I Shopped on Thanksgiving Day and Don't Feel One Bit Guilty

Yeah, I shopped today. My husband found some extra money tucked away, long forgotten about and wanted to buy me an early Christmas present from Bass Pro Shops. It was actually a pleasant experience. Much more pleasant, I presume, than being forced to wait until Black Friday to go shopping.

 We didn't have any family obligations until later in the afternoon so we went over late in the morning. We didn't have to fight our way through horrible holiday bottlenecks near the retail centers as traffic was light. While there were a number of shoppers there, it was not packed and I didn't have to push and shove my way around. We got service right away. I even asked a few associates who worked there how they felt about having to work on Thanksgiving Day. Most of them just shrugged. Nobody seemed particularly excited by it but then again, they all said that no matter what job they had, in their line of work they would have to work the holiday regardless. They all balked when I suggested they could quit and find another job that didn't "force" them to work the holiday.

I've seen just about as many posts as I can take from people decrying all these evil big box stores for opening up on Thanksgiving Day and "forcing" their workers to come into work to earn shitty wages rather than be able to spend time at home with loved ones.

I hate to say it, but I'm primarily seeing this from the liberal busybody do-gooders who seem to know what's best for everyone. This ire seems to be only directed at the perceived "evil", corporate, big box stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, JC Penney, and so forth. Apparently, these inherently evil corporations are even more evil for pushing consumerism to boost their profits on a day that should be dedicated to family for the celebration of a holiday that is also very racist and shouldn't be worshiped, according to some of the same people.

I think what irks me the most about this is how these people just automatically seem to know that these retailers are acting greedily and that every single person who was "forced" to work on a holiday hates it, is somehow being forced to act against her will, and would much rather be spending a whole day with their family carving turkeys and making polite conversation with relatives they see but once or twice a year.

My first job in high school was at a local supermarket. We were open for half the day on Thanksgiving days for those shoppers who needed last minute items. We closed early at around 2pm and it was always known that either my brother or I (we worked at the same place) would be working that day. I wanted to work on Thanksgiving because it was always very busy and I might make a few extra dollars in tips. At that age, I always appreciated the opportunity to make more money. We typically planned Thanksgiving around those shifts and didn't start dinner until 3pm or later. No harm, no foul. My mother never got mad at the supermarket for "forcing" me to work rather than allow me to spend the day at home. In fact, she liked it because it allowed me to make that much more money to be able to pay for gas for my car or insurance and take some of the burden off of her. And, at the end of the day, we still got to have a lovely meal together and quality time with one another. Win-win for all!

I was never "forced" to work. I was never threatened with my job if I refused to work due to family obligations. I was not kidnapped from my home in an unmarked van and ferried to work by my employers. Any of the employees who requested the time off got the time off and judging from the number of people who shopped there that day (we were always slammed) there was clearly some perceived value in our being open to accommodate these last minute shoppers. Was my employer, a regional chain supermarket, greedy and profiting off of consumerism? Was it tearing the family unit apart by trying to make a buck off of people's forgetfulness or procrastination? Hardly.

Not only did I go shopping today, I also went to a restaurant to eat Thanksgiving dinner. None of us have a permanent home in the area so nobody was equipped to prepare a large Thanksgiving dinner. I was thankful that there was a restaurant in the area offering a nice Thanksgiving buffet with all the traditional dishes one would expect in order to serve those of us who, for whatever reason, couldn't do a home cooked meal. Does that make me greedy for "forcing" those servers to work to satisfy my desire for a nice, traditional meal with family? I should think not.

I asked one of the staff at the carving station how he felt about working on Thanksgiving and he said he didn't mind at all. He said he'd been in the business for 40 years and it was expected and that there was plenty of time later in the day to spend time with family. Our server informed us she only started working there a few days ago. While I didn't ask her directly how she felt about working that day, presumably she would not have chosen to start work there if she was too terribly upset about having to work on a holiday.

These same arguments don't seem to apply to the numerous other professions that are required to work on holidays. Healthcare professionals, civil servants, soldiers, and other people whose work is seen as "necessary" are exempt whereas retail shops are not. The arguments also don't seem to apply to small businesses. I saw many small businesses open today but apparently it's okay for a small surf shop on the beach to be open and make someone come in to work to sell beachwear but not okay for Target to do the same? It's okay to go to the movie theater and make someone pop my popcorn so I can sit mindlessly in front of a huge screen filling my head with pretty pictures that make already rich people richer but it's not okay for Walmart to be open and selling products to people who might not even be celebrating Thanksgiving? It's okay for bars to be open for people to get drunk at but not okay for Best Buy to be open to sell a camera to a guy who forgot his so he could document his day with family? It's ok for concession workers and ticket takers to have to work football games but it's not okay for Sears to be open? I hope you're boycotting watching those football games as well in solidarity with the poor staff that are forced to work on a holiday.

By this same token, shouldn't we decry businesses for being open at odd hours on non-holidays? We should boycott every business that's open past 7pm because people should be at home with their family at that time, not having to work a shitty job at shitty hours. We should never frequent a fast food joint at 3am to get some drunk food because that is demeaning to the workers who have to stay up late to make it for us instead of spend quality time at home. We also shouldn't go shopping on Sundays because that's the Lord's day and we're supposed to be at rest, not forcing the rest of the world into godlessness by our endless consumer greed and making them work on the Sabbath.

The point is, we can't know for sure that we know what's best for these people. We cannot make a value judgement on the situation as a whole and apply it to every individual who is in that situation. We cannot substitute our judgement for theirs. Some people choose to work this day. Some people prefer the option of being able to make more money than not being able to. Some people don't have family around and are lonely and work keeps their mind occupied. We can't know, we don't know, and we shouldn't presume to know what's best for these people who are being "forced" to work on a holiday. And if you're going to get uppity about it, at least be consistent in how you direct your anger.

Just remember, none of these "evil corporations" held a gun to their employees' heads and kidnapped them from their homes kicking and screaming to "force" them to work today. Government is the only entity that's legally allowed to force people at the barrel of a gun to do things they wouldn't otherwise do (like purchase health insurance they don't want or need). No matter how much you hate corporations, even they can't do that, not even on Thanksgiving.