Thanks for Staying Home

I’m not much of a shopper… more of a buyer. I don’t spend a lot of time trying to find the best deal; usually when I decide I want something I just go get it. However, I do have a great time wandering around shopping malls (“just looking, thank you”). This is true especially this time of year, and this time of year comes earlier and earlier, both on the calendar and on the clock.

I have found from experience, however, that Black Friday is not the day to do casual browsing. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year, is the day that puts stores “in the black” on their ledger sheets.

But now more and more of the major stores are opening for business on Thanksgiving Day. By doing this they hope to get a jump on the season by luring the shoppers in with the promise of before-Christmas bargains (some quantities limited and the stores reserve the right to run out of the item before you get there).

Unhappy with this arrangement are the employees of the stores that are open for business on Thanksgiving. They would like to have this time to spend with their families. Imagine.

Thomas Lee, a writer from the Star Tribune, recently wrote about this trend in retailing. He quoted executives from three major stores:
Macy’s - “People want to shop through the night.” Wal-Mart - “Our customers told us they would rather stay up late to shop than get up early so we're going to hold special events on Thanksgiving…" Toys ‘R’ Us - "We know our customers like to get an early start on their Black Friday shopping, so we're …opening our stores at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving night."

Lee goes on to say that he finds it difficult to believe that customers are actually demanding that Thanksgiving Day should be a day to commence commerce. But for a moment let’s say that consumers really are insisting on more hours to shop, and since the customer is always right we must do what they say.

But why stop there? To satisfy the growing demands of the customers I propose that every store, every office (public and private), every school be open every hour of every day (no exceptions). We could solve our economic woes with such a new world order.

Everyone who wanted a job would have one as the buildings that never close would need to hire more workers. People would have more money to buy stuff and factories would be running at full production just to keep up with the demand. Of course, there would be no time for anything else.

We think nothing of going to a store on Sunday to buy just about anything, but not too many years ago that was quite unusual. In the movie “That Thing You Do,” set in 1964, Mr. Patterson, the owner of a small store, became quite annoyed while reading a competitor’s advertisement in the newspaper.

“Open Saturday 10 to 10. Open Sunday 12 to 6... open on Sunday from 12 to 6! You know, I don't believe I want to live in a country where you have to stay open on Sunday to do business. You shouldn't have to work on Sunday to support your family.”

That’s right Mr. Patterson, and you shouldn’t have to work on Thanksgiving either. I am going to stay away from the stores on Thanksgiving. I’m not sure about Friday though.