To the editor:
I was disturbed earlier this week when I heard an Associated Press story about Target employees who were upset because the national chain scheduled employees to work from 4 to 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day and then again from 11 p.m. Thursday through Black Friday.
I then found out that the local Walmart here in Presque Isle would also be opening its store earlier this year at midnight Friday morning to get a jump start on competitors. Target responded to the complaints, and I’m paraphrasing, that it wasn’t a decision they took “lightly,” whatever that means, and that they needed to do it to keep up with the tough competition for holiday shopping. Capitalism is selfish.
We have reached our craziness tipping point. Law enforcement agencies will tell you that stopping the beginnings of a riot in its early stages is imperative to stopping the riot itself. There is a finite time in which if not stopped the riot grows exponentially and therefore significantly harder to control. I believe that our holiday shopping craze has reached that ever important riot apex. Our lust for cheap electronics has blinded us from the importance of Thanksgiving and we care more about the day after then the day itself.
The consumers are allowing this to happen. Stores don’t make these decisions based on guess work and gut feelings they’re merely reacting to the consumer’s wants (noticed I didn’t say needs). When we show up to Target or Walmart at 12 a.m. Friday we are condoning those actions. We are saying “we don’t care that those people didn’t get to spend the time with their families we want our laptops and tablets at bargain prices.” It’s an easy justification when it’s not you or your family member that has to skip out and work.
I’ve also heard arguments like “my wife’s a nurse and has to work the holiday,” but unfortunately we don’t have the luxury to pick what day our health is going to turn for the worse. We can however control what day we splurge on that modest 80-inch LED TV. We need to ask ourselves where do we draw the line? When is early too early?
It comes back to the old cliché that “just because everyone’s doing it doesn’t mean you should.” Target failed to use this to their advantage. Target could have spun it against their competitors claiming something like Walmart isn’t concerned with family and flies the American flag but doesn’t honor the country’s most important holidays. I’m not so convinced that doing so would have converted all, but shame on us.
If we don’t make it clear to companies that our holidays are sacred and to let us use that time to recharge and remember why we continue to show up to the daily “grind” then I fear we will set a precedence, that this will become the norm, and we will begin that ever steepening exponential climb to totally losing sight of what’s important. Then riot is near uncontrollable.
Because of this I did not shop at any store that opened up before normal operating hours Friday morning. I focused my shopping at the small businesses that so desperately need our support in our small communities.
Jeffrey Nault
Mapleton
