My in-laws have a tradition of going to a movie Thanksgiving afternoon. I refuse to go and never will because I feel bad for those that have to work on Thanksgiving so others can go see a stupid movie.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Expands List of Stores Open for Thanksgiving Day [Updated]
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Was this Browett's idea? 
If I feel the need to shop on Thanksgiving day, I'll be perfectly happy doing it from my couch with my iPad. Good call Tim!
If I feel the need to shop on Thanksgiving day, I'll be perfectly happy doing it from my couch with my iPad. Good call Tim!
I
I have nothing better to do, so I would go if they were open. It would be a good day to set up a genius appointment. Personally, I find Black Friday sales more offensive than having a store open on Thanksgiving day. The sales tend to be ridiculously overhyped, and the people barging into malls and stores are getting trampled so they can get a "good deal" on a 19" Insignia TV.
I have nothing better to do, so I would go if they were open. It would be a good day to set up a genius appointment. Personally, I find Black Friday sales more offensive than having a store open on Thanksgiving day. The sales tend to be ridiculously overhyped, and the people barging into malls and stores are getting trampled so they can get a "good deal" on a 19" Insignia TV.
The holidays are about money, you'll realize that once you climb out from under that rock.
OK, then national holidays should be for everyone EXCEPT employees of McDonalds.....
Seriously, if I am home and bored, I can find lots of things to do that don't involve going in to work. IF people really are compelled to make breakfast for strangers on Thanksgiving, I'm sure there are lots of homeless shelters that would appreciate their time and energy.
But if someone doesn't mind working on a holiday, or even prefers it, why do you care?
If someone doesn't have family or is forced to be far away from them, working might be a better alternative to not working and being reminded that they are alone on such holidays.
For many (or most) retail employees, thanksgiving and christmas are the only holidays they get to spend with their families. The trend of taking away thanksgiving for profits/exposure is really getting petty and takes quality of life only from the lowest paid employees
I agree. Police, secret service, firefighters, medics, doctors, building security guards, soldiers, 911 operators, EVERYONE!!!
Okay, maybe not everyone. But retail workers, yes.
I will say this though, many years ago I worked at Denny's, and the only people who had to work on Thanksgiving were volunteers and they got double pay. If the restaurant was understaffed that day due to a shortage of volunteers, it would simply be understaffed that day; nobody else would be compelled to come in.
If I was in retail, I would work on a Holiday. Just pay me my rate 4x and 10% comission on any profits earned.
I am not a sociologist, and have no evidence besides my personal experience, but I think those folks are a very small minority. The reason anyone really wants to work a holiday, in my opinion, is because they get paid time and a half (which, admittedly, is nice if you are strapped for cash).
Generally speaking, though, I believe most people would rather be off. And, if folks are far from home on holidays and cant get back, they usually will find other like souls with whom they can pass the time.
While I think the whole Black Friday business is insane, and generally choose not to be a part of it, it is the day after the holiday and, if businesses open at 6AM, that's fine, but I think it is truly awful to drag folks to work at 4 and 6PM on Thanksgiving Day.
I also applaud Chick Fil-A for closing on Sundays; not because I'm a religious fanatic, I don't spend all day Sunday in church, but because I think it would be good to have one day a week where people weren't rushing around like maniacs.
Just my opinion.
----------
Thanksgiving Day = The Purge
Stay home and eat your turkey, or else......
I'm just pointing out that others may have a different view than you on how THEY would like to spend their holidays and whether or not they think it's a big deal to have to work on those days.
I used to think the same way as you..
Until my wife and I found out we were having a baby girl, and started to prepare for her arrival, including with the cutest pair of pajamas she could wear on thanksgiving and Christmas..
Our baby girl died at 20 weeks, and we were never able to spend that time as a true family.
Family is sure as hell more important. Money and physical, tangible objects come and go: case in point, your next upgrade to the newest iPhone/iPad/Mac.
Family.. once they are gone, they're gone. You won't be seeing them for a long, long time. They are tons more important than what you would ever spend money for.
Perhaps it is you that needs to crawl out from under that petty little rock of yours.
BL.
And then you lose your job. Retail employees often have very little say in their schedules and are forced to work ridiculous schedules to meet the whims of management.
Well, sure, if you take any poll of what people want, you will never get uniformity.
My position is that the great majority of retail workers, if given the opportunity to choose, would choose to not work on Thanksgiving Day.
If the whole thing could be run on a volunteer basis, sure, why not? But it can't. In your McDonalds scenario, what if the cooks all want to work but none of the counter staff do? Or, vice-versa? How does that work on a corporate scale?
So, does it make more sense to force the majority (who, I believe, would prefer not to work) to yield, or the minority? Not that any of the workers are making the decision anyway.
What irritates me the most is that the people making the decisions to open Target at 4PM on Thanksgiving, or K-Mart at 6AM on Thanksgiving, well, I'm pretty sure they are not manning the doors at the stores, or running a register, are they?
For every company with retail stores, if the retail workers are required to work, then the corporate offices should be fully operational also. If it's all for the good of the company (meaning more $$ are good for the company), then there's no reason why the CEO and COO should be off, right?
Especially since a healthy profit margin will proportionately benefit them more than the cashier.
Ugh!
----------
What?! According to your other posts, perhaps they would rather be working at the movies than home.....
We used to have blue laws. We got rid of them. We need to bring them back. It used to be the only things open on national holidays were:
Police / Fire Departments
Hospitals
Some gas stations
Some Mom & Pop stores (with the owner working the store)
At the beginning of my career, I used to work in hospital pharmacy, I remember when they would discharge as many patients as possible the day before a holiday so they could operate on a skeleton staff.
And, yes, I am old enough to remember when everything was closed except emergency services and hospitals. If you didn't remember to fill your tank the day before, you weren't going to get to Grandma's........
I agree, I think it was better.....
Uh, do you then like the idea of restaurants also only open 9AM-5PM?
The public service industry just plainly need to open more hours when others are off and have time to shop for the services. Very clear logic! What I really don't understand is, on Sundays, when I actually have time to stay home to sign for my packages, no one would ever try to deliver. Similarly for pipeline work or phone line inspection, etc.
Last edited:
I've worked in retail...been in a similar situation where I was scheduled a mandatory shift outside of normal expectations and simply said no. Having also been in management I know that a worker wouldn't lose their job over that one time...if they did, they weren't a very good employee who had issue already and this was just icing.
You need to pay attention to who's writing what. The McDonald scenario was not brought up by me. I, personally, prefer not to frequent establishments that work on Thanksgiving because I feel bad for the workers that have to work who would rather not. On the flip side, the McDonald's guy brought up a scenario in which his workers wanted to work on Thanksgiving which I have no problem with. You seem to be in favor of some sort of fascist or communist ideal that would force everyone to not work on Thanksgiving, AND LIKE IT!!
Shopping together is one of the funs when you are with family. When you get 4-days off, you normally feel that you have more time to spare for out-going fun, instead of staying home taking care of the housework. You should realize that only the rich families can afford to have someone stay at home everyday.
----------
That's right, restaurants should all only open 9AM-5PM, and not on Saturdays or Sundays. So do all of the shopping malls.
