Thanksgiving / Black Friday

EastWest Gal said:
I went to BJs at 8AM to buy a wine cooler yesterday. They said there was a line to get in at 6AM. The place was less crowded at 8AM than most weekdays. Bought my wine cooler for $99.

My son is building a computer with his best friend and he forgot to order SATA signal cables and it was too late for cheap shipping. We decided to brave Best Buy Thursday evening and get them. They only had 5 cables left so I'm glad we did. He has limited time as his buddy lives out of town and is going home tomorrow. They have to do it today at the latest.

The crowd was amazing and there was even an auction going on in the store. The line moved very well and people were cheerful. The staff was busy but also cheerful. I think Black Thursday and Friday for shoppers is fine. What's wrong is all the low wage retail workers who have to miss Thanksgiving in order to work retail combat duty.

Thanksgiving Day is the one holiday that is all about home, food, friends and family, all of our favorite things. Nonessential workers should not have to miss it, IMO.
Click to expand...

Kind of hard for Thursday shopping to be fine without making workers miss their holiday, isn't it?

My son had to work Thanksgiving evening. He said that the worst part was the shoppers who apologized for making them work. He put on the polite customer service face, but inside, he said he was just thinking, dude, you're the reason I have to be here, don't apologize, just DON'T COME! I mean, seriously, it's not an apology when you consciously do what you are apologizing for.
 
On Friday, we flew home from visiting my family for the past week. Surprisingly, the airport we flew out of was the least crowded I have ever seen. And there was no rush hour traffic going to/from either airport. I guess most people were out shopping which worked in our favor.
 
Heck, I don't like mall shopping at any time of year, but certainly not on Black Friday.
 
We went to Costco here in Mexico on Monday that turns out to be the Black holiday for Revolution Day. Lots of flat panel tvs going out for 25% off so the checkout lines were long but moved quickly (counting out the cash was the slowest part).
 
EastWest Gal said:
Thanksgiving Day is the one holiday that is all about home, food, friends and family, all of our favorite things. Nonessential workers should not have to miss it, IMO.
Click to expand...
This is where younger workers can really shine as they help to fill in for their older co-workers. When I was in my teens and 20's, I absolutely LOVED working on holidays and would volunteer to do so before I was even asked.

First, I got extra pay for the overtime which was always helpful because it provided me with Christmas money.

Second, my family was pretty flexible about it and would celebrate (again?) with me after my shift was over, so I really didn't miss much.

Last, and perhaps more important, I felt like I was doing something genuinely helpful and in the Christmas spirit by working so that other employees could have the holiday off with their families. They would bring me photos of their happy toddlers on the holiday, tins of Christmas cookies halfway through my shift, and so on, to thank me. And, they didn't EVER forget and were on my side forever after and would do anything for me. Their happiness really made my working Christmases some of the best I ever had.
 
Last edited:
RunningBum said:
Kind of hard for Thursday shopping to be fine without making workers miss their holiday, isn't it?

My son had to work Thanksgiving evening. He said that the worst part was the shoppers who apologized for making them work. He put on the polite customer service face, but inside, he said he was just thinking, dude, you're the reason I have to be here, don't apologize, just DON'T COME! I mean, seriously, it's not an apology when you consciously do what you are apologizing for.
Click to expand...


No need for the holier than though attitude. The business bosses decided to open, not the shoppers. The shoppers had nothing to do with it. I was very conflicted going out but I was glad for people's good behavior.

We only went out because the store was open and we did not want to stop the computer build and delay until my son's buddy was in town again 3 weeks from now. If the store didn't open until Friday I would not have been concerned about them running out of the needed cables Thursday night. I did not want to go out that night. In fact I only shopped Black Friday once in my life and bought nothing. I just wanted to see what the big deal was. I wasn't impressed.

I knew that section of the store was poorly stocked when I looked for something else there and wanted to make sure we had the parts. So the store being open was the problem for us and our options were limited. There are no good computer stores near here.

I have spent a lifetime working holidays. I worked at least 20 of the last 31 Thanksgivings and just as many Christmases. Several of them I was in the hospital on a 24 hour shift. I eventually became numb to the heartbreak. One Thanksgiving I was flew alone to California to help my dad find a nursing/home hospice situation for my dying mom. We were able to visit a cousin that year which helped my dad cope as two of his sisters were there. The last two years of my dad's life I brought an entire Thanksgiving meal to his assisted living, after work (made the day before. DH doesn't cook) We had a family dinner in a family room the place had. It was heartbreaking that so many other residents did not have family get togethers. And my DS is working the entire weekend this weekend.

Yesterday I was cleaning out the basement. I found a box of my son's elementary school work. I found 3 Mother's Day cards where my son had scrawled "Happy Mother's Day. I wish you didn't have to work. I love you." Those were 24 hour shifts. Three years in a row. My son was ages 7-9 those years. I just about lost it looking at those old cards.

Working holidays is hard. Retail management doesn't understand what they do to their workers. Those that make such decisions aren't working Thanksgiving. Make the best of it. And retire early.
 
We stayed home Friday (of course), but when I was out driving this morning I saw an interesting sign at a large local Ford dealer:
Black Friday Sale:
First 10 new/used vehicle buyers get second car for $1
Click to expand...

If you were on the verge of buying a car, that would be quite an offer!
 
REWahoo said:
The devil is in the details. I'll bet that "second car for $1" is an auction yard special...
Click to expand...

Probably not even that generous. More like this:
 

Attachments

  • junk_car.jpg
    junk_car.jpg
    38.9 KB · Views: 78
I went to Walmart this afternoon (Saturday) to pick up a few things for DW. I was in the TV isle and the clerk was reducing the prices of the flat screen TV's. The 32" was brought down to $133 from $150. I asked the clerk why the reductions on all the TVs. He said the Black Friday customers didn't buy them all so they are reducing the prices on all models to get rid of the inventory.

So much for Black Friday pricing!:LOL:
 
Stayed home Black Friday.

I did have a $10 Kohl's coupon which I was able to add to my account. I bought a Fisher Price toy online which ended up costing $2.24 I asked for free pickup at the local Kohl's. Unfortunately, they ran out of the toy, so the order was canceled. They gave me back the $10 I had used and then gave me another $5. I'll probably drop by the store in person the middle of next week and pick out a toy for the local charity.

I used $25 off $100 using VisaCheckout at Staples.com. Got two Amazon tablets and an Amazon Echo Dot at sale prices similar to Amazon's on top of the $25 savings. Sweet deal.

Used a 30% Jet.com coupon code and bought some cat litter to be shipped free to a shelter in upstate NY. Excellent deal.
 
How sweet of you, broadway, to think of the shelter kitties with such a smart purchase.

I have not seen the inside of a mall in well over a decade. I did, after buying my own gang of elderly cats some supplies at Petco, stop briefly at a Tuesday Morning in the same strip mall. Got gifts for two people on my list plus an assortment of stocking stuffer items. This was in the early afternoon. Only about a dozen people were in the store. The store had good deals in their circular, and not all were sold out yet, either. Not sure what that says for retail sales this holiday season. Perhaps a slow start. Will be interesting to see if it picks up as we get closer to Christmas.
 
Last edited:
I don't understand how it is "holier than thou" to point out the inconsistency of saying it's fine to shop on Thanksgiving but wrong for people to have to work in those shops. You can try to justify it or blame the decision to open stores on management, but the simple fact is that if people don't go shopping then, management won't have a financial reason to open the stores and make people work.
 
Groupon has a pretty decent sale today. I bought a $50 restaurant Groupon for $20 and a $30 dinner for $10.
 
Spent Black Friday in the mountains #Optout. Snowshoe hike through fresh deep powder snow - about 6 miles and 2800 elevation gain (a 7 hour turkey burner). Beautiful views and no stress.
 
RunningBum said:
I don't understand how it is "holier than thou" to point out the inconsistency of saying it's fine to shop on Thanksgiving but wrong for people to have to work in those shops. You can try to justify it or blame the decision to open stores on management, but the simple fact is that if people don't go shopping then, management won't have a financial reason to open the stores and make people work.
Click to expand...

I do not feel sorry for anyone working on a holiday. In the USA we all have the right to not work on those holidays. We could become FI so we don't need a job. We could work a job that doesn't open on those days. We could start our own company and not open it on holidays. I spent one Thanksgiving in Okinawa. One in Sadr City. I guess those days could have been off but I didn't like the consequences of UA. I spent many other holidays on duty at the base. Again, I could have had them off also but my next holiday would have been in Levenworth. Being a retail employee is a choice. We all make them daily. I thanked the clerk at the hotel DW and I stayed at while spending the holiday with some family in PA. The clerks there only worked 8 hour shifts and they all scheduled turkey dinner around those shifts.
 
I feel sorry for people working on holidays and there is no reason a business needs to open on Thanksgiving day. I have not shopped on Black Friday for about 20 years. I like to take a nice walk outside during the day instead.
 
Just a word on the other side of the coin.
When I was single, I used to love working holidays. I was often the only one in the place, and I could get a week's worth of work done in a day, due to the complete absence of distractions.
 
And now there are Black Friday sales in France. I just saw it in a video news podcast. Any excuse to get money out of people's wallets.:rolleyes:

Although I did go to Costco, it was Friday- they're closed on Thanksgiving and they were open normal hours on Friday. It's one of the things I respect about them.
 
W2R said:
[...]When I was in my teens and 20's, I absolutely LOVED working on holidays and would volunteer to do so before I was even asked. [...]
Click to expand...
braumeister said:
Just a word on the other side of the coin.
When I was single, I used to love working holidays. I was often the only one in the place, and I could get a week's worth of work done in a day, due to the complete absence of distractions.
Click to expand...

Loved it too. I think that for some people who do not happen to like working on holidays, it's just unthinkable that anybody could feel any differently. Lots of people (especially young people perhaps?) prefer working on holidays. I forgot to mention that on some holidays when I was young I was far from any family members, and I would get terribly depressed about it if I didn't have something to do. Working on those holidays really cheered me up.
 
Accidentally ended up in WalMart for some standard non-sale purchases - found out the line for the cash registers started at the BACK of the store. Put our stuff down and left. At least there was some entertainment value ...
 
W2R said:
Loved it too. I think that for some people who do not happen to like working on holidays, it's just unthinkable that anybody could feel any differently. Lots of people (especially young people perhaps?) prefer working on holidays. I forgot to mention that on some holidays when I was young I was far from any family members, and I would get terribly depressed about it if I didn't have something to do. Working on those holidays really cheered me up.
Click to expand...

When I was a young Airman, I didn't mind working the holidays. I was young and single, so it wasn't a big issue for me. Plus, the big bosses were usually not there and the comp time I got more than made up for 'missing' the holiday. Of course, as am now quite a bit older, I missed a lot of holidays that I can never again celebrate with family members who are no longer with us. So, not sure if it was worth the extra comp time or not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Parking Tickets
2
Replies
30
Views
1K
easysurfer
easysurfer
E
Total Solar Eclipse April 8, 2024
10 11 12
Replies
278
Views
8K
jrgators
J
aja8888
Show off your dog..or other pet..and how well he/she is treated (and fed)!
2 3
Replies
57
Views
2K
Gotadimple
Gotadimple
S
Returning to full-time (government) work, mainly to get insurance
2
Replies
43
Views
2K
tryan
tryan
M
Do you have family reunions?
2
Replies
44
Views
3K
Rianne
Rianne

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom