There will be assorted family and friends present – a typical-enough Thanksgiving holiday experience, I suppose.
YET
THE PART that may make it the typical experience is the fact that I have been
told my step-brother won’t be on hand to share in a turkey dinner. His absence is
due to the newest trend of this day – he’s going to be shopping.
He
wants to take advantage of all those sales specially scheduled for Thursday –
the day before Black Friday.
Before
anyone presumes I’m about to bad-mouth a family member, I’m not. For it seems
that what really is happening is that all this holiday shopping is becoming
more and more the norm for our society.
I’m
wondering how long it will be before it is the people who insist on gathering
together for a meal who will be considered the aberration on “Thanksgiving”
day.
SO
MUCH FOR the federal holiday that Abraham Lincoln approved as a day of thanks,
based off the imagery of the pilgrims who settled in Massachusetts back in
1620.
Now,
it’s a day to pay homage to the “god” that is Sam Walton, offering up all kinds
of gadgets at his Wal-mart stores located everywhere in the country.
Now
anybody who has read my commentary in the past knows I don’t think much of this
trend. To me, the crowds that gather for the ritual big shopping days connected
to the winter holidays are just too annoying to put up with.
I’ll
be looking for the lulls in activity (as few and miniscule as they will be) to
try to pick out gifts for the upcoming Hanukkah and Christmas holidays (I know
people who celebrate each).
BUT
NOT EVERYBODY feels the same. I have heard my sister-in-law go on and on about
the joys of finding a special holiday price by being willing to put up with those
same crowds that annoy me.
So
the fact that many businesses are not waiting until early Friday to begin the
holiday season (some stores literally are going to be open for the bulk of
Thursday) made it so that I wasn’t surprised to learn my step-brother and his
family will be amongst those shoppers.
My
sympathy goes to the people who have to work at places like Best Buy, Target,
Sears, Toys ‘r’ Us and other major chains who have decided to be open for
business on Thursday. Any semblance of a ‘day off’ gets flushed away to help
enhance the financial bottom line.
The
shopping mentality even exists in Ferguson, Mo., the St. Louis suburb that has
had some outbursts and vandalism in the wake of a local police officer being
absolved of criminal responsibility in the shooting death of a black man.
THE
ACTIVISTS WHO have been leading protests that have turned into some looting
have threatened a more peaceful, but also more threatening to the financial
bottom line, action – a boycott of any holiday shopping during the upcoming
weekend.
Considering
that retail operations go on about how this weekend is key to their level of
profitability for the year, NOT shopping is harmful.
So
maybe I can claim to be a revolutionary, of sorts, by not shopping Thursday or
Friday. Although it would be an exaggeration of great significance. Maybe I’m
just too lazy to trek out to the crowded stores and would rather gather with
family for a communal meal.
As
for my step-brother, I don’t know if he’ll ever read this. But since I likely
won’t see him Thursday, I’ll just have to use this commentary to wish him a “Happy
Thanksgiving,” and hope he found some special price that made the way
worthwhile for him.
-30-
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