PatriotsReign

I read so much on Black Friday sales...I see it all over the news.

Some people camp out for a week just to get a chance at....what?

I'd love to read opinions on Black Friday sales and consumerism in America.

My opinion is that I have a difficult time believing people camp out just to shop. I see shopping as a fairly insignificant aspect of my life, but that's just me.

What surprised me was a random interview/poll by a Boston news station asking people if stores should be open on Thanksgiving. Most of the older people said no and the younger ones said yes. It just makes me wonder if younger people see shopping as a more important aspect of life than older people.

I remember when I was much younger, being angry that Massachusetts was going to allow stores to be open on Sundays. I liked the fact that people were guaranteed a day off. I was also against stores being open 24 hours/day...but I was extremely liberal back then and everything was about power to the people and phark corp.-America.

But what I think is strange, is that even young liberals want stores open 24/7/365 as if it's advantage to THEM. Sadly, all it does is give more opportunity to corporations to make $$.

It also opens the door for the standard American work-week to get destroyed. Everything used to be 9-5 and 40 hours/week. Today, if you work for a retailer, you should expect to be over-whelmed by your work schedule.

Note: By "older", I mean people 40 or older. It looked like most of those who wanted stores open on Thanksgiving were in their 20's.

Is shopping that important? Is "stuff" that important?

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"No one walking this earth knows what is truly righteous"

Wolfpack

I like owning things therefore I have to buy things in order to do that. I like having a new computer every year or so, a couple 60 inch HDTV's around the house, all the movies I could ever ask for on blu-ray, a nice car, food, clothes, furniture, etc. I like having my iPhone 4S. I like all sorts of other gadgets. If that makes me "consumerist" then so be it.
What surprises me is how many people feel they should have the right to tell a private business entity when they can and when they can't be open. There's obviously a pretty big demand from the buying public for stores to be open on Thanksgiving night and on Black Friday. What right do people have to forbid Best Buy or Wal-Mart or Bed Bath & Beyond or Jim's Farmer Stand from doing that?

PatriotsReign

As long as you realize these are "THINGS" you like and not things you NEED. They are not important, you just like them.

Someone once told me that financial success is not a life goal. It's nice if we achieve financial security, but it doesn't change our status in life one iota. So what personal set of values leads you to want all these things?



Wolfie....I ALWAYS put the needs of citizens before corp's. After all, they are more important.

I'm not "for" restricting store hours, I AM FOR preventing corps from making people work 24/7.

No corporation has the right to make you or I work when ever THEY want us to. No matter what, I never cancel a vacation for a work reason. My life is more important than what my or any other company needs.

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"No one walking this earth knows what is truly righteous"

Wolfpack

We're not talking about "needs" we're talking about "rights." Why shouldn't a corporation have the right to be open whenever they want?
The fact that you're engaging in hyperbole shows your position is very weak. No one is working 24/7. Stores still have laws they have to obey regarding overtime, working on holidays, etc, etc.
No corporation has the right to make me do a darn thing I don't want to do because nobody has ever been forced to work for any corporation or any entity in this country since the mid-1800's.

However, I have no problem with people who are voluntarily working for a certain business being given conditions of employment. And I have no problem with those conditions of employment being "you have to work at such-and-such a time."

Sorry, but if someone goes to work for a retailer, they really are a moron if they don't expect they'll have to working weekends and holidays and that they'll probably have to work extra hours during the holiday season. And I bet an awful lot of them are plenty happy to do so because they want the extra money.

Mrs.PatsFanInVa

What about ER doctors and hospice nurses and walk-in emergency clinics and Xray techs and lab techs? What about police officers and firemen and the guy who keeps the electricity running and woman who makes sure the water keeps on flowing? What about 911 operators and snow plow drivers and train engineers? What about 24 hour emergency plumbers and glass repairers and tow truck drivers? What about newscasters and reporters and football players and cheerleaders? What about the guys who keep the blast furnaces up and running at the steel mills or the telephone operators or the toll booth collectors?

Do you have any idea of how many people work holidays as a matter of course and have done so for a hundred or more years? Some of them do so because it is a necessity of your life that it they do so and some of them do so for your conveniece.....but they do them and they've always done them and they'll continue to do them for whatever reason.

In a hospital or other medical place or a fire department or police department they generally assign holidays well in advance. I could tell you 3 years ahead of time what holidays I was going to be working. Employees are allowed, however, to trade holidays or to give them away if someone else is willing to work it for them. In the mills where my youngest son works and in the City of Chicago where my oldest son works they are asked if they want to work - usually there are more than enough volunteers that they never have to assign the day to anyone who doesn't want it.

You apparently live in world where the overtime or the extra hours or the holiday time and a half doesn't matter. Many people, especially people in retail or manufacturing, don't have that luxury. They count on that extra money - it's part of what keeps them solvent.

My kids are horrified if they don't get asked to work a holiday. I would have been horrified if I didn't get to work holidays. It was a damn good deal in the hospital. Double time plus a day off with pay of your choosing at a later time. You work your family celebration around it. Early dinner, late dinner - Thanksgiving on Saturday or Sunday instead of Thursday. It's just a day that someone else mandated - the family get together can happen on a different day and be just as much fun and just as meaningful - plus now you've got a way to pay for it.

IcyPatriot

If there's a point to this thread I am failing to see it .... what is the point?

DarrylS

The point is my point is better than your point..

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chicowalker

PR, you're "forcing" me to agree with wolfpack 100% -- about stores being open, anyway

I agree with you on the shopping part. I don't understand camping out or waiting on line to buy things. But that's me (and you). I don't like it, so I won't do it.

As for stores being open, though, clearly there is demand from the public. And there have been stores open on Thanksgiving -- I just got some coffee, and many grocery stores are open for at least part of the day.

I must be younger than you, because I remember stores being open when I was younger, but liquor stores were closed, and stores that carried alcohol couldn't sell it. Even as a kid I thought the "blue laws" were stupid.

Granted, some of those laws were rooted in antiquated notions of morality -- why shouldn't a store that's already open be able to sell certain products just because of the day of the week?

But what about the small business owner? If you're trying to make a living from your liquor store, or any other store, you may want to be open 7 days per week -- after all, you have to pay the rent for those Sundays, and it's how you're making a living to support your family.

I have people on call today for my business (whoa -- did the singer of the anthem just forget the words, or was it a technical issue?), and while I'd be happy with them not working, I'd also happy if clients called in, my employees had to do some work and both they and I got paid -- don't think that makes me a bad person, though you apparently may disagree.

Titus Pullo

LOL. Shocking.

Harry Boy

I see fields of green
Red Roses too

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Harry Boy (Genius)

In The Absence Of Law And Order Society Will Surely Destroy Itself