Giving thanks for Black Friday
When thinking of Thanksgiving, most would think of family, food and being thankful. In recent years, the mindset has changed and the main focus is no longer giving thanks, but about shopping and who has the best sales. Black Friday is taking over the family holiday of Thanksgiving.
By the next generation, Thanksgiving dinner could be a distant memory as Black Friday gets bigger and Thanksgiving gets smaller and smaller because stores are opening earlier each year. Family dinners get shorter for a variety of reasons such as people leave to go shopping or family members are working.
Shopping is not what Thanksgiving is about, it is the national holiday where everyone gets together to reflect and give thanks for everything they are blessed with. A typical Thanksgiving would be a family together eating a large meal, playing games, telling stories and watching the football game.
“We get up in the morning and leave our house by 9:00a.m. We go to my brother in law’s house where we spend the whole day with the family,” marketing teacher Debbie Drommerhausen said.
More and more people are giving up on tradition and not giving thanks for what they have but are only thinking about what they can buy in the following hours of Black Friday. Stores like Walmart and Target opening their doors at 6:00p.m. on Thursday night are taking time away from the families of store workers and shopoholic family members. But what is even worse are the family members that spend days camped, outside a store waiting to get first dibs on all they can get their hands on.
“My family will normally come over around noon and then we eat really early and have pie after so we still spend 7-8 hours with family, but then we leave to go shop at 8:00p.m. Thanksgiving evening. We will shop untill about 5-6:00a.m. after that we would go home and sleep for a few hours then shop again for the rest of the day,” sophomore Ciana Fragnito said.
Not only is Black Friday taking time away from families, but they are also missing out on the important things in life. Thanksgiving is all about being happy with what you have, but that concept is being ripped away with all the hype from stores that mark their prices way down and all these deals that are “too good to miss”.
“Its ridiculous, that people stay up all night just to go shopping. I would rather be eating a great meal with my family. Even though the deals are great, it creates a false reason to get out of the house. And truly with all the shopping deaths and injuries, it would just be best that stores have a weekend sale to lower the chance that someone is trampled,” junior Andrew Frenchik said.
It is understood that stores want sales during this holiday season. It is also great bargaining and can be a great tradition to shop at this time, but it is inching its way into a family holiday. Stores should open their doors at 6:00a.m. on Friday rather than 6:00p.m. on Thursday, as the name states it is Black Friday not Black Thursday. If it comes down to needing more sales they could keep the sales open all weekend rather than cutting in on Thursdays family time.
People need to remember what Thanksgiving is all about, it is about being thankful for what ones has, not about what one can buy. In a perfect world stores would adjust their hours and remain closed on Thursday and not open until 6:00a.m. Friday morning to allow families to have their family time.