Christmas has never been one of my favorite holidays, but I’m starting to notice that the meaning of Christmas has diminished over time in the eyes of the public.
Christmas has become too commercialized and it’s our fault…!!!
Christmas to me has always been about spending time with family. Even when I moved away from my family in Grants Pass, I always made time to visit family around the holidays and have even adopted my best friend’s family for a number of holidays.
Take a step back and look how Christmas is accomplished by most of the people in America. A lot of people start shopping with Black Friday. Which happens to fall on the day after Thanksgiving. I don’t think most people realize the hard work that goes into getting a store transformed. I’ll be up front…I spent 8 years managing at Wal-Mart (don’t ask me how I did it) and I can tell you from personal experience that it’s not easy. Most stores are now open on Thanksgiving (I’ve accepted this). Most people work Thanksgiving day or the night before setting up displays and organizing merchandise for it to be destroyed within the first 5 minutes of opening. Look at when most of these stores open: 12am, 3am, 4am, 5am. It’s impossible to spend time with family on Thanksgiving and get a decent amount of sleep to deal with the holiday shopping rush.
But that’s Thanksgiving…like I said, I’m ok giving up that holiday. Grocery stores have long stayed open on Thanksgiving for those last-minute cooks and general procrastinators.
Fast forward through the next month of holiday shopping…
Which brings us to Christmas Eve…
I’m confident we’ve all witnessed at least once in our lives last-minute gift givers rushing around to find that one last “perfect gift”. People genuinely get frantic in fear of disappointing their loved ones when they face the possibility of not finding that gift. Its kind of sad really…Spend…Spend…Spend…buy that love! Also I’ve witnessed some people START their holiday shopping in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. C’mon how much do you really love your family and friends if you’re starting a couple of hours before the stores close? I’ve never been a fan of giving or receiving gifts. If I didn’t feel obligated to buy everyone at least one thing out of courtesy, I probably wouldn’t buy anything at all. Also, don’t even get me started at the LONG line for returns the day after Christmas. If you don’t like something, tough! Keep it! It was a gift from someone elses’ heart. If it’s the wrong size or color or a duplicate item, then you can exchange it for a like item. No getting store credit to then buy yourself a gift.
Christmas has become too commercialized and it’s our fault…!!! (When I say “our fault” I mean us as a society, not the people reading this…)
The more people procrastinate, the longer the stores will stay open the next year and eventually they’ll be open all day on Christmas.
An example from this recent Christmas we had. I know of a grocer out there who on a normal business day will sell $30k in groceries. On 12/25/10 they did $30k between the hours of 8am and 5pm.
I wonder what would happen if no grocery stores had announced that they were going to be open on Christmas??? Would everyone do their grocery shopping earlier or would Christmas cease to exist? I think we all know the answer to that one! People wouldn’t cancel Christmas because they didn’t buy the ingredients for dinner. They would just buy them the day before. The retail industry is breeding a new wave of last-minute shoppers.
Who suffers in all of this?
We all suffer!
Why?
First off the workers and their families suffer for having to work on Christmas day. They don’t make that much to begin with and now their work-life balance is unbalanced. Either they work the early shift and miss the kids waking up to open presents or they work the afternoon shift and are pulled away from their families just about the time most are enjoying together time. What most people miss is the fact the shoppers are also suffering! They are being bailed out for not being prepared and conditioned for a life of failure because one day no one will be around to rescue them.
Why do I care?
Because I have spent the last 10 years in the retail / grocery industry. I have numerous friends who are affected by this. I hear stories, read their Facebook statuses, and I encounter first hand the effects that major businesses have on families when they are open on Christmas Day. It’s a heart breaking story that most people don’t realize exist. This is my first holiday outside of the retail industry and I can finally take a step back and look at how messed up the holidays truly are.
I push for everyone who reads this to NOT shop anywhere on Christmas Day. Be prepared! Buy your items the day before if you must procrastinate. Staying away from the stores on Christmas will encourage them to stay closed because they are not making enough money to cover operating expenses. The best thing that happened to me this Christmas is the chance to spend some quality time with friends and family and letting them know that I appreciate them.
If anyone out there knows of a movement that asks the retail industry to remain closed on Christmas day, please let me know in the comments section of this.
Thank you so much for listening to me vent, I greatly appreciate it!
P.S. Before anyone recommends a unionization of the retail industry to better working environments, take this little tidbit of info into consideration. It was the major union grocery stores that were mostly open (ie: Fred Meyers, Safeway, Albertsons, etc). It was the non-union facilities that ended up being closed for the holiday (ie: Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc). The local UFCW 555 currently has a horrible contract in place that was recently voted in. It will be a few more years before the “people of the UFCW” will have a chance before they can reclaim Christmas day as their own.