Musings: Thanksgiving

I've always touted Thanksgiving as the ideal American holiday - not the property of any particular religious denomination or ethnic group, and not commercialized as so many other holidays are - so therefore, a quiet holiday welll suited to the American (and Canadian) condition, one that gives people a chance to relax, reconnect with friends and family, and free themselves from the daily grind.

The holiday is still safe from commercialization in the gift-giving sense, yet in recent years we've seen considerable erosion of its pristine status.  Thanksgiving used to be the one day besides Christmas when stores would actually be closed.  No longer, and now the sales begin even before turkey day.  

Merchants will tell us it's because that's what people want -- to go shopping on every  holiday.  I doubt the truth of that.  Would people want to shop so badly if they weren't being offered all the unbelievable discounts and special offers?  Of course not.  

No, it's not "people," but retailers, who drive the shopping cart.  The Friday after Thanksgiving is referred to as "Black Friday," not because it augurs another devastating stock market crash, but because people whose business is to sell us stuff say that it's only in this final season of the year that they get out of the red ink (losing money) on their ledgers, and into the "black," determining their profit status for the entire year.

All I can say in reaction to that old chestnut is that if it's really true (and I don't doubt it is), they have one hell of a shoddy business model.   Maybe something needs to be redefined here?

 

Comments

[PiedType]

I've raged for years against the usurpation of my favorite holiday by the crass commercialization of Christmas. Of course it's gotten me nowhere. But I still don't understand why a bargain the day before or after Thanksgiving isn't just as good as one on Thanksgiving. There are still as many days in the year as always, still a month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and folks have always managed to get their shopping done, retailers have always managed to sell their wares. I was delighted to hear this year that, in Denver at least, Black Friday was disappointingly slow. I'd love to think it signals the beginning of the end of the madness ... but I'm not that naive.