How I Really Feel About Stores Opening on Thanksgiving

It's insane that stores will open early for Black Friday on Thanksgiving night; it's slightly insane that grocery stores are open, and I'm alright with gas stations being open.

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In some ways Black Friday is like growing up with Saturday morning cartoons. We had something to plan for on the weekends and were on our best behavior or mom might take the privilege away. Trust me nothing was better than Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of cereal plopped in front of the tv in the living room. If we weren't good we would have to wait a whole week to see them again.

Black Friday used to be exciting, frantic and a bit insane. We would get up far too early and stumble through the crowds for a Cabbage Patch Kid or some fancy race track. Now we can buy just about anything on the internet for great prices, some even beat out the price you will pay on black Friday. Somebody has seriously gone and messed up our holiday.

Thanksgiving is for family and that just may be the reason for it all. I'm talking about the falling family traditions and the faces in the computer and smartphones. Maybe family just isn't important anymore; we have broken families, fractured families and little sense for family. On Thanksgiving day you are suppose to be surrounded by your loved ones, snacking all day, watching football, playing Rummikub and impatiently awaiting the turkey to finish cooking as its delicious smells fill the house all day. Could you imagine grandma leaving the table at 4:30 sputtering something about having to hurry to the store to get the good deals, crazy!

Now about the stores opening Thanksgiving evening, and you know who you are! I'm not sure that I will be shopping with any of you at all this season, and some of you I am very fond of.

Here are some of the bigger stores that thankfully are not opening Thanksgiving Day:

Costco
Sam's Club
TJ Max
Marshall's
Home Depot
Barnes and Noble
Radio Shack

When it comes to the grocery stores, well I have mixed emotions and some may make you mad. I think that if they open, which they are, there is no need for all of the stores in each town to be open. If you don't like working in the service industry, then take some classes at Front Range or Aims and get a better job. When you sign up for this job, regardless if it's the only one available, you should have known that you'd be working weekends and holidays. With that said I think that there should be a creative selection process, I'd say sign up sheet, but who is willingly going to volunteer to work Thanksgiving day?

I have forgotten ingredients in the past and told a child on their way to the house to stop by a grocery store, not often but I have done it in the past. I believe that all convenience stores have mostly everything that we would need, and they could even stock up on a couple of extra things-holiday related items. Then the grocery stores wouldn't need to open at all. A convenient store can function with a lot less people, plus they sell gas. With Thanksgiving being at least a day away from payday for a lot of people, they may need a gallon of gas to get them by till payday; all problems solved!

Shop retail on Thanksgiving if you must, but remember all the items you didn't get last year and deemed it not worth your time; just sayin!

Happy Thanksgiving!