STOP BLACK FRIDAY

People it is time to take a stand against this huge giant that is consuming our nation. Yes, I am talking about Black Friday. Doesn't anybody remember the good ol' days when everything was closed on Thanksgiving except for some random gas station? Families gathered together to eat a whole bunch of food, visit and watch football. It was tradition, the American way. Stores may have had sales but THEY OPENED AT THEIR REGULAR TIME on Friday. Then a few businesses decided to open their doors at 5:00 am for the "Black Friday Specials" that were top secret. It was a gamble. You would drag yourself out of bed at 3 or 4 am wake up your still tired kids, put them in the car in the pjs to get to one of these early bird stores. At 5 am when the doors were unlocked a mob of people would rush in and start looking for these marked down gems that would make everybody's Christmas so much brighter. Then the retailers started competing to get you to their store at 5 am by advertising the crappy stuff that would be marked down. As this trend started to snowball businesses started opening a little earlier, putting ads out a little earlier, letting people camp on their sidewalks all night to be first in line and first in the door. But it's not just the shopping, as all that happened stores started putting their Christmas merchandise up earlier. I work in retail, at a home improvement warehouse. We now have to have all of Christmas on the shelves and displays up by the first day of October and retailers are either opening Thanksgiving evening, afternoon or working their usual store hours. In the world of retail who cares about Thanksgiving?? People don't buy each other gifts for Thanksgiving so why should they be closed, I mean after all they do close for Christmas Day so their employees can be with their families that one day, what more do you want? I'll tell you what we want-TO EAT TOO MUCH TURKEY, DIG OUT FAMILY PICTURES AND TO WATCH FOOTBALL!! We don't want to get to Grandma's gobble down dinner and then have to leave so we can go home and be in bed by 6 or 7 that evening because we have to be to work at 2am or worse be at work at 5 that evening.
And before you say it, NO WE CAN'T TAKE VACATION OVER THANKSGIVING. It's all hands on deck. If the Black Friday merchandise was spectacular I could maybe understand-MAYBE. If it's dirt cheap, it's because it's stuff they couldn't get rid of. If there is really good merchandise, something that is popular they will have 10-30 of them, if you're lucky. No rain checks, no back orders, it's a one time deal.or as I have learned since going to work in retail, it will be items that the vendor or manufacturer is going to discontinue, either they will be making changes to the product or doing away with it completely at the first of the upcoming year. That means you on down the line, if it needs repaired if you can get parts they will cost an arm or a leg. It can't be exchanged because it's no longer stocked and no that doesn't mean you can trade it straight across for the upgraded version.This, my friends,  is why it is time to put a stop to this yearly "brawl at the mall". Its starting to look like the only thing that Americans worship is the almighty dollar-how to make it-how to save a few. Dollars have made everyone forget what Thanksgiving is all about. Being with the people that you love and being thankful for the blessings you've had the past year. Sharing your good fortune 
no matter how big or small with someone else. For crying out loud, doesn't anybody remember what the first
Thanksgiving feast with the pilgrims and Indians was all about? Well it wasn't buying 10 iPads because they are 40% off.