Commercialism and Consumerism and National Holidays

There is quite the discussion and consternation going on lately about the whole opening of stores on Thanksgiving and the wee hours of the morning Black Friday madness.

 

Looking at it from a business owner's POV, HERE is a valid reason why some stores NEED to open on one of the sacred cows of Holidays, Thanksgiving.

I'm not going to get into a debate with anyone over if stores opening Turkey day or in the wee hours of the morning of the Friday following it is a good thing or bad.  It all depends on your own situation I guess......

* If you are a business owner, it's one extra day to make sales during the Holiday season, so your company has the potential for a bigger profit.
*  If you are a consumer you get another chance to get a great deal on more crap to fill your home or get into a fist fight over a toaster.
*  If you are a worker in the retail industry then you get the burden of having to work at a "holiday".....just like nearly ALL food service employees & hospital employees have had to do for many years on that day.  Working on Holidays is a well-known hazard of certain occupations so either find another line of work or, how can I say this in a nice way?.....STFU. 8-) 
I have worked both food service and retail in my younger days.  Was it a PITA working Holidays?  You bet!  Did I bitch about it non-stop?  No and I was glad to have those jobs.

I think that this whole contentious issue will be moot in a couple more years anyway.
Now that the "Stores not open on Turkey Day/Black Friday foolishness" line has been breeched, there is nothing keeping stores from starting Black Friday sales/promotions on the Tuesday before the holiday or even earlier in the month.

My feeling is, as a consumer, if you want to participate in this shopping craziness, knock yourself out!  And as an employee, if you don't want to have to work at this time of year, don't get yourself hired into the retail business.

Personally I have conflicted feelings about the whole celebration of Thanksgiving anyway.

I DO like that we have a national holiday that doesn't revolve around a religious event/theme.  There are many great people out in our society who are not religious, or not a follower of a Judeo-Christian sect.
It's nice to have a day set aside that we can be Americans together and not exclude anyone due to a belief system.

But then again, this whole Pilgrim/Plymouth Rock thing everyone "thinks" this event stems from is a myth.
It is a fact that the "not driven by religious persecution" immigrants to America who came to Jamestown in 1607 were the FIRST to celebrate an ersatz Thanksgiving, and they did it BEFORE the Pilgrims even landed at Plymouth Rock.
Add in that the first Europeans on the continent were the Spanish in Florida and they have a good case for being first too.

At any rate, the native peoples who were here FIRST have always seen Thanksgiving as a day of mourning.  The Europeans arriving on their shores signaled the beginning of the end for their way of life and their culture.

Maybe we should start fresh with a new national day of peace and thanksgiving and not premise it on cultural genocide and exclusion and not celebrate it with overconsumption of both material possessions and food.

Sluggy

 

The One Where I Rant on Consumerism, Shopping, Frugality and Deal Blogs

Before you jump in the car today and hit the stores have a lookie here.

Is is just me or has the shopping madness just gone too far?
Yes, everyone acknowledges the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, as the beginning of the Mad Shopping Dash for Christmas.
And Stores no longer wait until after Halloween is over to start putting up their Christmas displays and merchandise.  That's been true for years.....

But now, Stores have extended the Holiday shopping frenzy to include Veteran's Day!
Use to be advertisers would run Veteran's Day sales for things like mattresses and some housewares(since Thanksgiving was right around the corner and you might need dishes/cooking stuff for the big day's meal).
Throw in a little winter clothing and you'd have a smallish special ad to snag shoppers who were off from work for Veteran's Day.

At least to me, is seems like the major retailers are using Veteran's Day to start the Christmas selling season instead of waiting until Black Friday.  ToysRUs has HUGE ads/deals for Veteran's Day.  They sell toys, so they depend on the Christmas season revenues to stay in business the other 11 months of the year.  But when did Veteran's Day become a time to go spend large sums of money on toys?
The line on the highway to get into the TRU parking lot is insane on Veteran's Day.....same madness can be seen in the Wal-Mart here around the toy aisles.

I am a frugal person.
I use coupons and shop sales, etc.
I check out the "deal" blogs often all year long....not talking about the grocery deals, just the 'stuff' deals.
I will tell you I've gotten a few good deals by finding offers on "deal" blogs.
Many deal blogs think of themselves as frugal blogs as well....because they are saving their readers money when they take advantage of the deals they tout.

But.....frugality is NOT only about saving money because true frugality is NOT about spending money!
And I feel that many of these "deal" blogs have the reverse affect and encourage some people to spend MORE money.  People who don't NEED an item but see it for a steal from a "deal" blog post will go and spend money, when they would not have w/out that post or that special price.
And theses people would have continued to lead their lives just as well without that item/deal.

Deal blogs have a place but I truly believe that they are fueling shopping addicts need for a "sales high".
And I know what I am talking about because I use to wander around in stores looking for clearance signs/racks and I brought many an item home for cheap that I didn't need.  I have felt the "shopping high" and it's quite a drug....

But from this point until the end of Dec. I am better off dumping almost every deal blog out of my favorites and not visiting them.
Because when I do go to them, all I find is massive quantities of "deals", so many that it overloads my senses.  And I find it difficult to weed through this huge crush of deals to find the one or two nuggets that I want or need.
Because I don't buy massive quantities of stuff for the Holidays anymore.
Just a few choice things.
And the bulk of what is being hawked on the deal blogs is not a deal for me.
And the deal blogs start to all look the same(same deals)and it's hard to distinguish them from the major retailers ads/deals either.

And another thing......if you are buying "deals" online from a faceless business and the items you are buying are being made halfway around the world and being shipped from this same place and no one in your local community is prospering from your purchase, it may still be a deal for your wallet but it's no deal for the planet nor a deal for your local businesses, that employ your local citizens, as long as they stay in business.  And if you don't support your local businesses at all by spending your money there, they will go away.  And the jobs will go away.  And the jobless will put more stress on your government supported safety nets(food stamps, unemployment, etc.).  And then your taxes will go up.  And that online deal that saved you so much money will cost you more in other ways, than you ever thought in the end.

I'm not saying you need to stop buying from anyone EXCEPT a local business.  No, I am not a tree-hugger, extremist.
I think life is all about balance.
And even when you shop, you can find balance.
So go get some "deals" online(but only things you truly need/want!)but also spread your consumer net wide.....go spend money with local merchants too.
We have 2 Chinese/Japanese restaurants in our teeny tiny town.  Some things are prepared better at one, other things at the other.  Both are locally owned small businesses.
So we alternate which restaurant we eat at and spread our consumer dollars out between them.
That way we support both and neither goes out of business.
And we continue to have a choice in where we want to dine when we want Chinese/Japanese food.
Having choices is cool and so is keeping jobs in your neighborhood.

Just some food for thought from what spills outta my brain....

Sluggy