On Thanksgiving it's common to give thanks for whatever you want to be thankful for. Wether it be; having a healthy family, food on the table or the ability to chit chat with relatives who are rarely seen.
Sadly instead of gathering around a table, sharing stories and telling jokes, statistically more people are heading to stores and waiting in lines for electronics and other consumer merchandise for some ok deals. Lets be honest, stores are still trying to make money and by the time you leave the store they will have most likely have made money off of you.
Sadly Thanksgiving shopping has become a new norm and seems like it wont go away. Tim Parry for the Multi Channel Merchant said “Thanksgiving Day shopping has evolved into something that’s more than just a fad, it’s become a tradition for some shoppers”. As hard as it is to accept this is becoming a new American tradition. This most definitely is a "fad" as over 50 million people went to stores on Thanksgiving according to the same article. (Here is the article link: Article)
Honestly this is terrible. Without getting into the roots of the first Thanksgivings', modern turkey days are supposed to be about sitting around the table with family and enjoying ones company. It should not have to do anything with saving money or shopping or spending the whole deal "deal searching" when someone could be with their family. Many reports have shown shopping on Thanksgiving rising in the past 10 years and it shows no signs of halting. It really saddens me that people would rather spend money on something that they most likely could live without than rather with the people that they love.
With this new American "tradition", are people really more interested in saving money than spending time with family?
Thanks!
4 comments:
I completely agree with you that this near-obsessive practice of saving money on material items on Thanksgiving is terrible, and honestly very depressing. While I sat down at the dinner table this past Thursday, I tried to start some sort of conversation with a our family friend who is now in second grade. We began talking about how people were probably in shopping lines already, before we had even began to eat. The kid remarked how ironic it was that people were so eager to buy new things on a day that is supposed to be dedicated to thankfulness for what you already have. It's pretty sad that many Americans cannot see this same logic.
However, it always depresses me for another reason when I hear of people nearly killing each other for the a saved $5. While for some the savings just gives them means to a new pS5 or some other luxury item, others might truly need the savings to get by. It makes me feel more sympathetic for those who sacrifice their Thanksgiving to shop, knowing that they are only doing it to support themselves or their family.
Great Blog Will. Ben, i think the point you bring up in your last paragraph is very interesing. I often think its sickening how people line for hours just to purchase items they may or may not need. But I had never thought that people are only doing this too provide kids with great Holiday gifts. I would make the assumption that many of the shoppers want to be with their family, but these so-calleed "great deals" are deals nonetheless, and some of these shoppers need this in order to provide thier family with holiday gifts.
Hey Griffin and Ben, thank you both for providing your insight. I think we can all agree that it really is saddening when people would rather spend time with strangers in a line rather than their own family.
A question i propose to both of us is: Is the US too concerned with getting a "good deal" in general"?
Nice post Will! I also wrote about the connection between Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and actually took a stab at answering your question above. Check it out if you have time :), http://likeanamericancw.blogspot.com/2013/12/happy-cyber-monday.html
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