Black Friday a Black Mark on Thanksgiving?

By Shira Palmer
Reporter

Just a few weeks ago, most Americans celebrated Thanksgiving.  It is a time when people travel far and wide to spend time and eat delicious food with their family. It is also a time during which people should be about reflecting on what they have and not what they want.  Freshman Kelly Orr agrees with this idea of Thanksgiving.

“Thanksgiving is when everyone gets together to enjoy food and each other’s company.”

Despite this common notion of the holiday, Black Friday seems to put a damper on the possibility of a joyous Thanksgiving.  Stores, including Macy’s and Target, opened at 6 PM or earlier on Thanksgiving Day, leading many people to cut meals short to save on holiday gifts.

Orr also commented, “I think that [Black Friday] sort of takes away from Thanksgiving because you have family members leaving Thanksgiving early to go wait outside a store for five hours.”

In addition to stores’ opening midday Thursday, Black Friday deals were available all weekend. Enormous chain stores like Best Buy and Staples had sales that didn’t stop on Friday. No one had to rush out to buy gifts because “amazing” deals were available all weekend. If weekend deals weren’t enough, people had the option to participate in Cyber Monday on which people could order everything that they need for the holiday season, plus free shipping.

To fill this consumer demand, though, many people had to work on the holiday instead of being with their families. Thousands of jobs had to be filled to support the demand on Thanksgiving. Are these workers less deserving of time with their families than others are? Freshman Sydney Pasemann had strong ideas about this topic.

Pasemann stated, “I think having stores open on Thanksgiving is ruining the holiday.”

Thus, Thanksgiving should be an enjoyable holiday where people can take a breather from their everyday lives. Black Friday has, without a doubt, ruined Thanksgiving and will continue to ruin it in the upcoming years until we all agree to curtail our consumerism in favor of family.

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