<p>It’s a non-religious, true American holiday and I do wish they would stay closed and celebrate family time. Not the bottom line. And yet…if they open, people go. Ugh. Not this one, no way.</p>
<p>I detest shopping under the best of circumstances, and I’d rather have a root canal than participate in this insanity. </p>
<p>Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday , partly because of the food, but mostly because it doesn’t involve gift giving. I have never shopped , and will never shop on this day ( and the thought of getting up at some insane hour in order to get a "deal "…not happening. I love my sleep too. </p>
<p>I’ve gone to movies on holidays. around here at least theaters aren’t open until later in the day so there is still some opportunity for family time. </p>
<p>A few years ago I was talking about working holidays with a friend who had worked in a movie theater as a teenager. She said she never minded working holidays too much because people tended to be in a really good mood. I suspect that is not the case with a lot of retail customers. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree. That’s why I love the fact that we can now shop online. </p>
<p>I do enjoy going to the movies on the holidays with my family and it does seem that they open later giving many employees the chance to have an early afternoon Thanksgiving meal. I won’t shop on Thanksgiving though and appreciate those stores that have taken a stand against opening. I wonder if the theaters pay their employees at a holiday rate of time and a half or more. They should, IMO.</p>
<p>I do some substitute teaching, and last week I was subbing in a seventh-grade English class in which they were working on essays about Thanksgiving. In our discussion of Thanksgiving traditions, I mentioned that some people go shopping on Thanksgiving because some stores are now open on Thanksgiving day. Almost to a person, the students were aghast - “Why would you go shopping on Thanksgiving?” “That’s an awful idea!” “How can the store employees spend time with their families if they have to work?” </p>
<p>It warmed my heart. Count me as one who doesn’t shop on Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Police officers, firefighters, hotel workers, hospital staff, and other people who work for organizations/businesses that must remain open on holidays manage somehow. </p>
<p>Adding retail to the list doesn’t seem like a huge hardship to me.</p>
<p>In lines of work where some people must work on holidays, there are sometimes individuals who will volunteer to do so. My aunt, a hotel employee, did this for Christmas. It was great for her reputation on the job, and it was no hardship for her family to shift the family celebration to the 24th.</p>
<p>I find it troubling–I think it is part of the whole “Bowling Alone” phenomenon in which people are more and more disconnected with society at large. To me, there’s a big difference between police and retail workers in terms of working on Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>I do confess that I have gone out for Chinese food on Christmas Day numerous times.</p>
<p>We have relatives working in essential services (mostly nurses) who’ve always had to work on holidays, and they manage with their families to be flexible. However, none of our family wants to see this trend of more and more people being expected to work on any holiday, but especially Thanksgiving, to continue. I won’t shop or do other business on holidays, but I will sometimes do online shopping while taking a break (or while others are playing computer games.)</p>
<p>Some Broadway shows have performances on Thanksgiving and those that don’t, have two shows on the Friday. Most have Christmas day performances. So add, actors, techies, ushers, front of house staff, to healthcare workers, police, firefighters, EMC, taxi drivers, transit workers, toll-takers, restaurant/bar employees, hotel employees, movie theatre employees, airline and airport employees, security staff, to the long list of people who work on holidays. When I was growing up, we always had an early Christmas dinner with family then headed off to watch our NHL team play. The visiting team was away from their families on Christmas day! With the advent of the players association, that changed.</p>
<p>I like letting the business owners set their own rules for when to be open.</p>
<p>Decades ago I lived in Michigan, and there was some kind of unwritten cabal/rule for the auto dealers, who, unbelievably, were not open on Saturday. If you wanted to buy a car, you had to go in the evening during the week, or take time off work. </p>
<p>One dealer decided to break ranks, and his building was vandalized with broken plate glass windows and I don’t remember what now. </p>
<p>If you’re a business owner and you and/or your employees want to take the day off, that’s your choice. If you want to stay open to compete better and get more of your share of the market, more power to you. </p>
<p>The comments about online shopping in the thread show the issues facing bricks and mortar merchandise businesses. They are swimming against a mighty current. </p>
<p>I remember picket lines outside the dealer (AMC) at 12 Mile and Telegraph. It was weird. They had to put in enormous lights to make it more difficult to vandalize the place. (I grew up near Maple.)</p>
<p>Other countries, like Germany, have very strict laws about when you can be open, how often you can have sales, etc. That is part of their culture and it’s typical of places with export-based economies; they want to emphasize exporting over increasing local demand. </p>
<p>The US has mostly had religious based laws restricting openings on Sunday, sale of alcohol on Sunday, etc. Being Jewish, I’m both against and for such restrictions: if Christians want to prohibit Christian businesses from opening on the Christian Sabbath, fine but they can’t restrict Jews (or Muslims) from being open on a day that is not their Sabbath. I use this example because I think community matters but that community needs to be defined appropriately. </p>
<p>I’d have no problem if a community says: we require all businesses to close on Thanksgiving. It isn’t a religious holiday. </p>
<p>And as others have noted, it’s tough selling things in the real world these days and retailers don’t want to give sales away to online. </p>
<p>I’m a curmudgeon, I guess. I don’t like Thanksgiving because I detest big meals. I don’t do Black Friday either. My beef (pardon the pun) is that for those of us who want the four day weekend to get outside and travel, the only restaurants open on Thanksgiving are places like Dennys. The nicer places are all doing the big meal at big prices. </p>
<p>If we decide that every holiday is simply a matter of private individual negotiation between employer and employee, then pretty soon we will not have a societal concept of a holiday at all. Of course certain categories of essential workers have had to work on general holidays (police, medical personnel etc.) but that is not a good argument for abrogating the concept of a universal holiday altogether. Most cultures throughout history have recognized the need for designated days of rest and celebration, communal festival days (although frequency and timing may be up for debate). Market values don’t have to permeate everything, all the time, everywhere. </p>
<p>^^^^ That!</p>
<p>So, my take on this is slightly different. Costco is spinning a business decision to curry favor with a segment of society that thinks everyone should sit around with extended family and a turkey on Thanksgiving day. Newsflash: Not everyone does this. lol. Are movies theaters essential? The fact is they are packed on holidays. What about convenience stores? Liquor stores? Gas stations? Drug stores? Who gets to decide that you don’t really need that extra bag of potato chips or six-pack or whatever last minute thing people are buying. What about restaurants? Some do huge holiday buffets. Is that okay? Now, Cosco is not a fun place to shop on a good day so I’m not at all surprised that no-one is lining up to get in on Thanksgiving but they are lining up at the mall. A few years ago around here the mall opened at midnight and the line was a block long .Last year it was 8 o’clock. This year it’s 6 o’clock. In other words, it’s working. This is a community event complete with live remote radio DJ’s and door-buster sales. The crowd is mostly young people and they’re having fun and spending money. Why people think it’s somehow superior to stay home and shop online is a little baffling, actually. For some people, this is fun. If nobody came they would be closed.</p>
<p>Well Flossy, why don’t we just have everybody work on Thanksgiving, just like any other day. Who gets to decide that you don’t really need to go the DMV or the bank at the last minute? I’m sure if they were open, somebody would show up.</p>
<p>Our grocery store will have close to standard hours on Thanksgiving. No more calling around trying to find a store when you’ve run out of eggs. </p>
<p>That would be fine with me, really. The business gets to decide, imho. And, some have decided it’s worth it. Personally, I probably won’t go shopping that day but if someone else wants to it’s okay by me. And, the ATM’s are open, btw. I have worked a lot of holidays, probably most. My son worked on July 4th followed by a big party with co-worker friends. A wonderful time was had by all. Gasp.</p>