Thanksgiving is traditionally a day devoted to family, food and sated sharing; to togetherness and perhaps a walk, with maybe a little football in the background. It typically is not about shopping. It should stay that way.
Alas, some big retailers want a jump on Black Friday. They are on the way to making Thanksgiving Day just another commercial shopping day. That’s not quite like hawking bargains with early shopping on Christmas day itself, but it’s mighty close to it.
If Americans don’t fight back by staying home and shunning shopping today, we’ll lose the sanctity of another treasured holiday celebration — and so will many employees who thus will be forced to forfeit their Thanksgiving holiday to serve shoppers. This day shouldn’t be surrendered to become the preliminary round for Black Friday.
This isn’t intended as a put-down of shopping. Heaven knows shopping in this six-week run-up to Christmas has become an economic mainstay for the country, a consumer spending binge that helps drive the economy and that, for many retailers, determines whether they make a profit for the year. Hence the name Black Friday.
Still, that doesn’t mean retailers have to move in on Thanksgiving Day itself. Consumers will have plenty of time to spend all the money they have to spend. There’s no need to spoil families’ Thanksgiving Day traditions by enticing them with a jumpstart on Black Friday.