Topic: Buying in stores on Thanksgiving wrong or ok?

As everyone knows many big stores like Kmart (all day), Target and Walmart will be open for a good portion of Thanksgiving. Is it wrong to shop there on Thanksgiving? I say yes. The employees are poorly paid (each Walmart cost taxpayers up to 700K for social programs like SNAP), poorly treated and really deserve a day off for this holiday.

Growing up this was a rare day in which it was about meeting family you rarely see and eating. A lot of people did that. Lately it seems to be "lets examine store fliers and read reviews online". Now it appears to be "lets get in line this Thanksgiving".

Buying online or downloading I have no problems with. Buying a videogame in Walmarts, Kmart etc in the store yes. I think its selfish to do it to the employees, many of whom I am sure would rather be with family.

Stay home, be with family. If you are single or cannot stand being with family, invite other singles over to your house or go to a soup kitchen to help. Remember these stores won't be open if it wasn't for customers.

So what do you think.

Why would it be wrong?

"Let's give thanks for what we have!"
"...ok now lets go trample others for more stuff."

About the employees...

Well, if they have to work in festive days, you may as well brighten up their day and show up in their store to justify their day.

Or would you rather have them literally waste their day doing nothing at all? Is not like the big heads of the store will notice and stop making them work these days.

Because by going on Thanksgiving day you are making it so they companies open on Thanksgiving day next year.

When a store is open on Thanksgiving day, that means people have to be working there. Which means they can't be at home, eating with their family for Thanksgiving. Considering employees at these places aren't all that well-paid to begin with, I'd rather we keep Thanksgiving a holiday. That's just me, though.

As someone who worked for many, many years in retail, I can promise you that the last thing that brightens an employee's day is more customers coming through the door.

OH! My bad!
But even then, I'd say it's wrong. You should be with your family rather than working that day. I know not everyone has that luxury but if you're working at a store that is normally supposed to be closed thanksgiving, then you really should not have to work that day.

Obviously this statement doesn't ring true for most, but some people don't have family to celebrate with, or in my case, family that just doesn't get together anymore. I remember as a kid we used to have big parties during the holidays and many relatives would come, but now pretty much only my siblings that moved away visit during these times. It's rather depressing really.

However it is still sad that people at regular stores have to work for the sake of commercialism. Heck, I remember hearing that an employee literally got trampled to death while opening a store during Black Friday a couple years back.

i've commented quite a bit on this topic on Facebook lately — I worked in the Orlando theme parks for nearly a decade, and getting a holiday off was something that never happened. They'd pay us time-and-a-half and Universal and Sea World usually had a nice free lunch available for employees, but Disney made you pay. Hotel workers, airport staff, restaurant employees (yes, there are restaurants open on Thanksgiving!)... there are stores that never close on Thanksgiving like Michaels, places like gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores open 'til 3 or so in case you need that last thing you forgot the night before or you ruined the pie and need to pick up something ready-made to replace it. No one cared before this year, and now it's suddenly the most horrible thing ever. why do we need one special day to enjoy a good meal with friends, family, and loved ones? there are 365 in a year to be had, just limiting yourself to a handful because society says you must do (x) thing on (y) day is a sad thing.

all rambling aside, the bottom line is that If there wasn't demand for stores to be open on Thanksgiving, stores wouldn't be open on Thanksgiving. me, i'm gonna put on my best smile, milk that 'oh you poor thing you have to work on Thanksgiving' sympathy from every customer I help, enjoy how quickly the day goes by (time flies when you're busy) and rake in that sweet time-and-a-half. then i'm gonna go join the festivities and try to see if there are any 3DSes left over at Target. I don't fault anyone for shopping tomorrow or wish bad things upon them, and I genuinely wish everyone working or venturing out to snap up gifts a safe and happy holiday. the more they buy, the better it is for my store and everyone who works there, so I'm sure it's the same at other stores too. :3

^that

Also...

This is mostly what I meant with my previous message.

@Morpheel: I do agree with you on that one — Black Friday always goes by faster with more people in the store. The only time you don't want them showing up is right at the last minute when you're trying to close, haha. Last year was somewhat slow for us compared to years prior and they were sending people home early (of course not me though, bleh), so i hope that doesn't happen to us this year :3

Why is people being poor supposed to affect my shopping?

'Oh no those poor people are making money by working, I won't support that!' lol

What if the people working don't celebrate Thanksgiving? And what if the people shopping don't, either? Those people wouldn't consider it wrong, would they?

There are plenty of jobs that don't even get Thanksgiving or Christmas off.

this is why im glad us vampire hunters only work one day every 100 years. you guys are just lazy though

I'm glad that i'm off for thanksgiving, then again, my hours were much longer this week.

And I have two days off, so that means black Friday chaos again for me.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday have been pushed back about a week this year, due to calendars and other timey-wimey related shenanigans. Most retailers get 30-40% of the yearly profits in the time between Black Friday and Christmas. So when a whole week has been cut out of that spending time they are doing everything to make up for it. My store works Thanksgiving but I requested it off to visit my grandparents and out of state relatives (so you CAN get out of it). Hope this helps!

~Momentai

I oppose this as well.

You wouldn't believe how crappy business treat people. It just makes it all the worse when they ask you to come during the weekend or a holiday.

I used to work somewhere where overtime was basically necessary for you to be "important", and that's beside that they usually had you do work that was supposed to get you paid more, yet it wasn't official. I worked hard and none of it mattered, so I stood the hell up and told them I'm out.

Well when you work retail you are completely disposable.

You're not in a position to be treated super nice as if you're special. Most of these positions require no technical skills whatsoever. Can you talk and move? Great you can work in a store.

Kind of need a better job if you'd like to be treated as if your personal feelings actually matter.