Stopping the Black Friday Curse

Courtesy of flickr.com

Next week, thousands of people will struggle with a term I’ve deemed “The Black Friday Curse”: having to decide whether the Thanksgiving holiday or the biggest shopping day of the year should consume their time and attention. And so it goes that the famous holiday meant for gathering around family and being thankful for our blessings is turned into a push and shove race with strangers to scoop up red-ticketed clearance items by the handfuls and to claim that last fifty-percent-off laptop with the cool design and portable speakers included. I mean, you didn’t really need the laptop…but it was a great deal! Someone else definitely would have grabbed it. Can’t have that.

And every year, the Black Friday Curse gets worse.

For as long as I can remember, people have always gotten up early on Friday mornings to wait in line outside of stores that are already opening earlier than usual. But more and more, I’ve read about stores that are starting up their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day. As in during dinnertime hours of Thanksgiving Day, or even earlier. This year, Macy’s and Target will start Black Friday sales at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, Best Buy at 6 p.m., and Kmart as early as 6 a.m. These stores plan to stay open all night on Thursday and continue to stay open through Friday. At this rate, Black Friday sales will eventually start on Wednesday, and then Monday, and maybe even run full circle to make an entire week of Black Friday commercials, coupons and catalogs.

This seems wrong to me for a lot of reasons. As a consumer, I can understand why sales would be appealing, but the idea of Black Friday is dangerous enough for our materialistic society without having the shopping day expand over onto a Thursday. That’s when people in our country are supposed to be celebrating time spent with friends and family over a meal that they are fortunate enough to have in front of them. And we really can’t bash or blame the retailers for this shopping spree phenomena because they wouldn’t make their door opening times earlier and earlier if the consumers didn’t show up and encourage the idea. Costumers rush through the doors every year with a shopping list clutched in one hand and a fistful of cut-out coupons in the other.

And the idea of earlier opening hours doesn’t really make sense. Opening on Thanksgiving doesn’t make the sales any different than they would be if stores opened at a decent time on Friday. The products are the same and the products demanded by the consumers will also be the same. Consumers won’t have the ability to continue buying more later on Friday if they already spent their budget on Thursday or at 3 a.m. on Friday morning. The only reasoning I could see is opening earlier in order to beat the competition of companies with similar products. But like mentioned above, this will lead to Black Friday sales eventually starting way before the actual Friday date. So why not just open up stores on Friday and leave Thanksgiving alone?

I think it’s disappointing that many people next week are going to skip out on Thanksgiving festivities, even if only for a few hours, in order to bring home products in a shopping bag. Thanksgiving is a time when kids are off of school, relatives and close friends come to visit, and us college students finally get to come home for an excellent home-cooked meal.

Another group of people that I believe are hurt by this Black Friday Curse are the employees at the retail stores. Many employees having to work during the Thanksgiving hours are probably going to miss out on being with their families and enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner. Consumers that decide to shop earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving Day are contributing to a retailer’s decision to take away a peaceful, delicious holiday from employees. And even if the employees don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, think about the additional stress they will have to deal with when an influx of people swarms the store for the catchy low prices. Most employees do not get paid more than their usual rate for Black Friday sales.

For this reason, I feel that respect is owed to companies like Nordstrom, Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club that are firm in their decision to keep stores closed on Thanksgiving Day and to open their doors on Friday at sane morning hours. Not only does this allow employees to enjoy their holiday and spend it with their loved ones, but it doesn’t encourage consumers to abandon their holiday events in order to spend, spend, spend. Keep in mind that companies like these that stay closed and don’t take advantage of the Black Friday craze are usually losing possible sales. However, I think that the retailer’s treatment of employees and the reputation they add to their name makes up for this.

Unfortunately, there will always be people that are influenced by the lull of the advertisements and sales that retailers have to offer and so Black Friday will never go away (or be changed to a less ironic day). But as responsible consumers, it is important to note that if customers are not willing to go shopping on Thanksgiving Day or stand in the cold to be let into a store around midnight before Black Friday, then the service will not be offered. If there is no demand, there will not be a supply. Next week, use your time to catch up with relatives and friends and eat yummy food until you’re stuffed. And if you do choose to leave your house, try doing it for another reason besides getting sucked into consumerism. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or help those that don’t have as much to give thanks for to have a nice Thanksgiving holiday. Beat the Black Friday Curse and help change the impact that products and new shiny things have on our lives.