Is Turkey Day going the way of the Do-Do?

     I love a bargain as much as anybody else, but it seems there is a fine line between being greedy and being a savy shopper.  I've read a lot about stores opening on Thanksgiving, bypassing the early morning black Friday craziness so they can give shoppers earlier access to door busting deals. This would only make the insane behavior that starts on what I call "The Silly Season", start earlier.

Thanksgiving is the only holiday that is about being grateful, and appreciating where you are and who your with...and now that's being cut short. I read this article and have heard about other situations like this where people that thought they would at least get this one day with their families, despite the profession they work in.  Retail, used to be safe when I was younger.  You knew you were going to have the same time as most people had on that day, excluding emergency service workers.  I can understand Mr. Rivera's position having worked in the hospitality industry for years myself.  When I had to work on Thanksgiving back then, my family and I worked around it even though it was an inconvenience for my poor mother, (who cooks the most awesome Thanksgiving dinner I have ever had anywhere by the way) and made her sad when I had to watch the clock when we were relaxing.  It was the first thing I remembered when I read his full petition on change.org when he wrote, "Employees will not see family they may not have seen in months or even years, others will not be able to enjoy a holiday that just helps them relax because they don’t have many chances to, others will have time taken away from a child."  It's one of the few holidays where we get to forget the craziness that encompasses our lives and reap the small rewards of what we earn with those we care for.

On top of that, Black Friday madness as I said earlier has brought out the very worst in people in recent years and those that work that day have to worry about being hordes of bargain hunters that could care less for the people working that day.  You can check youtube for video feeds of the madness if you just search "Black Friday", and any recent year.  The people that work on those days risk a lot and it is a lot to ask them to drop their forks and risk it earlier.  Retail workers have died on black Friday and it's a pretty sad trend to add more time to.  Not to mention making those much needed emergency workers day even harder by being out and risking life and limb for the latest hot gift ideas.

I for one will stay home and hunker down after thanksgiving it's a good day to catch up on video games I need to finish, books I'd like to read and some other nerdly activities.  It's not like better deals aren't around after the madness.