The Grinch Who Stole Thanksgiving (And Christmas)

I guess I’ve gone into another minority, but I still believe that somehow capitalism can survive being closed two days out of each year.

While home at Thanksgiving, we drove by a Kmart clearly making a huge deal about being open on Thanksgiving Day. I did a google search on “Open Thanksgiving Day” and got back over 3,300 hits. The scary part is, all these stores and retail outlets would not be open if they didn’t get enough shoppers to pay the bills. Its bad enough that the corporations now demand their employees work on Thanksgiving Day, but worse is the fact that we have become so consumer oriented and non-family friendly (and remember, this is the age of moralists) that we can’t stay home with our families for Thanksgiving Day. I guess we have to get that head start on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

I was in a Hamricks store south of Kings Mountain while home at Thanksgiving. I was at the checkout when I heard an announcement over the PA about their being open on Thanksgiving Day. I politely laid my items on the counter and explained to the clerk why I would not be completing the purchase, as I don’t shop at places that open on holidays. She asked me to PLEASE complete a comment card. Clearly, the employees don’t want to be there.

Now, I’ve already seen adds for the places that will be open on Christmas Day. A google search on “open Christmas Day” results in over 8,000 hits. Amazing.?

I remember last year writing a VP at Walgreens because they were going to be open. He was kind enough to write back and tell me how many perscription they filled on the previous Christmas Day they were open. He even had the numbers on how many of those were for Children. My question back was, how many would have been filled the day before or the day after.

Everyone likes to refer back to the “good ole days,” and I’m as guilty as anyone, but I do remember us managing to survive a lot of Thanksgiving and Christmas days without any stores being open. I even had a few toys along the way I couldn’t play with Christmas Day because we didn’t have the right batteries. I’m sure it scarred me, but I survived.

Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I find it offensive that our mega-corporations can’t afford to let their employees spend two days out of 365 with their families. I’m now officially in favor of restoring some of the old “Blue Laws.” They used to prohibit large retailers being open on Sunday. I can live with that, but how about restoring them to cover Thanksgiving and Christmas. It really can’t be too much to ask.

And by the way, as inconvenient and difficult as it may be, please join me in refraining from shopping anywhere on those two days. And let the store managers of the stores open on Christmas Day know that you object.