Oh the outrage that some major retailers will be open on Thanksgiving Day! Many single and foreign born employees like the extra hours, and the people I know who work retail "bid" for their hours. Also, why are we concerned only about retail when restaurants, churches, hospitals are open and people are working, as are police, fire and utility workers, transportation (air, rail, ship) gas stations, movies and quick stop places? I don't plan to shop on Thursday, and certainly not on Friday. But it's a choice.
Retail stores are in a tight spot--for some retailers the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is 20-40% of sales, and the dollar spent at Walmart isn't spent at Sears or Kohls, so most try to compete. Our gifts are so modest, it will make no difference if they are open around the clock. Retail stores are also competing with internet shopping, open 24/7. Stores with fewer sales have to charge more for each item--it's called profit margin, and for department stores it's about 3%, and less for specialty stores.
If you want to shop that store or see those movies the rest of the year, please allow them to do what they need to do to make a profit at Christmas and don't call them greedy. Retailers are not government agencies paid for with tax dollars or non-profits with tax breaks. Profit is why they are there.
Many early settlers and conservative Christian groups did not celebrate Christmas at all because of its pagan origins and the drunken revelry that accompanied the holiday. My mother was born in 1912, and her family didn't exchange presents or celebrate. You have the choice—don’t’ shop on Thanksgiving if you want to spend the day with family and do limit your purchases so you can have a non-materialistic and spiritual holiday.
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