Is Gray Thursday the new Black Friday?

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Families used to spend their Thanksgiving Day watching the Macy’s parade and eating dinner, now they are skipping dinner and heading straight to Macy’s. Stores are opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving Day for Black Friday deals. Kmart opens at 6 a.m., Toys-R-Us at 5 p.m., BestBuy at 6 p.m. and Macy’s, Sears, JCPenney, Target and Kohl’s at 8 p.m all on Thanksgiving Day. But the question everyone is wondering is, how early is too early?

It seems as if Thanksgiving has lost its tradition and turned more into a shopping holiday. Employees are forced to miss out on their Thanksgiving dinner to work. Students also agree with that, including senior Courtney Gindville. “Thanksgiving Day is celebrated all over the United States. It is a time to spend with loved ones and be thankful for one another along with the things we have,” she said. “Stores should not be open on Thanksgiving so that we can celebrate this time with our families.”

According an MTV article titled “ Target Says Making Their Employees Work At 6PM On Thanksgiving Day Is A ‘Family Tradition”,Target Chief Stores Officer, Tina Tyler, states that opening stores at 6pm gives just enough time to enjoy dinner, but also do their job. She claims that it is a “family tradition” for the employees to work. However, not all retailers offer this accommodation.

For example, according to one account in an online article, an employee at Kmart claimed that their boss told them that if they do not come to work on Thanksgiving, they would automatically be fired. There would be no accommodations.  Also there were photographs going around that were in the break room stating that they wouldn’t be allowed to request off from November 23rd through January 1st.

And what did Kmart have to say?  They expressed deep appreciation for all employees who would work Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Would it be the same this year? What kind of company makes their employees work on the holidays? Now employees will either have to miss out on their family dinner or have it earlier in the day. It seems like shoppers will also have dinner earlier so they do not miss out on the deals.

On the other hand, companies like REI are actually closing on Thanksgiving and Black Friday to #OptOutside. REI believes that being outside makes their employees lives better. They plan to close all 143 of their stores and pay their employees to head outside. People believe that REI is doing the right thing, like senior Austin Buehler, “All stores should remain closed on Thanksgiving. It’s called Black Friday for a reason. I am proud to see REI making a stand against the situation.” Way to go REI!

Another student who agrees with REI’s opinion is junior Delanie DeMarco. “My opinion of stores opening on Thanksgiving are that is it unfair. Everyone has a family they want to celebrate it with.” Teachers are also agreeing with that opinion, like Marissa Carrafiello who said, “ Stores should not be open on this holiday. I believe that Thanksgiving is a time best spent with family and friends.”

Thanksgiving used to be a holiday about being thankful and spending time with family, but now people are skipping out on dinner to run to the stores. It seems like Americans are more worried about getting the best deals, than spending some quality time with family. I do love Black Friday, don’t get me wrong. But now it seems like it’s becoming a two day shopping event, instead of the one day. It’s starting to ruin the shopping event that used to be Black Friday, as senior Alyssa Oren agreed.

“It’s ruining Black Friday. If you have the same sales on Thursday, it defeats the purpose,” she said.

Some stores are having their deals online the day of Thanksgiving and that seems like the way to go, according to Christine Throckmorton. “I think it is a disgrace that stores are open Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving is about being with loved ones, showing gratitude for one’s blessings, eating, and of course there is football (but I don’t care about that),” she said. “It should NOT be about retail! It is a national holiday and should be observed as such. Save the shopping for the next day….and the next three weeks after that. And online. Hello, haven’t these people heard of Amazon Prime?!?”

We can’t stop the stores from opening early, but we can persuade people to skip the sales and spend quality time with their family. After all, family is more important than any sale in the world.