Retail Gone Too Far

I haven't worked in retail since 2003 and I can assure you that if I still did today, I probably would've killed myself by now. Working in a department store during the holiday season was horrendous enough back then; I can only begin to imagine how unspeakably traumatizing it must be now. 

Over the years, retail stores have pushed the holiday shopping season to occur sooner and sooner, and for their stores to be open earlier and earlier. The last time I worked on a Black Friday, the earliest a store opened was at 6am. Now, starting this year, there are stores like Target, Best Buy, Macy's, and Kohls that are opening at midnight right as Thanksgiving ends. Even more disheartening is the fact that Wal-Mart and Toys R Us are both opening back up on Thanksgiving Day, at 10pm and 9pm respectively.

How utterly insane is that? The sad thing is, they wouldn't be opening earlier and earlier each year if people didn't actually show up to shop at those unspeakable hours. That's only part of the drive behind the continuous operating hours expansion; the other reason is obviously because the lackluster economy has supposedly hurt the retail industry's bottom line and the stores need to make up the difference.

Most of all though, I feel sorry for those employees that have to cut their family time and Thanksgiving holiday short so that they can arrive to work at some ungodly hour. This baffling shopping event is creeping more and more into the actually holiday until it will eventually be that all retail stores will just stay open all day on Thanksgiving and never close.

If I currently worked at some retail store and I was scheduled to come in on Thanksgiving Day, I would immediately quit and tell the higher-ups to go fuck themselves. I, nor any other hard-working American, should have to sacrifice their guaranteed holiday time off. Thanksgiving is quickly becoming a causality of the shopping season epidemic, and while the retail encroachment is inevitable and not all that surprising, it doesn't make it any less abhorrent.

As always, I will avoid any and all retail stores on Black Friday weekend and refuse to partake in the over-hyped consumer circus. Partially in protest of their ever-expanding, seasonal business practices and partiality because I have no desire to deal with the aggravation and stress that shopping on that weekend brings. 

Instead, I will do as much shopping as possible from the comfort of my own home through online retailers, most of which offer free shipping and don't charge sales tax.