Do yourself a favor -- stay home on Thanksgiving night

Sometime’s it is easy how the simple solution can elude us.

With Thanksgiving just two days away, let’s talk turkey about Black Friday -- or Black Thursday since in 2011 the shopping day for some retail outlets now begins at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Night. For most years, it was common for retail outlets to open at 6 a.m. but in the 2000s the time crept into 4 a.m. Black Friday is commonly known as the biggest shopping day of the holiday season.

The general mood in the media is that Black Thursday is a terrible idea because retail workers should be able to spend the holidays home with their families (and potential shoppers should be home eating with their loved ones instead of out buying stuff). Black Thursday is already getting ugly where workers at stores like Walmart and Target have threatened to strike in past years. There have also been numerous petitions to stop the madness, particularly on social media.

While I am fortunate to have a job now that does not involve working weekends, nights or holidays, I can empathize for the workers. I am definitely of the mind that other than say police, firefighters, paramedics, and hospital employees are among the few that should have to work on a holiday. I can probably think of others but retail workers are not one of them.

One argument I have heard is that the employers should give the workers extra money for working on the holiday. That sounds all well and good but they are no more likely to do that than a drug addict is going to get clean just because it is in their best interest.

However, I think people’s anger over Black Friday becoming Black Thursday is misguided. Too many people place the blame on CEOs, which is ludicrous. Tell me one business owner that is going to turn down the chance to make more money when people are flocking the store in droves. The real problem is the people. The more they keep flocking the store in droves, the more likely the store.

Well, folks. I have the perfect solution to the problem. All that has to happen is for everyone in the United States of America to abide by it. Have every living, breathing soul in the USA choose to stay home on Thanksgiving Night. That would lead to empty stores. You can rant and rave all you want on social media. You can do all the demonstrations you want. You post all of those cutesy Nemes on Facebook. Sorry, folks. That won’t lead to change. You want your message to get through, start effecting a business’ bottom line, like don’t shop there.

Of course, getting everyone to do this is easier said than done. The people that want nothing to do with shopping on Thanksgiving Night are already doing their part by staying at home. On the other hand, the ones that enjoy it are not going to stop any time soon.

Anyhow, do yourself a favor, stay home on Thanksgiving night.