The death of Thanksgiving?

[Againsheila]

Still doesn't answer my question
If stores make 20-40% of their revenue on Black Friday, they will make that money whether it is a three or four week shopping season. There is still a day after Thanksgiving

If I have ten people on my Christmas shopping list, I will buy ten presents regardless of how many days are between Thanksgiving and Christmas

It's about sales increases.
6 million more people bought on Thanksgiving Day in 2012 than they did in 2011.
Stores who open on Thanksgiving Day will increase their sales.
No they do not make that money when shopping days are cut short.
Not everyone stays on their budgets for Christmas. Most spend more than what they say they want to spend, especially when there is a great bargains.

I still think stores are in a rob Peter to pay Paul dilemma

They can bump up when the Christmas shopping season begins and think they are making more money. But they are only shifting money from the back end

If I was going to buy a 32 inch flat screen TV and because of sales I now buy a 38 inch TV for the same money....have the stores made any additional money off of me?

I think they are counting on the impulse purchases things people weren't spending money on, but now that they see it, they decide to buy it.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

I always thought the crazy "black Friday" hoopla was too much.

Some stores make 50% of their profits on Black Friday, so I can see why you don't like it.

Yes, because they spend the rest of the year paying inventory costs, and that's when they break even.

Except the asshole who never should have been in business to start with.

Like feeding the poor on Thanksgiving and xmas.

And the rest of the year?

rw's say, work at WalMart and apply for food stamps so we can vilify you.

 

[Flopper]

Thanksgiving is far more about selling products than being thankful for the ones we have. It is the holy day of consumerism, a day of gluttony followed by a day of worship of the almighty dollar.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Canada has a Thanksgiving too. It's just not the same Thanksgiving.

The same arguments were used years ago when stores started opening on Sunday. Sunday was family day. Except it really isn't any more so stores open. The loss of Thanksgiving is more a consequence of the breakdown of families than any other reason.

Yes, and no. You can argue that shopping at Thanksgiving will force more people into the workforce on that day and away from their families. As I said, it's self fulfilling. Soon Thanksgiving won't mean anything except the 1st day of shopping for Christmas. An end to a fine holiday.

Actually, the day after Halloween is the first shopping day for xmas.

 

[koshergrl]

Not in my house.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

The saddest thing about our rampant consumerism is that people go into debt for gifts. Another reason to shop, a little at a time, all year.

 

[syrenn]

Thanksgiving is far more about selling products than being thankful for the ones we have. It has become the holy day of consumerism.

as opposed to gluttony and football?


I am pretty darn sure that turkey and cranberry farmers along with libbies pumpkin feel the same way.... thanksgiving is ALL about selling products.

 

[Unkotare]

Canada has a Thanksgiving too. It's just not the same Thanksgiving.

The same arguments were used years ago when stores started opening on Sunday. Sunday was family day. Except it really isn't any more so stores open. The loss of Thanksgiving is more a consequence of the breakdown of families than any other reason.

Yes, and no. You can argue that shopping at Thanksgiving will force more people into the workforce on that day and away from their families. As I said, it's self fulfilling. Soon Thanksgiving won't mean anything except the 1st day of shopping for Christmas. An end to a fine holiday.

Againsheila, your liberal friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a socialist authoritarian age. They do not believe except they are spoon fed by the liberal media. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Sheila, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Sheila, there will still be Thanksgiving. It exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Thanksgiving. It would be as dreary as if there were no Sheilas. There would be no gorging on turkey then, no football, no drunken family squabbles to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which overeating fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Thanksgiving if a few stores are open! You might as well not believe in cranberry sauce! You might get your papa to hire men to work on Thanksgiving to earn more money for their families, and some might think it a drag, but even if they did not eat with those families until they got home later, what would that prove? Some people have always worked on Thanksgiving, even if you don't see them from your living room, but that is no sign that there will be no Thanksgiving. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see how your Auntie Judy makes her famous stuffing? Of course not, but that's no proof that it's not there. Nobody can deny what comes out in the bathroom later.

You may tear apart the drumstick to get at the dark meat, but there is always a little stuck to the tendon which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can dig into that bird and consume the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Sheila, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Thanksgiving! Thank God! it lives, and it will live forever, even if some stores stay open and some people go to work. A thousand years from now, Sheila, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, we will continue to make pigs of ourselves then fall asleep on the sofa.
























- With deepest apologies to Francis Pharcellus Church

 

[Connery]

Decorate your tree? I'm assuming its an artificial tree. I tagged my Christmas tree on the Saturday before Veteran's Day. It's a good time to make a selection. Sometime around the 14th of December I'll go back and have it cut down, shaken and bailed. It goes in the tree stand within 45 minutes of felling it. The freshest tree with the best aroma and it will last looking great until New Year's Day when all the Christmas stuff gets packed away.

Actually there are a couple of species of trees sold for Christmas trees that with proper watering, last over a month. The most popular is the Fraser Fir.
I asked a sales clerk at Lowes when their first delivery of trees is due. She told me Nov 22nd.
I had never seen Christmas decorations on homes before the middle of December. When I moved to the South, I saw people decorating Thanksgiving weekend.
I put up my lights when I decide to do so.
That's usually around the 10th or so. Weather permitting.

I buy my tree from a grower less than ten minutes from my house. Hie trees, along with the other Christmas tree farms in the area are a sustainable crop. They provide the growers with supplemental income and allow them to grow a crop on what would otherwise be nearly unaerable ground. Only orchards and Christmas tree seem to grow on our steep slopes and clay soil. I don't doubt that my tree, harvested ten days before Christmas would last until Super Bowl Sunday if only I could bear to have it around for six weeks!

There is one home in town that decorates early, then keeps them up late. Pop and I used to wager on when the lights and tinsel might come down. Usually I would pick Groundhog's Day, but Pop would take St. Valentine's Day and win more often than not.

Had both real and artificial over the years. I decorate the real ones outside and keep the artificial one inside. I am too busy cooking and my boy and I put our playlists together, we put on Christmas shows at the nursing homes and the VA. I am simply too busy for a real tree, this time of year is truly the best for me.

 

[Jughead]

I would not shop on Thanksgiving Day. In my family, Thanksgiving has always been a time to spend with family and friends. It is also a tradition in our family to spend the day eating and watching NFL football. Besides, the wife always winds up dragging me to the mall the following day (on Black Friday). It is not a pretty sight, and a day I dread. Both the parking lot and the mall are always completely full.

Yeah I'll be too busy cooking, eating, drinking and watching sports to want to go out anywhere.

Yep, there is no way that I'd head anywhere on Thanksgiving, especially after watching football and having consumed a lot of beer. It's just not worth the risk of getting pulled over and charged with DUI. From past experience, I have become a firm believer in Murphy's Law. If something can go wrong it will.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Decorate your tree? I'm assuming its an artificial tree. I tagged my Christmas tree on the Saturday before Veteran's Day. It's a good time to make a selection. Sometime around the 14th of December I'll go back and have it cut down, shaken and bailed. It goes in the tree stand within 45 minutes of felling it. The freshest tree with the best aroma and it will last looking great until New Year's Day when all the Christmas stuff gets packed away.

Actually there are a couple of species of trees sold for Christmas trees that with proper watering, last over a month. The most popular is the Fraser Fir.
I asked a sales clerk at Lowes when their first delivery of trees is due. She told me Nov 22nd.
I had never seen Christmas decorations on homes before the middle of December. When I moved to the South, I saw people decorating Thanksgiving weekend.
I put up my lights when I decide to do so.
That's usually around the 10th or so. Weather permitting.

I buy my tree from a grower less than ten minutes from my house. Hie trees, along with the other Christmas tree farms in the area are a sustainable crop. They provide the growers with supplemental income and allow them to grow a crop on what would otherwise be nearly unaerable ground. Only orchards and Christmas tree seem to grow on our steep slopes and clay soil. I don't doubt that my tree, harvested ten days before Christmas would last until Super Bowl Sunday if only I could bear to have it around for six weeks!

There is one home in town that decorates early, then keeps them up late. Pop and I used to wager on when the lights and tinsel might come down. Usually I would pick Groundhog's Day, but Pop would take St. Valentine's Day and win more often than not.

I think it is in very poor form to leave one's Christmas lights and decorations up well into January.
The way I see it, New Year's Day, the stuff comes down and the tree goes out...

 

[thereisnospoon]

I would not shop on Thanksgiving Day. In my family, Thanksgiving has always been a time to spend with family and friends. It is also a tradition in our family to spend the day eating and watching NFL football. Besides, the wife always winds up dragging me to the mall the following day (on Black Friday). It is not a pretty sight, and a day I dread. Both the parking lot and the mall are always completely full.

Yeah I'll be too busy cooking, eating, drinking and watching sports to want to go out anywhere.

Yep, there is no way that I'd head anywhere on Thanksgiving, especially after watching football and having consumed a lot of beer. It's just not worth the risk of getting pulled over and charged with DUI. From past experience, I have become a firm believer in Murphy's Law. If something can go wrong it will.

Me neither. Especially around here. This area is one of those where you have to drive to get to anything. During the holiday season I NEVER go out. Too many people out to bars and stuff that normally do not go out and drink. They are a hazard. Also, DWI checkpoints are set up all over the place around here.
If I do go out, I make sure I am home before 11pm.. Any time after that the checkpoints get set up.

 

[Esmeralda]

I think it is interesting that Republicans are always talking about going back to traditional family values, yet when it comes to something like this, it goes out the window. People in general don't seem to care about families spending holidays together, making money and shopping are more important. I remember when everything was closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, when liquor stores were closed on election day, etc. When stores closed after 6 or 7 in the evening and didn't open until 8 or 9 in the morning and were closed on Sundays. When familes did sit down to dinner all together every evening, etc. I think this kind of thing does help to prevent social problems.. It, of course, should be everyone's choice, but it is too bad.

 

[mudwhistle]

I think it is interesting that Republicans are always talking about going back to traditional family values, yet when it comes to something like this, it goes out the window. People in general don't seem to care about families spending holidays together, making money and shopping are more important. I remember when everything was closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, when liquor stores were closed on election day, etc. When stores closed after 6 or 7 in the evening and didn't open until 8 or 9 in the morning and were closed on Sundays. When familes did sit down to dinner all together every evening, etc. I think this kind of thing does help to prevent social problems.. It, of course, should be everyone's choice, but it is too bad.

So shopping is bad for traditional family values?

I guess we could all go out and forage for our food and our Christmas gifts.

Come to think of it, isn't shopping a form of foraging? Some go out and buy it and put up with traffic congestion and long lines, and some people use a mouse and just click. Ether way, you have to do something that government doesn't do, stay within your budget, and if it means shopping on Black Friday, so be it.

Oh, and around here the liquor stores are closed during holidays and election day.

 

[JoeB131]

I think it is interesting that Republicans are always talking about going back to traditional family values, yet when it comes to something like this, it goes out the window. People in general don't seem to care about families spending holidays together, making money and shopping are more important. I remember when everything was closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, when liquor stores were closed on election day, etc. When stores closed after 6 or 7 in the evening and didn't open until 8 or 9 in the morning and were closed on Sundays. When familes did sit down to dinner all together every evening, etc. I think this kind of thing does help to prevent social problems.. It, of course, should be everyone's choice, but it is too bad.

So shopping is bad for traditional family values?

I guess we could all go out and forage for our food and our Christmas gifts.

Come to think of it, isn't shopping a form of foraging? Some go out and buy it and put up with traffic congestion and long lines, and some people use a mouse and just click. Ether way, you have to do something that government doesn't do, stay within your budget, and if it means shopping on Black Friday, so be it.

Oh, and around here the liquor stores are closed during holidays and election day.

I think it shows the basic hypocrisy of the Right Wing.

Decorums says, yes, Thanksgiving SHOULD be that holiday for families to get together.

But Gosh Darn, Big Corporations have yet another oppurtunity to increase the 43% of the wealth the 1% already have... and screw those wage-slaves who have to spend the day at WalMart!

Profits for the Greedy>Family values.

 

[Esmeralda]

The saddest thing about our rampant consumerism is that people go into debt for gifts. Another reason to shop, a little at a time, all year.

I certainly agree with this. I remember when people used the Christmas Club alternative through their bank. They would save up all year long, in a special account, and then come December, use what was in the account for gifts and other holiday time expenses.

Nowadays your bank wants you to use its credit card so you can also pay them interest, instead of the other way around.

This is me: debt free for 10 years! I don't owe a cent to anyone! It feels really good.

 

[mudwhistle]

I think it is interesting that Republicans are always talking about going back to traditional family values, yet when it comes to something like this, it goes out the window. People in general don't seem to care about families spending holidays together, making money and shopping are more important. I remember when everything was closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, when liquor stores were closed on election day, etc. When stores closed after 6 or 7 in the evening and didn't open until 8 or 9 in the morning and were closed on Sundays. When familes did sit down to dinner all together every evening, etc. I think this kind of thing does help to prevent social problems.. It, of course, should be everyone's choice, but it is too bad.

So shopping is bad for traditional family values?

I guess we could all go out and forage for our food and our Christmas gifts.

Come to think of it, isn't shopping a form of foraging? Some go out and buy it and put up with traffic congestion and long lines, and some people use a mouse and just click. Ether way, you have to do something that government doesn't do, stay within your budget, and if it means shopping on Black Friday, so be it.

Oh, and around here the liquor stores are closed during holidays and election day.

I think it shows the basic hypocrisy of the Right Wing.

Decorums says, yes, Thanksgiving SHOULD be that holiday for families to get together.

But Gosh Darn, Big Corporations have yet another oppurtunity to increase the 43% of the wealth the 1% already have... and screw those wage-slaves who have to spend the day at WalMart!

Profits for the Greedy>Family values.

Enjoy your holiday Mr Poopy Pants.

Remember not to use anything that all of those greedy bastards sold you. That includes cars, TVs, cell-phones, and especially those damned PCs. Stay off the internet.

 

[JoeB131]

So shopping is bad for traditional family values?

I guess we could all go out and forage for our food and our Christmas gifts.

Come to think of it, isn't shopping a form of foraging? Some go out and buy it and put up with traffic congestion and long lines, and some people use a mouse and just click. Ether way, you have to do something that government doesn't do, stay within your budget, and if it means shopping on Black Friday, so be it.

Oh, and around here the liquor stores are closed during holidays and election day.

I think it shows the basic hypocrisy of the Right Wing.

Decorums says, yes, Thanksgiving SHOULD be that holiday for families to get together.

But Gosh Darn, Big Corporations have yet another oppurtunity to increase the 43% of the wealth the 1% already have... and screw those wage-slaves who have to spend the day at WalMart!

Profits for the Greedy>Family values.

Enjoy your holiday Mr Poopy Pants.

Remember not to use anything that all of those greedy bastards sold you. That includes cars, TVs, cell-phones, and especially those damned PCs. Stay off the internet.

They wouldn't have to sell if I didn't have a need.

get it.

Capitalists are parasites that convinced stupid people they are vital organs.

 

[Sunshine]

More retailers have announced they will open Thanksgiving Day for your shopping pleasure, so to speak. Is this appropriate?

Should Thanksgiving remain a holiday, unique to America, when families gather together to give thanks, share a meal and create their own Thanksgiving memories and traditions? Or should Thanksgiving be a day when Mom or Dad has to excuse himself and go to work because bargains are offered to shoppers readying themselves for a holiday happening four weeks hence?

Will you shop on Thanksgiving, or will you take advantage of the day and enjoy it with family and friends?

Sometimes bargains are not really worth it, don't you think? If they come at the expense of yours or the clerk's family, are they really bargains at all?

The US isn't the only country that celebrates Thanksgiving. Canada does but it is a different day. If people want to work or shop on Thanksgiving, that is their choice. Workers get the holiday, just not on the same day as everyone else. People who work places that never close take turns working the holidays. And many of them want to work because they get holiday pay. I am a nurse. I didn't get regular hours/days until well into my career. It's part of the drill. If you don't like it don't work for a place that never closes.

I remember one Thanksgiving my BIL brought me a BIG tray of food to work. But I worked other places that served the traditional meal and let children and spouses come eat with the workers.

I don't know why people see things in such black and white terms. There are a lot of deals in life. Working holidays is just one of them.

 

[Sunshine]

So shopping is bad for traditional family values?

I guess we could all go out and forage for our food and our Christmas gifts.

Come to think of it, isn't shopping a form of foraging? Some go out and buy it and put up with traffic congestion and long lines, and some people use a mouse and just click. Ether way, you have to do something that government doesn't do, stay within your budget, and if it means shopping on Black Friday, so be it.

Oh, and around here the liquor stores are closed during holidays and election day.

I think it shows the basic hypocrisy of the Right Wing.

Decorums says, yes, Thanksgiving SHOULD be that holiday for families to get together.

But Gosh Darn, Big Corporations have yet another oppurtunity to increase the 43% of the wealth the 1% already have... and screw those wage-slaves who have to spend the day at WalMart!

Profits for the Greedy>Family values.

Enjoy your holiday Mr Poopy Pants.

Remember not to use anything that all of those greedy bastards sold you. That includes cars, TVs, cell-phones, and especially those damned PCs. Stay off the internet.

Isn't he a piece of work? He is a colossal failure and he can't see that his refusal to do more than the minimum is what keeps him on the bottom of the tank.

If you are going to be successful, you have to do more than just the minimum. I know people who have done really well working for Walmart. They have had opportunities to advance to management they would have had nowhere else. Being there when there was a need and working more than was 'required' is what got them the advancement. There is one woman at a local Walmart and, honestly, is the reason I shop there. She is as sharp as a tack, but looks and sounds like something off Hee Haw. She wears bug eye glasses, is gat toothed, and could eat corn through a picket fence. But if you need help in the store SHE is the one to go to. And she advanced because of her work ethic. Not because she was owed something.
I worked my share of holidays, nights, evenings, weekends, 16 hour days. It's part of moving up.