Day 18 NaBloPoMo at yeah write guest blogger: Mackenzie Stephens
Dear Target,
You know I love you. I’ve proven it by the amount of hours I spend a month with you and the amount of money I spend on things I don’t need while browsing your familiar, brightly lit aisles. You’re great. You know it. If you didn’t exist, I’d have to shop at Wal-Mart. Thank you for existing so that I don’t have to shop at Wal-Mart.
That being said, why do you have to start your Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day? Worse yet, why do you have to start them at 8 p.m.? That’s encroaching on dinner time. That’s Thanksgiving dinner time, when people should be sitting down with their loved ones, digging in to turkey and mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. At Thanksgiving dinner people should be laughing and sharing stories and basking in the joy of spending a holiday with people who are precious to them. I get it, we live in a consumer-driven, materialistic society. We love our sales and our big box retailers and if we can get something at 60% off, we’re deliriously happy. That’s the way we are, but you don’t need to encourage it, do you?
I work in a hotel and I understand that working holidays is a reality. It’s a sad one, if you ask me. Maybe I’m displaying a pathetic amount of naiveté here, but everyone should be able to spend holidays with their families. This is the second Thanksgiving I won’t be able to spend with mine, and maybe it’s because this is such a new thing to me, but it hurts. I’d give anything to go home and spend Thanksgiving at my grandpa’s ranch like I’m used to doing. There’s coffee and pumpkin pie, and so much love and happiness it nearly makes my heart burst just thinking about it. Does that resonate with you at all?
We have a finite number of Thanksgivings to spend with our parents, grandparents, brothers, cousins. . . Let us have them. Your sales can wait a day. Your earnings will still be astronomic. Your people will be happier.
Let us have one day to remember to be thankful for what and who we have in our lives. It gets harder every year. Won’t you make it a little easier?
Sincerely,
A consumer.
(and girl with a family)
*****
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I read somewhere that Costco closes for Thanksgiving. All of Thanksgiving. Made me want to shop at Costco. TarJay might try that approach. …
I agree. Too much consumerism is not good for the soul. Yes, people can survive without a sale on Thanksgiving Day.
Great post, Mackenzie! Very heart-felt! 🙂
I’m going to play Devil’s advocate. While I do agree with your post somewhat (it’s 60/40), I really felt compelled to post this. Not everyone has family or friends to share Thanksgiving with and some people have family and chose not to or just can’t for whatever reason. I’m sure Target has done large amounts of research into whether or not it would be financially beneficial for them to open on Thanksgiving. Those working that day are getting holiday pay which is an incentive for a lot of people to work that day. I’m sure the people that need that extra scratch are grateful the store is open on Thanksgiving. As are the people who have no one or can’t afford to fly overseas to be with family and just want to kill time walking around Target. Plus, you said the sale is starting at 8pm, I’ve never met a single person who eats Thanksgiving dinner that late. I saw a poll somewhere where they said that average time people eat Thanksgiving dinner was 2pm. Again, I’m sure Target did their research. I’m sure there are people like me who probably won’t go out because I hate crowds even though secretly I would love to go out if only to use it as an excuse to get away from all that family “togetherness” for a few hours.
I 100% get where you’re coming from and considered all of it as I was writing my post. I guess it was written out of my disappointment at not being able to spend time with my family on Thanksgiving, and because of that, my lack of understanding as to why someone else would willingly forgo spending time with theirs. I’m not saying either is right or wrong; that’s just where I’m coming from this year.
As for sales starting at 8 pm, yes, most people don’t eat dinner that late. Note that I wrote “encroaching” on dinner time. In my family, festivities go well into the evening. Again, I considered all the angles, and chose to write from my own as that’s the one I know best, and what I wanted to feature in this piece.
And for the people that will be working on that holiday, yes, the extra pay is wonderful. But I’ve worked retail, and I know that sometimes taking a holiday off is not an option. Requests are not always honored. I admire the people who work those holidays willingly.
Thank you for your feedback on my post! Overall it’s about more than the sales – I’m new to being away from my family and would trade all the Black Friday sales in the world to get to spend the holiday with them. I’m sorry for taking it out on Target.
Here’s a really really radical thought. Just ignore the siren call of the sales at Target. Just say, ‘Nope, I’m not going.’ It’s not compulsory.
If nobody turns up they’ll change the way they trade in future.
I wrote a post about this too. Great letter. It would be so cool if they read it and listened. sighs..
Hear, hear!
*clapping*