Tiffany Raiford
Thanksgiving is only two weeks away, and that means we all have a lot to do. For example, I need to make a list and go shopping since I host this holiday in my home. I also need to finish making my Christmas shopping list of people to buy for since my husband and I are trying out this Black Friday shopping thing this year. Yes, we are probably crazy. We’ve decided we want to try it since there are so many good sales and deals, and we thought we’d take advantage of that since we have four kids and all, and our Christmas shopping budget has gotten out of hand with 15 kids to buy for, and that doesn’t even count the adults in our lives or one another.
We will not, however, even consider shopping on Thanksgiving, for several reasons. It’s a holiday, and no one should be open that day. Come on, retailers; what’s the deal? We can all find our sales and deals and big time items on Friday. Why do you feel the need to make people come to work on Thursday when they should be home celebrating a day of love and thankfulness with the people they love the most (or have no choice but to pretend to love for one evening a year)? Why? I will not shop on Thanksgiving, ever; it’s not right. It’s all kinds of wrong in all kinds of manners.
Additionally, I have the ‘big house’ and that means I’m the natural volunteer to host Thanksgiving dinner. This means I have to spend all day in the kitchen, all day with our extended families and all day trying not to panic as other people turn my clean, beautiful home into a mess of their own – and you better believe that I cannot go to bed with a messy home, so there’s the whole cleaning after they all finally leave thing.
Oh, and if I am going to have all those people in my house all day long, and I’m cooking, and it’s a mess; I’m drinking. That means the day will begin with champagne and splash of orange juice and end with a few bottles of wine amongst everyone present. We are in no shape to drive on Thanksgiving night even if we did want to shop. So, in reality, all the stores that are open on Thanksgiving night are promoting drinking and driving since they all know that this is a holiday in which people are forced to spend time with extended family and oftentimes the only way to do that is with a cocktail. Yeah, do that math.
What does warm my heart as it begins to feel a lot more like the holidays (kidding, not here; it’s 97 degrees today and there is nothing holiday about it), is that a number of stores have announced they will not be open on Thanksgiving, and many will not be open on Black Friday, either. I always love to see my favorite store, Nordstrom, on the list of stores that refuse to deck their halls until after we carve the turkey and also that refuses to remove people from their homes to work on a holiday. There are others, too; and it’s kind of awesome that these people and these corporations are working hard to ensure that they do not have to open their doors on a holiday. Family first is a big deal; and we like it.
Kudos to the stores not opening their doors on Thanksgiving:
- Nordstrom
- REI
- Home Depot
- DSW
- TJ Maxx
- Costco
- GameStop
- Staples
- Pier 1 Imports
- Patagonia
- Marshalls
- PetSmart
Additional Kudos to the stores that are allowing their employees to spend long weekends with their families by not opening their doors on Black Friday:
- REI
REI has announced that instead of paying their employees to come to work for a long day after Thanksgiving, they are giving all employees a long weekend by allowing them to be paid for both Thursday and Friday to be home with their loved ones and to get outside and spend some quality time in the great outdoors. That is awesome.
Comments
Loading…