Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, has a bad reputation in some circles, and, yes, every year brings stories of people trampled in the name of getting a discount. But for the great majority who “celebrate” Black Friday, the day passes in an exciting but calm rush of bargain-hunting.
And good for them. In the season of gift-giving, the day itself is a gift for these folks.
For many families, it’s become a tradition. Many get up before the crack of dawn (and some don’t go to sleep at all) to line up for deep discounts on electronics, jewelry and other items they might not be able to buy at full price.
It was inevitable, then, that Black Friday would begin earlier and earlier until, well, it began on Thanksgiving itself. And the scolds who’d chastised the consumerism of Black Friday take even deeper issue with shopping on the actual holiday.
People should be at home with their families, not waiting on line for a discounted X-box, they say. What about the people forced to work on Thanksgiving so that you can shop?
Fine, we’d all like to live in the Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving painting “Freedom from want.” But the fact is that unemployment remains over 7 percent, with many underemployed and “given up looking” people not included in that number. That’s at least 7 percent of the country who’d like to be working, yes, even on Thanksgiving.
I run a small business in the city; some of my employees ask to work on days that we’re closed like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.
It’s hard for people living a comfortable life, with a steady paycheck, to imagine that other people want to earn money on a day when most are sitting around eating turkey with their families — but these people exist in large numbers.
It’s also hard for the comfortable to imagine that there are people who count on the good deals of Black Friday to get holiday gifts for their families. Sorry: Not everyone has a credit card to order online, and or can afford the holiday “sale” prices after Black Friday.
Finally, the idea that what works for one family should work for all families is simply wrong. Nicole Gelinas wrote in these pages on Monday that not shopping on Thanksgiving is a “free-market way that everyone can show their concern about inequality.” It might be a symbolic way to show concern, but the way to actually help those working retail on Thanksgiving is the exact opposite: to shop.
People count on that paycheck; the way they earn money to feed their families is by working. An extra day’s pay means something real to many people — even if others don’t understand that.