photo from Black Friday Nightmare
I'm sorry I didn't know about this petition til too late to sign. It came to my attention while reading a post on The Vivienne Files. The author works in retail and had to be at work by 11pm Thanksgiving Day.
If you're an employee, do the math. "I have to be in the store at 11 p.m., so I have to leave for work at 10:30 p.m.. I'm going to work at least 9 hours, so I'll have to sleep before I go to work, so I realistically need to be in bed by... 2:00 p.m. ON THANKSGIVING DAY!!!!!"As Mr. Field at field negro wrote:
I don't think that Jesus wanted us to prepare for his birthday quite like this. Professional shoppers (see Mrs. Field) have been preparing for this day for months. (15,000 at the Mall of America!)
As an advertising broadcast manager of over 30 years who makes her money selling ads, I've been irritated by the Black Friday hype for years. Every year the violence seems to escalate. This year was no exception.
To expect employees to work at all hours of the day and night, particularly a Midnight open on Thanksgiving is the height of corporate greed.
While the public has to accept their share of the blame by "buying" into the scheme, it is the corporations who should be held accountable. There is no reason in the world not to have their special sales and limited offers during normal business hours. The pity is they don't offer them to all.
After years of living in major cities I now live in a small resort area in the northeast. For the most part, I buy local. That is, I buy from independent shop owners.
I am assured by the quality of the products, the opportunity to return if necessary and the satisfaction of knowing my money goes to the local economy rather than Wall Street.
6 comments:
I totally agree with you. I decided to enjoy my local independent shop owners rather than have my money leave the community. This year, only local gifts, or handmade by me from local products!
Tomorrow I will feel safe going to a store again. The hoopla of the weekend will be over, but the terror of the Christmas shopping season will take over.
Happy to say I didn't buy a thing on Black friday and I was horrified by teh pper spraying incident at Walmart in Southern California.
egads - with all the steps to comment in Blogger, my comment went through half finished (and obviously full of typos). sigh.
My favorite commentary was on Facebook, where someone said why are tents allowed to be pitched for capitalism but not for democracy? (I didn't see the quote; my hubby told me about it.) I hope the big stores find that their sales simply evened out because traffic fell off later on Friday. In such a case they MIGHT back off the midnight nonsense.
i refuse to buy into the black friday SHIT - sorry for the crassness
yes if one has the desire to shop go local and independent -- better yet i agree with djan i like to make my gifts....
DJan: We don't buy much in the way of gifts for ourselves any longer. For the past 6 or 7 years, we've adopted a family and bought presents for them. In our community, the organisation is called "Angels and Elves". It gives all of us, including my sons who began this with me while they were in high school.
ceodraicht: Welcome! Thanks for your comments. enjoyed the photos on your blog, especially Dia de los Muertos.
Blissed: I hope you're right but the news about sales tonight was in favor of the corporate strategy. We're all sheep.
mouse: Then I watched "60 Minutes" tonight and the opening chapter was about the 25 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE U.S. ARE HOMELESS. 1 in 4 is a child. 30% of all homeless are in Florida. They interviewed children sleeping in their cars with their families, in shelters (if they're lucky), motel rooms.
It's a disgrace.
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