Thanksgiving is a time to get together with your family and have a nice dinner. Then you play games, catch up, and watch movies. Thanksgiving is the time to be grateful for what you have. But wait; now you had to start dinner earlier and cut out catching up with your family. Now it’s time to get ready to go shopping for those deals you just can’t beat. Forget about being thankful for what you have; now it’s time to buy all the things you don’t have. Has Thanksgiving been taking over by Black Friday, or should we now be calling it Black Thursday? Stores should only be able to open after 12 am on Black Friday.
Imagine having to work on thanksgiving. Not only do those people miss out on Black Friday, but also miss out on time with your family. They also get to go to work more than likely sleep deprived, deal with unpleasant customers, and constant lines. Curtis West worked as a Macy’s employee. In his 24 years of work for them he had to work a total of 19 Black Fridays. He said it wasn’t bad when Black Friday started off, because it usually meant going in at 5 am on Friday. Now for sto...
It is seen in everything from the hoarding of material objects to the destruction of friendships, both of which are popular themes when regarding the topic of Black Friday shopping. Black Friday has become Black Thursday, a trend which has only shown up within the last decade. The great American holiday that is Thanksgiving is celebrated because of our gratefulness toward all that we have, a holiday that is meant to be spent gathered around a table of our loved ones. However, the retail holiday that consumes the day afterward has begun to overflow into our gatherings, and it is due to the greed of the American people. Were it not for the market’s demand for earlier sales, stores would not open their sales on Thursday nights. Everyone would simply wait until early the next morning to start off on their shopping extravaganzas, and the sales themselves would likely be far less violent as
Mallaby admits Wal-Mart can treat their employees and other retailers unfairly, but as a result everyone can share in the 50 billion in savings that American shoppers consume annually. The pay that employees get is the price they must pay for low priced merchandise. Because of the minimal pay to employees, Wal-Mart strengthens its’ consumer buying power. Giving the American shoppers the savings they need, Wal-Mart’s has ultimately been them successful. Wal-Mart has potentially wiped out the middle class as an employer, but the employees can now work and ...
Federated, and department stores in general, encompass a huge portion of not only American history but also the American economy. Fred Lazarus, former president of the present day Lazarus-Macy’s, was even responsible for the changing of the Thanksgiving holiday to the fourth Thursday in November. Lazarus suggested this to President Roosevelt in 1939 in order to give consumers more shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas thereby improving economic efficiency. Federated also operates the largest store in America, the Macy’s flagship in Manhattan, and sponsors the annual Thanksgiving Day parade. Without retail stores like Federated, America would not only lose a substantial amount of history, but the backbone of our economy.
Over the years, the American department store has developed and evolved as not only a commercial business but also a cultural institution. While it has weathered many storms and changes since its inception and throughout history, its most predominant enemy has been a change in the lifestyle of the American people (Whitaker, 2013). As the customer’s needs and wants have shifted, department stores have struggled to keep up with demands. It has been argued that the decline of the department store has been ongoing for the last 50 years (Whitaker, 2013). This dissertation aims to understand how the department store has historically played a role in consumer culture and spending, and additionally, how this has evolved and changed in today’s retail market. Although department stores may not be able to take all the credit for inventing modern shopping, they certainly made its conventions and conveniences commonplace. They set a new standard for the way the consumer should expect to be treated, the type of services that should be provided, and the convenience that should attend the process of acquiring the necessities and niceties of life all in one place. They made shopping into a leisure pastime. This environment meant shopping was a means of freedom to look around, pick up objects with no obligations to buy. As one historian remarked, department stores: “encouraged a perception of the building as a public place, where consumption itself was almost incidental to the delights of a sheltered promenade in a densely crowded, middle-class urban space” (Whitaker, 2006). Although this perception and view of the department store has changed over the years, this paper aims to follow the trail of how and why that happened.
..., there were also many aspects that all of these Wal-Mart shoppers shared. Mostly everyone dreaded the loud and obnoxious carts as they were walking into the store. And mostly everyone hated how Wal-Mart only had five of their twenty registers open. This caused the buildup of large lines for which people would wait to buy their items. The people in a hurry did not take this lightly. While the shoppers who weren’t in a hurry took this time to read the magazines and check out the candy options.
Chain stores, such as K-Mart and Wal-Mart swing their doors wide for all deal seekers at around 6 a.m. Individuals will wake up earlier than necessary, drive to these stores, and camp out prior to the stores opening, if only just to ensure they get the best spot in line. Also near this time, various online deals begin. This means before many people wake up on Thanksgiving morning, sales have already started both in store and online. By this standard, the day’s workers have to get to the store hours before it opens to prepare the store for the surplus of people and the chaos that will soon enfold. People should be getting rest or preparing food for their lunches or dinners, but instead they are shopping or working. Retailers place priority on shopping from the moment people wake up until they go to sleep. There is never an emphasis on family throughout the entire day in these chain stores. The madness occurs throughout the entirety of both days, causing lack of family time in both days of the holiday for patrons and
Starting the day right after Thanksgiving, everybody’s mind is set on one thing: Shopping. People young and old wake up early in the morning to start their holiday shopping. Everyone is looking for the perfect gift for their family and friends. But nobody cares to think of what the employees at their favorite stores think and feel. Shoppers just come inside and turn the store upside down.
No fruitful information On the edge of winter comes November, re-introducing early evenings, brisk air and leafless trees but, before the dormancy of winter settles in, the annual compensation of Thanksgiving brings families and friends together to celebrate life with food. Common on most tables, turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie fill our stomachs and warm our hearts. Each Thanksgiving brings about the recognition of a year’s worth of changes and last Thanksgiving is no exception.
When the great holiday of Thanksgiving comes to mind, most people think of becoming total gluttons and gorging themselves with a seemingly unending amount of food. Others might think of the time spent with family and friends. The whole basis of the holiday is family togetherness, fellowship, and thankfulness for blessings received during the previous year.
I stepped out of the chilly November air and into the warmth of my home. The first snowfall of the year had hit early in the morning, and the soft, powdery snow provided entertainment for hours. As I laid my furry mittens and warm hat on the bench to dry, I was immediately greeted with the rich scent of sweet apple pie, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, and the twenty-pound turkey my mother was preparing for our Thanksgiving feast.
Textbooks in today’s schools still tell the same story that has been handed down from generation to generation. Every year children dress up and put on plays about the famous story of the first Thanksgiving. No one knows the truth though or at least people pretend to not know the embarrassing truth of our “founding fathers.” Textbooks today give the candy coated version of good saintly Englishmen come to a better world and find good neighbors willing to help in their time of need.
The purpose of Thanksgiving in Canada is different from the Americans. But even though the reasons for giving thanks are different, many of the customs are the same. Canadian Thanksgiving was originally started to give thanks to God for a bountiful harvest. This was when there were lots of farmers that grew crops. Now we give thanks for everything we appreciate. Some farming families still give thanks for a good crop.
Isidore, Chris. “No Holiday Hiring for Walmart, Just More Hours for Its Workers.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 20 Sept. 2017, money.cnn.com/2017/09/20/news/companies/walmart-holiday-help/.
Holiday shopping, for me, is a nightmare because of the abundance of crowds, all of the fighting and competitiveness. I believe those last minute shoppers are the worst, they are the ones that are rude and impatient. For some people, with lots of patience, dealing with holiday shoppers is a good experience. For people like me, who has very little patience, it is a dreadful experience. Another aspect of shopping during the holidays is dealing with tired, overworked and frustrated employees. They are just trying to get their jobs done as quickly as possible, so they can go home to their families. Meanwhile, you have those employees that are cheerful and are eager to help the distraught shoppers. Also, during the holidays horrible accidents can occur often at this time of year. I am going to portray the dangers and mishaps that can occur during the holidays. I am not anti-holiday, but the older I get the more I don't have any desire to be exposed to all of the potential chaos.
One key to Wal – Mart’s success, many believe, is the way it energizes its sales force. For example, employee meetings at Wal – mart stores are the same pep rally – type affairs that Walton organized years ago. Cries of “Give me a W, give me an L, give me a squiggly….” are led by store managers who whip salesclerks into selling frenzies as they prepare for the day’s onslaught of customers. And those clerks know just what their customers want and how many are buying their merchandise. Just to make sure, they are given thorough sales figures to show exactly how their particular store is doing. How much money did they take in compared to the previous day, or week, or years? What items are hot sellers, and what’s their markup?