I am, however, against the ever-increasing encroachment of retail establishments on that holiday in a race to the bottom.
Black Friday used to mean "Sometime Friday Morning"
Then it meant 12:00 am Friday.
Now Friday means 10pm Thursday. Or 9pm.
Or 6pm
Seriously, fuck you, Wal-Mart – you are the KING of the Race to Be The Shittiest Place On Earth.
Reshared post from +Brittany Constable
Okay, this may be a bit Grinchy of me. I've been reading a lot about how horrible, evil, shameful, greedy all these companies are to make their employees work on Thanksgiving. "They're destroying the holiday!" they say. "These people should be allowed to spend time with their families!" they say. "Won't somebody please think of the children!" they say. Well, they might as well say.
It's all bullshit.
You know who else is going to be working tomorrow?
Firefighters.
ER workers.
Police officers.
911 dispatchers.
Security guards.
Prison guards.
Hospice employees.
Hospital workers.
Gas station employees.
Movie theater employees.
Theme park employees.
Tourist trap employees.
Snow plow drivers.
Bus drivers.
Cab drivers.
Pilots.
Flight attendants.
Baggage handlers.I can keep going, I really can. Why is no one crying that they won't be able to see their families? Why aren't these guys complaining about their heartless employers? Because 24/7 fucking means it. Sure, you can shut down the farms and factories for a day and it's not going to make a difference. But this is a service-sector economy, and people don't stop needing those services.
"But," I can hear you saying, "these people have important jobs! No one needs to go shopping on Thanksgiving!"
Yeah, sure. Until you run out of that essential ingredient for Aunt Edna's Onion Casserole and need the grocery store. Until your Wii sensor bar dies and to shut up the squalling brats of your extended family, you need the electronic store. Until the airline lost your luggage on the way to Grandma's house and you need the clothes store. And when you find those places closed, you're not thinking about how nice it is that those employees are spending time with their families. You're mainly thinking up new, creative swears.
And really, there's some stuff on that list that isn't really that essential. Does Disneyland need to be open on Thanksgiving? Not really, but 90,000 of you fuckers seem to think so every year. Disney's not being greedy by keeping the park open, they're just not being fucking stupid by turning away millions of dollars of revenue and opening themselves up to complaints from people whose holiday family togetherness schmoopy schmoopy schmoo requires bringing a few thousand people into work.
And speaking of family togetherness, what about all the people who can't be with their families anyways? Because their families are scattered around the country or the world and there's no way to get everyone together. Because they can't afford to travel. Because they haven't spoken to their families in years. Because they don't have any surviving family. For the millions of these people, all of this "You should be with your family!" bullshit tends to grate a little.
Besides, there's no single holiday that's universal. Not one. Imagine if every single retail location in your area was closed on your day off for Rosh Hashanah. Or Eid al-Adha. Or Winter Solstice. You'd flip your shit, right? Good for them, but you've got shit to do!
Welcome to my world, bitches.
Look, if you don't want to go shopping tomorrow night, don't. No one is forcing you to go get in line to get the best deals. If you feel compelled to do so and don't like having to choose between your family and your shopping, that says a lot more about you than the company. They wouldn't be open if there wasn't demand. So if you want to stay home, fine.
Just please shut up about it.
I'm okay with essential services being open and available on Thanksgiving – first responders, emergency health care, gasoline, critical infrastructure, etc. I mean, sure, somebody needs to be the emergency room or respond to power outages. I work for a phone company and the mantra is "when dial tone goes down, people die".
And I hate Wal-Mart (and some other companies of its ilk) for reasons way beyond Thanksgiving, just like I hate Christmas for reasons way beyond Black Friday.
But I don't mind pointing out when things I hate all come together. 😉
I refuse to step inside of WalMart
+Lillith Sullivan and I watched Agents of Shield last night. The number of ads screaming at viewers to SHOPSHOPSHOP at Wal-Mart, Target, JC Penney, Macy's Ross, etc., all starting around 5 pm on Thursday made me want to puke.
HOLIDAYS ARE ALL ABOUT MATERIAL SHIT. FUCK YEAH 'MURICA.
That said, I remember one year (many years ago) when I'd forgotten to get rolls for Thanksgiving dinner and was shit out of luck because EVERYWHERE WAS CLOSED.
My first retail job was at a grocery store. They paid triple time for working on Thanksgiving. That was awesome. (I'd happily work Thanksgiving in the office if they paid triple time.)
My next retail jobs weren't unionized and I didn't really like having to work holidays, but I didn't object — I needed the hours for my paycheck and it was usually slow except for truly desperate souls.
I have no intention of patronizing those stores that are screaming at us to shop on Thanksgiving afternoon, but I'm glad some people are getting hours they may need. Hopefully they won't be dealing with too many greedy asshats in the store.