Here's How to Fix 'Black Thursday': Stay Home

Just ... don't ... shop. It's pretty simple: Ellen Galinsky
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 25, 2013 11:07 AM CST
Here's How to Fix 'Black Thursday': Stay Home
Shoppers wait on a check-out line in the Times Square Toys-R-Us store after doors were opened to the public at 8pm on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012, in New York.   (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Based on the Facebook outrage and all the online petitions, a huge chunk of America is pretty upset about the growing trend of stores opening on Thanksgiving Day. But, uh, the way to fix this has nothing to do with signing a petition and posting it on your Facebook wall, writes Ellen Galinsky for Time. "All you have to do is do something else on Thanksgiving Day other than opening your wallet." It's that easy: "Don't go shopping on Thanksgiving. Just don't."

Research—including that done by the Families and Work Institute, which Galinsky co-founded—shows that holidays are "critical to keeping employees healthy and productive." And what's to say the trend of working on Thanksgiving won't eventually shift from retail to non-essential white collar jobs? "After all, 50 years ago no one would have thought that professionals would be working nights and weekends, and we all know how that turned out," Galinsky writes. Matt Walsh had a similar take on the Huffington Post last week: "If you shop on Thanksgiving, you are part of the problem." Click for his full column, or Galinsky's full column. (More Thanksgiving stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X