Some of my fondest memories from childhood are of the holidays. A toasty apartment on Capitol Hill in Seattle, complete with condensation on the windows, would be a stark contrast to the biting cold outside. I would stick my head out the window, leaving the aroma of a cooking turkey and stuffing, to see the lights atop the Space Needle. My grandparents’ apartment was small but it was the only place my sister and I experienced Thanksgiving until we were adults.
Thanksgiving was also filled with football on the TV and all my immediate relatives talking politics and job stuff I generally did not understand. With my grandparents long passed and my young family beginning new traditions, I know how important it is to spend time with them.
Thanksgiving is a family-first holiday and most all Americans celebrate it relatively the same way. It is not subject to a person’s religious preference. It can be celebrated by those with or without children and enjoyed just the same. Most people are given the day off of work – or at least that is how it used to be.
Recent trends have turned Black Friday into Black Thanksgiving. Most stores opened for the holiday shopping season yesterday with “door-buster sales!” In an attempt to extend the holiday shopping season and make more money, big box stores are trying to replace turkey dinner with stampedes for a cheap TV. The car ride to grandmas is being replaced with people searching for parking in mall lots.
Some have gone so far as to say that this is the beginning of the end of Thanksgiving. I take issue with that. Not everyone participated in Black Thursday. Many people ignore the idea of the crushing and chaotic masses pushing and shoving for a $10 toaster oven.
I have been known to get up early on Black Friday, a rarity for me on a day off, to see what was available. But I will opt for sleep this year and boycott the sales today in protest of the encroachment on Thanksgiving. I absolutely refuse to be a part of the corporate and consumer greed that has become Black Thanksgiving – and I am not alone. Many consumers and retail companies have joined the call to stop the devolution of Thanksgiving.
Sur La Table in Kirkland is one of those stores.
“Thanksgiving is a time to be with families and loved ones and we won’t be sucked into the holiday shopping frenzy that diminishes the important role the holiday plays in celebrating and creating family traditions,” said Sur La Table President and CEO Jack Schwefel in a statement last week. “I hope that our customers and our employees will do just that, enjoy the holiday. But if they wish to shop, surlatable.com is open all day and night. Don’t misinterpret our message as not being customer focused. We will provide valuable and useful services to customers in our stores in every way possible, just not on Thanksgiving! Our employees deserve the opportunity to also give thanks.”
Most local stores were closed yesterday. Some national companies that call Seattle home, such as Costco and REI, refused to take part in the Black Thanksgiving trend this year. Reward them.
But Black Thanksgiving doesn’t just impact consumers. Many box stores banned employees from requesting vacation on Thanksgiving. They banned employees from spending one of the most family-friendly holidays with their families.
The irony of Black Thanksgiving is that it will slowly erode the most prosperous season for another sector of the retail economy – grocery stores.
Retail analysts predict that yesterday was just the start of the trend of making the holiday shopping season longer. Some predict that eventually all companies will be open on Thanksgiving and start their sales even earlier during the week. We may eventually get to Black Halloween – poetic but just as crass and annoying.
