I will not buy a single thing on Thanksgiving and I encourage everyone else to do the same. I don’t want it to be illegal to be open on that day, but if enough people don’t shop, those workers won’t be forced to be away from their family next year. The stores will shut again.
Big retailers want increased sales? Instead of staying open long hours on holidays, what if they paid their employees a living wage? Then there would be more of what economists call “disposable income” in the economy. Just a thought.
r2varney: my best, and most memorable Thanksgiving was spent taking care of a family who’d been in an auto accident. Took the injured to the hospital, got the uninjured a motel room when there were supposedly none left, and got home many hours late, to dried out turkey and dressing. Several weeks later, got letters with drawings and “thank you” notes from the kids, all six of them. That was a long time ago, and those letters are still among my prize possessions: that, is what Thanksgiving is all about, and the “spirit of Christmas” as well.
Interesting and true to some extent. My first, long-term job was in retail in the early 1970s. I worked on Thanksgiving day. The store also closed at 5 PM. There are some folks out there that would enjoy having the time and half, or double time and a half. Staying open on a holiday is not something new. FYI, auto dealers are always closed on Sundays in Colorado, not so in California when I came here.
Thanksgiving was a north eastern regional tradition up until 1863. The Pilgrims declared a feast to give thanks to the Christian god, to which they invited the natives who helped them. Days of Thanksgiving continued intermittently in the north east region up until 1863, when Sarah Hale successfully lobbied Lincoln to declare it a national holiday.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_%28United_States%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Josepha_Hale
Dtroutma over 10 years ago
Hmm, with the commercialism, I’d say the casualty was the baby Jesus.
ConserveGov over 10 years ago
I will not buy a single thing on Thanksgiving and I encourage everyone else to do the same. I don’t want it to be illegal to be open on that day, but if enough people don’t shop, those workers won’t be forced to be away from their family next year. The stores will shut again.
corzak over 10 years ago
Big retailers want increased sales? Instead of staying open long hours on holidays, what if they paid their employees a living wage? Then there would be more of what economists call “disposable income” in the economy. Just a thought.
Dtroutma over 10 years ago
r2varney: my best, and most memorable Thanksgiving was spent taking care of a family who’d been in an auto accident. Took the injured to the hospital, got the uninjured a motel room when there were supposedly none left, and got home many hours late, to dried out turkey and dressing. Several weeks later, got letters with drawings and “thank you” notes from the kids, all six of them. That was a long time ago, and those letters are still among my prize possessions: that, is what Thanksgiving is all about, and the “spirit of Christmas” as well.
cjr53 over 10 years ago
Interesting and true to some extent. My first, long-term job was in retail in the early 1970s. I worked on Thanksgiving day. The store also closed at 5 PM. There are some folks out there that would enjoy having the time and half, or double time and a half. Staying open on a holiday is not something new. FYI, auto dealers are always closed on Sundays in Colorado, not so in California when I came here.
ConserveGov over 10 years ago
You too.
Jason Allen over 10 years ago
Thanksgiving was a north eastern regional tradition up until 1863. The Pilgrims declared a feast to give thanks to the Christian god, to which they invited the natives who helped them. Days of Thanksgiving continued intermittently in the north east region up until 1863, when Sarah Hale successfully lobbied Lincoln to declare it a national holiday.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_%28United_States%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Josepha_Hale