Shopping on Thanksgiving

Like the boycotting of Walmart I have mixed feelings about shopping on Thanksgiving/Black Friday. I work retail, and have for a while. I’ve been incredibly lucky in not having to deal directly with nasty crowds and I absolutely believe the people boycotting have good intentions in mind.

But we tend to forget the bits that fall through the cracks. Like the many years working on Thanksgiving (which was catered) and Christmas (ditto) that gave Jason and I the extra money to afford a holiday. Like last year when I worked at a dog kennel and working on the holidays meant 1) time and a half 2) a potluck! and 3) making sure dogs without their families were taken care of.

As a family we celebrate Yule on the 21st not Christmas on the 25th. In part this meant we didn’t miss our Christmas. We are more likely to get the 21st off. Thanksgiving is not a huge affair because  Jason and I both live apart from our extended families so aren’t likely to get to see them on the holiday anyway (especially when you add in that Jason works third shift and needs to spend a chunk of the day sleeping.)

Way back when I did go to the big family gatherings slipping away to Walmart or Steak n’ Shake was a way to escape the inflated tension of the gathering. Some people have debilitating social anxiety. Some people have terrible families that they are NOT safe around. One person in my Facebook feed today went to the holiday dinner where they were asked not to make a science about a relative with finger-shaped bruises sitting next to her belligerent husband. Sometimes it’s just better not to spend time with the family. Sometimes we need a place to escape to so we can keep pretending to be the commercial version of ourselves.

Sometimes we don’t celebrate the same holidays, or the sacrifice is one we’re willing to make. Of course, sometimes the boss says you work or you get fired too. And sometimes you’re completely willing to work and someone throws a book at you because they can’t use their coupon on top of the Black Friday deal.

Seems to me a good option would be employers giving retail and food service workers holiday pay on Black Friday. And capitalizing on the people who celebrate on different days or in different ways so the people who do want a traditional holiday can have their chance at one.

So, working or not, shopping or not, I hope you have a great holiday (or Thursday) and remember to actually pass on that holiday feeling of happiness, benevolence and joy especially to the joes working the crappy minimum wage jobs that make your lives easier.