Staff Editorial |
Ah, the holiday season is upon us. The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is a delightful time, spent with friends, family and lots of food and celebration. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? Unless you work in retail, or the food industry, at the hospital or anywhere else that requires their employees to be present on holidays.
Obviously, in some cases, people have to work through holidays. We can’t just shut all the hospitals, fire stations and police stations down. That would cause mass chaos. These days, it seems that every restaurant has a holiday dinner option, and stores open for business before Nana can even finish her first piece of pecan pie. It’s not for naught, either — for every store that opens on Thanksgiving or Christmas, consumers are lined up to take advantage of all the “great deals.” But, does it really matter that much to the overall well-being of humanity if Old Navy waits until Thanksgiving is over to start Black Friday sales?
The answer, apparently, is yes. According to “The Balance,” roughly 29 million people left their homes to go shopping on Thanksgiving in 2016. While the number has changed slightly over the last two years with the rise in online shopping, this is still mind-boggling.
We, The Ranger staff, believe that stores and restaurants should be closed for holidays. As long as businesses are open, people will shop when their focus should be elsewhere. This is also unfair to employees, who are forced to abandon their own festivities and instead tend to the general public. If you’ve ever worked in retail or food service, you know that it doesn’t exactly scream “holly-jolly.”
The holiday season, no matter what faith or traditions you embrace, should be about that celebration and spending time with your friends and family. A few times a year, businesses can take a break from quenching the insatiable thirst for material goods.
Leave a Reply