This is nuts. So is camping out on thanksgiving night to be the first in the store at 5 am.

If there is a war on Christmas it isn't waged by those to say "Happy Holidays!" It's this insane over commercialization and corporate competition.

I know some lovely people who really don't care about Thanksgiving dinner - they see their relatives all the time. For them, the week-end is all about football and shopping on Black Friday.

I'd have to be paid to go there. I am so not a Mall Girl.

then they are betting the economy still will suck

That's the day for spending with family.

I would rather do my shopping on Friday. I like it on that day.

a while back, a lot of stores opened on Thanksgiving last year.

I was giving some thought to doing seasonal retail work after I quit full-time, but if stores are going to be opening Thanksgiving day itself, never mind.

Thanksgiving -

then it was the grocery stores

now this.

during that time.

but a good many of them are union.

However, they are now open on Memorial Day, Independence Day and, ironically, Labor Day. Back when I was in high school and college and worked in one they were closed on those days.

I save so much more money than if I were to go to black Friday sales. I wouldn't even consider shopping on Thanksgiving so other families can be together. As far as the argument that people need the money, they do, but there needs to be higher wages for retail work.

Just grab great stuff as you find it, get a box and throw the gifts in there. It's fun, when you start wrapping presents, to see what you've gotten and forgotten about. Beats that crazy manufactured Christmas shopping binge, and waiting in line to give a store your money!

but when i actually need to get a gift i can't find anything.

so buying things throughout the year makes everything easier. you are more likely to get what people will like and you don't waste a time you should enjoy worrying about shopping.

kidlet many a time to see Santa and Holiday Lane on that day.

Only good thing is their employees will make holiday pay, I hope!

Not the response they were hoping for, but how we earn and spend money is all the "representation" we have left.

In fact the year Shrub advised us to go shopping in response to 9/11, my side of the family stopped exchanging presents. While it was not expressed as a political reaction, most of my family considered it such. If I see something (or I stitch something) that someone in the family would like, I might buy it and give at holiday time, but it is not a "Christmas gift". Most of the presents are things my sister finds at thrift stores or garage sales since she is addicted to shopping at those places.

About the same time my husband's side of the family decided to draw names so each person gives and gets only one present. It makes life sooooo much easier.

I try to be done with gift buying by November 1 so I can avoid all the holiday crap. Some years I just get gift certificates if I draw a family member whose tastes I don't know or who could use practical things. Last year my sister in law got a big gift card for Home Depot since she had just purchased her own house and needed lots of things for it.

Because everyone I know is working out "let's do trades of stuff and home-made and donate volunteer work and stuff instead of buying shit this year."

Between that, and the numbers of New Mexicans who are in serious financial shit because of the furloughs/shutdown ALREADY, I doubt there'll be too many people dropping large wads of consumer cash on TG Day in Albuquerque or Las Cruces.

disgustedly,
Bright

they bought stock months before the shut-down went into effect, and every day the shut down goes on, more and more people will have less and less money to spend on presents, while others will feel a need to set aside money for a rainy day. If we go into default - all bets are off!

We do not value families any longer, only money. Someone who wants to leave their family on Thanksgiving and shop is crazy. I worked with a shopaholic, she was CRAZY! Had an eating disorder as well, control issues I guess. She would go shopping at any time any day, spend her whole paycheck and then want to go again the next day. She had tons of credit card issues, had gone through one of those "debt management" companies TWICE!

She made great money but lived paycheck to paycheck.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO SHOP ON THANKSGIVING PEOPLE!

they'd make deep discounts for online shopping instead of whatever it is they do for in-store.

Thankfully, most everything I need for gifts comes from the grocery store. I get my packaging supplies from online.

You won't catch me anywhere near a store on Black Friday

I remember as a kid, the whole town seemed so quiet on holidays. It was nice. It really drove home the point of, "this is a day to rest and be with loved ones if you can."

I hope those employees are getting paid a fuck ton. I suspect not, though. :/

They bought a couple of local department store chains that had been in business for many decades. Promptly closed a whole bunch of those stores and put a lot of good people out of work. Customer service went out the window. I do not know how they stay in business with their lousy business model.

I have not set foot in a Macy's for many years and now I have an even better reason to avoid them. I have been very careful to not shop in stores that opened on Thanksgiving last year. This year I will do all my Christmas shopping at a locally run bookstore that has appropriate business hours.

My local Bonton store did not open on Thanksgiving, so I still have someplace to buy housewares and clothing. Hope they continue the stay closed on Thanksgiving policy this year, so I can still shop there next year.

Fuck you, Macy's!

the news people are always going to these stores which open early or have huge sales and talking to people and people are going on about what they bought. there is usually a lot of energy and excitement .

I shop only at JC Penney and Sears.

I will never shop there again.

Fuck you Federated and the snail you rode you ass in on (no offense to snails intended).

Macy's said any workers who complain about working on Thanksgiving will be flogged. Those who persist will be broken on the rack in Macy's basement.

...and for years I worked retail myself, but with each passing Thanksgiving shoppers and retailers have gotten deeper and deeper into a very psychologically unhealthy place. It was bad enough when shoppers were getting up before dawn on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but now consumerism is encroaching on the gluttony and football too.

Me, I like Small Business Saturday, and I'm beginning to think I should leave the country for Thanksgiving.

I was a server at an upscale restaurant.

I'll never forget the first customer of my day telling me how bad she felt that I had to work on Thanksgiving Day. It took an enormous amount of energy to not scream back at her that @#$&%^@ people like her that would go out for lunch while shopping on turkey day were the REASON I had to work.

If a business can't make it by shutting down on just a few days a year, then maybe it's time to just lock the doors.

ETA: Fuck Macy's for this change. They'll not get one hard earned penny from me this season.

Period.

which is nothing but a long, long commerical for Macy's.

I wonder how much any store makes staying open on a holiday.

Birthdays were really lean this year. Next year, I'm not sure if there will be anything for birthdays.