ability to sustain debt), thus the blowout sales which
only happen during Black Friday became a virtual requirement for many people to
sustain the same levels of holiday gifting that they are accustomed to. People don’t leave their homes after
Thanksgiving in order to fight other people over discounted items while getting
stabbed, tazed, or even shot by other shoppers if there is a viable
alternative. If the economy were doing better
and Americans were getting paid enough money, then they would be more secure in
their ability to buy presents and would have less of a desire to brave the
Black Friday mobs. Economic desperation
not only affects the consumer side of the Black Friday creep, but also the
employee side. Employers like Wal-Mart
are secure in their ability to compel workers to work on Thanksgiving because
they know that workers are desperate to keep their jobs. While losing a family dinner during a holiday
could be looked at as trivial in the grand scheme of things, it is indicative
of an extremely unfair pattern.
Corporations are exploiting the desperation of American consumers and
employees in order to turn a huge profit.
They are trampling on the lives of workers if it makes them a couple of
dollars more in profit and there is little that workers can do to fight back.”
I
agree with three authors because the commercialization of the holiday season is
promoting materialism and greed among consumers and corporations. We are responsible as consumers for Macy’s,
Target, and other corporate retailers for opening on Thanksgiving because we
have been brainwashed by the media to skip Thanksgiving dinner with our
families to purchase items we don’t need.
Most people are materialistic that they will fight other shoppers just
for a deal on sale items which further destroys the meaning of the season. Many people would camp outside in the cold
just to be the first ones inside to take advantage of sale items. No wonder why many stores are deciding to
open their doors on Thanksgiving. It’s
because of people getting violent over items that are going to be on sale
throughout the holiday season. Why are
we so focused on being the first one to save money on material goods instead of
spreading good will to all people? It is
a mindset that continues to blur the meaning of the holiday season. Materialism has replaced the birth of Jesus
Christ which is continuing to destroy the meaning of the season. A person taking another person’s life for a
sale item is just plain wrong which further destroys the excitement of the
season.
I
love shopping on Black Friday because of the atmosphere and the Christmas music
in the background. When I do shop on
that day, I shop for my family first. If
I have money left over after I got all of my gifts for my family, I would buy
something for myself. I’m not going to
camp outside nor run people over just to get a particular item on sale. If the item is not there, then I’ll go
somewhere else or get it some other time.
I’ll even purchase the item online if I need to; thus, I’m just going to
enjoy myself on Black Friday and think about my family. There is no need for that kind of behavior
especially during the holiday season.
There are going to be sales throughout the season; therefore, people
should just enjoy themselves and make the shopping season enjoyable for
everybody.
Not
all people are materialistic and violent especially during the holiday season,
but a large amount of people are and that’s sad. The commercialization of the holiday season
has warped us to believing that accumulation of material things are the focal
point of the season. Then people are in
debt when the season is over in January and more stressed out due to high
credit card bills and loss of cash. It
is nice to have nice things, but we don’t need to waste our money on them. We need to step back and realize that Jesus
is the reason for the season; we should be spending more time caring for people
in need instead of wasting our hard earned money purchasing frivolous
things. We can’t continue to allow the
commercialization of the season to blur the true meaning of the season. We also have to stop letting the media guilt
us into buying more stuff especially during the holiday season.
I
would have loved to customize my DIRECTV package by eliminating the shopping
channels from the lineup because I don’t want to waste my money buying things I
don’t need. I would rather use my money
on experiences such has going to the movies, going to new restaurants, going on
weekend getaways at a nearby hotel, and traveling. I enjoy doing those activities better because
it provides long term happiness which allows me to meet new people and create
positive memories that will last a lifetime.
Material things provide short-term happiness; therefore, they will
depreciate in value making me less happy than before so I would not focus my
attention so much on that. I would focus
my attention on inviting my family over for Christmas because they have not
been to my house in a long time and going to the Best Western Sterling Inn in
Sterling Heights for their New Year’s Eve event. I love buying and receiving gifts from my
family, but having my family over to my house and going to the Best Western Sterling
Inn is even better. Volunteering at soup
kitchens and food banks are even better as well because God has blessed me with
so much and I want to use them to bless other people. I’m not going to allow the commercialization
of the holiday season to distract me from the true meaning of Christmas; thus,
I’m going to maintain an even balance of shopping for my family and helping
those in need this holiday season.
There
is more to the holiday season than accumulating material wealth. It is about the Birth of Jesus and caring for
people who are less fortunate. The media
continues to bombard us with advertisements and most people are falling for
it. If we didn’t allow the media to
persuade us into materialism, some retail stores won’t need to open on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving would have remained a sacred
holiday for many people to spend time with families and friends and giving
thanks to God for all he has done for us.
Black Friday would have been celebrated on Friday instead of
Thanksgiving. In other words, if we
weren’t so busy harming another person just for a sale item and running people
over, then the holiday season would not be in the condition that it’s in right
now. People have the right to choose whether
they want to shop on Thanksgiving or not.
My purpose of this argument is not to stop people from shopping on
Thanksgiving. My purpose is to get
people to understand the true meaning of the holiday season. If many people want to sacrifice their time
with their families and shop on Thanksgiving, then that’s their right. I hope they enjoy themselves and be safe. I won’t be shopping that day because I will
be spending time enjoying great food and football with my family. I will be doing my Christmas shopping the
Friday after just for enjoyment and the excitement of the season.
The
commercialization of the holiday has affected our children in a negative
way. For example, Tarico (2013) explains
why Toys R Us is poisoning children’s minds with materialism which has a
negative effect on them. She says, “In
the past few weeks, America’s biggest purveyor of pink plastic has unveiled
their plan for the 2013 holiday season.
In the process they probably revealed more than they intended to. What Toys R Us exposed was a cynical
willingness to feed the worst in kids and parents if it feeds their corporate
bottom line. Their opening move was a
Thanksgiving message to American families: Skip the Thanks-giving and go
straight for the feeding frenzy. At the
beginning of November, Toys R Us announced that they would be open on
Thanksgiving Day. A full 24 hours to
savor bounty and express gratefulness in the presence of family and
friends? What a wasted opportunity! Why start the bargains the day after
Thanksgiving when you can start them the day of? The second move was that they hit the
airwaves with a TV ad aimed at contrasting the dull boredom of nature’s gifts
with the wonder and joy of Disney princess dolls and Transformers. In the ad, listless kids on a science field
trip, one where they will be visiting a local forest, are told instead that
they get a shopping spree at Toys R Us.
The bus full of children erupts!
As Stephen Colbert put it, “This commercial shows kids the ‘great outdoors’
is nothing compared to the majesty of a strip mall. And they still get some nature because,
remember, that confetti used to be a tree!”
The Toys R Us two-part act, by design, has the effect of reverse alchemy
of turning gratitude and wonder into greed.
I feel full, I feel loved, I feel blessed, I feel content and what a
cool world we live in get transformed into I want, I want, I want. Must have bargains, must have toys. What’s particularly painful about this
transformation is that psychologically it also turns wealth into poverty. Beyond the basics of food, clothing, shelter,
and health, our sense of well-being is relative. We compare what we have now to what we had in
the past, what our ancestors had and what our neighbors have. Together, these give us a sense of what we
could or should have. The primary goal
of advertising is to change that to make us think that we could and should have
more.
Psychologically,
advertising works by impoverishing us, by creating want in every sense of the
word. Want means desire as in I want
you. But it also means lack, as in the
old proverb, for want of the shoe, the horse was lost. It also means destitution as in nobody should
go wanting. The feeling of wanting is a
feeling that we are incomplete, inadequate, and unfulfilled. Madison Avenue exists to amplify those
feelings; and the Toys R Us ad department exists to amplify them in children
and parents. Thanks-giving, meaning
consciously cultivating an attitude of gratitude does the opposite. To quote the Wisdom Commons, “Gratitude is
acknowledgment of all that we have been given.
When we focus on the abundance in our lives, we discover greater
capacity for generosity, cheerfulness, and contentment. Some of life’s best gifts are hand-me-downs,
and the Wisdom Commons hold pages of handed down insights about gratitude. They come from individuals and sacred texts,
saints, and atheists, all of whom bear witness to the transforming power of
giving thanks. None of them express
gratitude for the transforming power of pink plastic. Scattered among the nuggets of received
wisdom are words for parents who want to help their children feel rich and
blessed regardless of their bank account.
Messages like these are antidotes to the sense of insufficiency that
Toys R Us seeks to promote in our homes and families. As we struggle for ourselves and our children
to resist the contagious frenzy of Black Friday, the hypnotic idea that we can
buy happiness on the cheap, it helps us to remember what is at stake and that
the gifts that really matter don’t come in boxes.”
I
agree with Valerie Tarico on the fact that the commercialism of Toys R Us and
the media has indoctrinated our children to want more material things instead of
being thankful for the things they have.
Worse, some parents buy into the material hype of the season by putting
themselves in debt by buying and giving them everything they want. That is the reason why we have some spoiled
children during the holidays. The media
is brainwashing them into believing they are not satisfied if they don’t get
everything they want for Christmas. Last
year, I saw a screenshot from a comedian on Facebook featuring tweets from some
kids who bad mouthed their parents on social media just because they didn’t
receive the right gifts. In other words,
some children complain on social media on Christmas Day because their parents
didn’t give them exactly want they wanted for Christmas or they didn’t give
them everything they want for Christmas.
When I see kids complain and disrespect their parents on social media
just because they didn’t get every item off their Christmas list, it makes me
sick to my stomach because it shows lack of appreciation for the things they
have and lack of gratitude to their parents that go out of their way to meet
their needs. There are people in the
world that don’t have food to eat, clothes to wear, a bed to sleep in, a warm
place to live, access to clean water, and friends and family that love and care
about them. Some of them claim that
their Christmas is ruined because they didn’t get the latest toy or the latest
piece of technology on the market. Yet,
there are people who didn’t even have a Christmas due their lack of basic needs
and some kids and teens are complaining about iPhones, MacBooks, tablet
computers, and other pieces of expensive technology.
My
family members would have spanked me if I bad mouthed them on social media just
because they didn’t have enough money to get me everything I wanted for
Christmas! They would have embarrassed
me on social media if I complained about getting the wrong gift for
Christmas! My family members are not
perfect, but they made sure that I was okay and they went above and beyond the
call of duty to provide for me! They
raised me on moral values and taught me the meaning of respect. I wouldn’t be where I’m at today if I wasn’t
for them. I have seen videos of some
children and teens throwing temper tantrums and disrespecting their family
members just for not getting everything they want for Christmas. That is why many people believe that this
generation is a lost cause because some children and teenagers have no respect
for authority especially during the holiday season. When parents get caught up in the hype of the
media by buying everything they want, they create selfish and ungrateful
monsters! That is the reason why a lot
of children are disrespectful to their elders and authority. A lot of parents are allowing the media to
raise their children and instilling them with values of materialism especially
during the holiday season.
Not
all parents believe in the mindset of spoiling their children especially during
the holidays and not all children are materialistic, entitled, spoiled, and
disrespectful especially during the holidays as well. But a lot of them believe in the hype of
spoiling their children during the holidays and a lot of children especially
this day and age believe that their parents owe them something during the
holiday season. I ask the question, why
are some parents so inclined to give them everything for Christmas? At the same time, why are some children
having difficulty understanding that Jesus is the reason for the season? There are some things that I want for
Christmas. For example, I would like a
stereo with an iPod dock for the living room because it is time for an
upgrade. The stereo we have now has been
in our living room since 1997 and it is hard to see the clock because the light
is very dim; therefore, I believe that it is time to upgrade our stereo in the
living room. I also would like a desktop
computer for my bedroom because my laptop is starting to show its wear and tear
and if my laptop has been infected by a virus, I can still have access to a
computer and get my work done. I would
also like a couple of nights at the Best Western Sterling Inn for their New
Year’s Eve event because it’s a lot more fun celebrating it with people instead
of celebrating it myself. I get the
opportunity to make new friends and while celebrating the New Year. If I don’t get those things for Christmas for
some reason, then I’m not going to worry about it. I’m okay as long as I get to spend the
holidays with my friends and family. My
family members don’t have to give me anything for Christmas, but they do
because they want to. If I don’t get
those items that I described for Christmas, then I will get a job and save my
money and purchase them myself. As long
as I have a roof over my head, food in my stomach, clothes on my back, access
to clean water, and family and friends that love and care about me, I am
satisfied. Some children and teenagers
need to understand that the world doesn’t owe them anything; in addition, they
need to understand that there are people who are less fortunate than them and
they need to appreciate them because they go above and beyond the call of duty
to provide for them. They have to
understand that the meaning of the holiday season is not about them getting
XBOX’s and the latest piece of technology on the market. It is about the Birth of Jesus who came into
the world to save us from slavery, to sin, to death. Parents must be careful not to sacrifice
their budgets by buying their children everything they want for Christmas. They have to balance between giving them
gifts and teaching them the true meaning of the holiday season. Parents need to take action if they see or
hear them throwing temper tantrums or disrespecting their family members and
friends just because they didn’t get everything they want for Christmas.
Parents have to teach them that they can’t get everything they want and they
have to teach them the meaning of hard work.
There would be lots of peace and good will to people during the holiday
season if parents would not spoil their children during the holidays. There wouldn’t be an influx of disrespectful
children especially during the holidays if they understood the true meaning of
the holiday season. The world would be a
much better place if we didn’t allow the media to brainwash our children with
materialistic values; therefore, there will be more children showing compassion
to other people and more grateful children in the world if we stopped
encouraging materialism in our children.
Slide
(2011) explains the ten easy ways to teach children the true meaning of the
holiday season. She says, “The best part
of the holiday season is that it brings out the best in people. Many people give their time, money, and love
to family, friends, and people who are less fortunate. The opposite side is that this time of the
year can also bring out the worst in people because of their greed and
materialism. Black Friday is a day when
people get violent and trample people over just to get a particular item on
sale. As adults, we can (and should)
serve as better examples to the younger generation. So how can we teach our children not to be
greedy in a culture where whoever has the most toys wins? It’s not easy and it takes some initiative on
our part, but it’s well worth it to teach our children to value compassion over
materialism, and to care for other people.”
She provides ten tips to teach our children the true meaning of the
holiday season. “Set a good example,
volunteer your time, make your kids earn money, limit the number of presents
you give, emphasize the reason for the season, explain your holiday budget,
give away old books and toys, involve your kids in the gift-giving process,
create holiday traditions that doesn’t involve gifts, and always say thank
you. The holidays are a busy time, but
don’t let that distract us from teaching our children the true meaning of the
season and being grateful and giving people.
Realize, however, that our children are often egocentric by nature and
can become master manipulators. Make
sure you don’t let them guilt you into giving them everything they want and
mean what you say. For example, don’t
tell your sons and daughters you will give two gifts and then buy them
five. Stay strong and know that the effort
you pour into your children and the good example you set will pay off in the
near future.”
The
holiday season is a wonderful time of the year.
It has both positive and negative effects on people. It is a time for families to get together and
fellowship with each other. It is a time
where people can enjoy the Christmas specials on TV, and it is a time where
people and go shopping and buy gifts for their loved ones. It is also a time where people can care for
those who are less fortunate. We must
not allow the media to distract us from the true meaning of the season. We must strike an even balance of buying
gifts and helping those in need this holiday season. We must always give thanks to God for all
that he has done for us and remember that Jesus is the reason for the
season. We must continue to stand up for
what’s right especially during the holiday season in which Thanksgiving is
being replaced by Black Friday. We have
a choice whether to spend time with our families and be thankful for what we
have. We can’t allow the media to
distort the true meaning of the season.
We also have to teach our children the true meaning of the holiday
season. The media and some corporate
retailers are trying very hard to make Thanksgiving a commercialized holiday. We can reclaim Thanksgiving as a sacred
holiday just by spending time with our families, thanking God for all of his
blessings, and putting off shopping until the Friday after Thanksgiving. We can also reclaim the true meaning of the
holiday season by maintaining a balance between buying gifts for our loved ones
and caring for those who are less fortunate.
I hope everybody has a happy and safe holiday season this year.
References
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http://ndsmcobserver.com/2013/11/the-commercialization-of-the-holiday-season/
Chittum, R. (2013, November 26). Shopping on Thanksgiving Kills Poor
Workers' Holidays . Retrieved November 12, 2014, from Columbia Journalism
Review:
http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/what_about_the_workers.php?page=all&print=true
Covert, B. (2014, November 13). Daughter Petitions Kmart Not To Make
Her Mom Work ON Thanksgiving. Retrieved November 18, 2014, from
ThinkProgress:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/13/3592276/kmart-thanksgiving-petition/
Covert, B. (2014, November 20). Target Employee Says Workers Are
Threatened With Termination If They Refuse To Work On Thanksgiving.
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This is such a critical issue, Jason. It's no wonder Pope Francis decries the greed and materialism that has warped Christmas. You make some powerful points in your essay.
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