On 'Black Thursday,' retailers need to give it a rest

Sadly Christmas displays are being set out earlier and earlier each year, especially in retail outlets. I’m sorry to see holiday lighting appear on so many homes this early, as well.

It upsets me to see any mention of Christmas before Thanksgiving. In fact, I used to try to avoid any store that put decorations up earlier than the Monday following Thanksgiving, but that’s almost impossible these days. I wouldn’t even be able to go to the grocery or drug store.

Already my emails consist mostly of holiday shopping opportunities and remind me of Black Friday events. I think of Black Friday as Bleak Friday, where conspicuous consumption raises its ugly head even higher.

So I commend those stores that are reining in on being open on Thanksgiving Day.

After working on this piece a few days ago, I discovered an opinion piece carried by The Tribune that was written by Foon Rhee for the Sacramento Bee. Rhee wrote that some of the major chains such as Costco, GameStop and Marshalls have announced they will not be open this Thursday to permit their employees to spend the holiday with family. Good for them.

We are being pushed more and more to get out there and buy, buy and buy some more. There is no reason for it. There are plenty of days before Christmas to make all the purchases we need. Except for a few (and limited) bargains — aimed at pulling us away from the family gathering — we’ll go to the store and then, “Well, we’re here anyway, we might as well look around,” the price of goods isn’t that different.

What must other countries think of us when, on a day set aside to give thanks for what we have here in America, we’re stampeding into big-box stores to arm wrestle for stuff made in China.

It may just be the circles I run in, but many of my friends share the same feeling about Black Friday, or even Cyber Monday, where we’re supposed to buy even more stuff online.

Rhee’s piece also included the fact that there is a “Boycott Black Thursday” page on Facebook that, as of the day she penned her op-ed piece, had received 85,000 “likes.”

I have nothing against big business making money. But I do resent the over-commercialization attempts to get me and others to leave the comfort of home and family and go shopping.

I wish the retailers would just give it a rest. Hey, maybe that’s what that line means in the Christmas carol that creeps in with the holidays, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2014 at 6:51 PM with the headline "On 'Black Thursday,' retailers need to give it a rest."