Skip to main content

Holiday Shopping

I have grown wearily accustomed to Christmas ads coming into stores in late October. I know the 'Christmas shopping season' begins on the day after Thanksgiving. I don't like any of that. Now K-Mart proposes to stay open all of Thanksgiving day for 'the convenience of shoppers'.

I'm done. I can't stand it.

The Christmas season actually begins in the church calendar on Christmas day, and continues for 12 days (shocking- two turtle doves, etc) until January 6. This is the actual celebration of Christmas. Carols are supposed to be sung then, not before. Prior to Christmas is Advent, not Christmas. Our whole orientation to Christmas is backwards. After December 25 everyone promptly forgets about Christmas at the very time we are supposed to celebrate it.

Our timing, of course, is purely secular. Since we give gifts at Christmas it is not Christmas but its associated shopping season that defines the holiday from a secular view. I don't actually mind this change of timing all that much. I like the anticipation of Christmas. I like carols playing. I like snowmen and stockings and the creche and all of it. I hate the commercialization, but I tolerate it to be able to walk around feeling happy and eager about life for a few weeks.

For stores, there is a stark and troubling reality. 50-65% of annual profits for most restaurants and for many stores is made in the 6 weeks from November 15 until January 1. From a business point of view the whole religious or social aspect of the holiday is irrelevant. This is when they earn their salaries, make their bonuses, determine stock values. If any salaried worker made 60% of their year's earnings in the same period they would be out working 18 hours daily. That would work weekends. They would skip meals. They would work Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and weekends. And that is exactly what restaurateurs and store owners and managers do from November 15 through January 1.

But by common consent we have held out Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving was my father's favorite holiday. It is uniquely American, and he felt very personally a sense of gratitude for being alive and being in the US. We have come to know that millions will be out the next day gorging on commercial items. But it is awful that anyone work on Thanksgiving, or ask anyone else to do so, especially in the name of sales.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize the driver is a desire to beat all the other stores for early shoppers. First we had 'open at 8', then 'open at 6'. Now we have 'open at 4 am'. Now fig leafs and sops to propriety, tradition and family life have been taken away. The hell with it- let's open the doors on Thanksgiving.

I can imagine the planning. Well, all people do is eat a big meal and watch football. Let's give them the opportunity to shop. Wow. The American trifecta- getting fat, watching TV and buying things! What could be better?

Being with family. Eating moderately. Walking. Playing football. Seeing a movie. Doing something together. Being together does not require consumption of food or the purchase of consumer goods.

K-MArt is not offering us an option. It is dishonoring a holiday for reflection and thankfulness. And K-Mart is not really trying to increase shopping chances. They are near the end, and are trying frantically to get butts into their stores.

McDonald's is everywhere. I don't eat there. Drugs are sold everywhere, but I don't take them. And now a store is open on Thanksgiving.

But I won't shop there. And I won't shop there EVER if they keep their policy.

Ted

Comments

  1. niftymommyDecember 15, 2013 at 7:06 AM

    I work for Hardees. All stores were open regular hours that day. We will be open all day on Christmas too. The almighty dollar is more important than being with families. The market managers call the hours, and this person has extended them the most they've ever been this year. It is a sad commentary when a fast food restaurant is open on such a major holiday, an even sadder one is that people will come.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is Forgiveness

 In doing years of medical teaching, I have told students that teaching and learning are not directly related. I can teach and teach, but you may never learn. Conversely, you may learn continuously without me teaching you a thing. 'I teach' and 'you learn' are two separate, active processes that may overlap or coincide. The same is true of forgiveness. I am an unforgiving man. I am the very opposite of God, who is slow to anger and of great kindness. I am quick to anger and very slow to forgive. I'm kind and insightful with people generally, but when mistreated or insulted I am not kind at all, nor do I forget, or forgive.  The Bible tells us to do something else. We are told to forgive. In Matthew 18:21, Peter asks Jesus how often he should forgive his brother's sin. The Jewish standard was three times. Like the young man in the story of the Samaritan, who asks who his brother is in order to know to whom he should be loving, Peter appears to be asking for guida...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Broken Tooth

 I broke a tooth today. I've done that before; I inherited my mother's horrible teeth, and if not for crowns I would have the smile of any drug-addicted homeless man in the street. But the tooth broke, rather than the crown coming off. I've had that happen a couple of times, and it's nothing. After all, the tooth is just fake, held on by cements similar to the ones I use for my models. This time, however, I have to have the root extracted so I can get the modern version of a bridge. And this new dental experience has reduced to me to jelly, this not helped by the condescending, sexist comments of the dental assistant. I have a long, longe memory, my first recollections coming from age 2. I have well-developed, detailed memories from age 3 onward. I vividly recall being at the dentiswt as a child, when it was fashionable to fill baby teeth. I can recall being left there by my mother as a 14 year old, on the day I was paid for working as 'the 5th ace' at Camp Maga...
1 comment
Read more

Politically Correct Dishonor

The Biblical prophets warned aloud that devastation would come to those who were unclean. Those that profaned God and the house of God, those who were drunken, fornicators, idolators, those that cheated, that gave unclean offerings. Israel was warned of the consequences of their behavior. And God did not punish Israel. Rather, by walking away from God, Israel simply suffered the consequences of its behavior and choices. I chose, I chose , to live, to receive a transplant. I struggled to have the surgery that prolonged my life, I accepted the gift of a kidney from a whole person that I might live. I was convinced by family and friends that I had some role in the world, something I might contribute. And I believed that. My idea of contribution was to teach, to give to others what I had learned to do. But I have lived to see injustice. To see self-interest and greed triumph over not merely right but reason as well. I see incompetence passed off as expertise, the mundane as the s...
2 comments
Read more