Black Friday Consumes Thanksgiving

The logical thing to do after stuffing your face full of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie is to hibernate for a good 10 plus hours or so. Somehow, in the last 20 years, retail businesses lured family away from their homes and into lines to get into their stores. 

Need an extra 15 percent off of a television you don't really need that badly? Eat dinner early and stand in Best Buy's line for five hours while waiting for them to open. Worse, once they open, you find out that they only had two of those televisions and you're now in a mad dash to beat eight other people to that television. Just remember...no one talks about fight club.

To compound the problem, brick and mortar stores are now whining about online stores drawing these customers away. At least with the online stores such as Amazon, you don't have to be pulled away from your family on holidays to save five dollars. I'm not saying that brick and mortar stores need to go away, but it is hard to feel sympathy for businesses that don't allow for people to spend the holidays with their family so they can make two percent more in their overall fourth quarter sales than they would have if they had just opened during normal hours on "Black Friday". 

Is employee morale really worth that two percent? When you consider higher turnover rates and being less attractive to new potential employees, two percent is nothing. Turnover and training cost a company more than two-percent. Reputation on how a company treats their employees causes them to lose potentially stellar recruits.

The problem with retail businesses today is that they rarely think in long-term parameters anymore. They'll gladly sacrifice a potentially long-term customer to make a few extra bucks today. This is why Black Friday turning into Black Thursday and ruining some family's Thanksgiving holidays has come about. Businesses are determined to steal that extra dollar from their competition by beating them to the sale.

But from the standpoint of the common person who doesn't work in retail, is Black Thursday really worth it? Yes, it may get you out of those awkward conversations about politics that you may find yourself in with your Uncle Buck after he's been able to down several beers. What about the positive experiences from family get-togethers? Days such as Thanksgiving give some kids their warm memories that they revere so much in their adult years.

This is not necessarily a rant against Black Friday. It's more of a call out to those who shop on Thursday evening to save a few extra dollars for something they probably didn't need anyways. Without you, the consumer, willing to sacrifice precious family time and memories, retail businesses wouldn't deem it necessary nor profitable to be open on a major holiday. Rather than unwittingly punching your child's gym teacher in the face to grab the last discounted Blu-Ray player, spend it with your family and purchase it on Black Friday or one of the other days that come before Christmas.

Talking Turkey: The Truth About Ben Franklin and the National Seal

Coming closer to the big turkey day, a common misconception is that the turkey could have been our national bird instead of the bald eagle. Some people believe that Benjamin Franklin himself argued to make the turkey our national bird. This is simply not true.

After the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin was one of several people tasked with coming up for an idea for the seal of the United States of America. A few ideas floated around, just not the idea of using a turkey.

It is true that Franklin talked about a turkey, but this was in a letter that he wrote to his daughter, Sarah. He praised the turkey, calling it "a much more respectable bird" and "a true original native of America." In contrast, he called the bald eagle "a bird of bad moral character" and "too lazy to fish for himself" because it tends to steal fish from hawks.

The revelation of the existence of this letter later hit newspapers a century later, long after Franklin and his daughter had passed. Franklin's disdain for the bald eagle being on the seal was never publicly revealed until then, as was his respect for the turkey.

Over the years, just as the subject can change when people play the "telephone game," the story of Franklin and the turkey developed into the false notion that he wanted gobblers to be the national bird.

He did not.

The turkey was never considered to be the national bird, thus never putting the status of a turkey in jeopardy from not being the main course for a Thanksgiving dinner.

Turkey and avocado sandwiches...safe.

Those large drumsticks that you enjoy at county fairs...safe.

Your ability to stay awake after a big Thanksgiving dinner...well, that's still in jeopardy because of the tryptophan.

Rushing Past the Holidays

Picture taken by Daniel Millhouse

Holidays can be fun, they can lead to future heart warming memories, and can offer family an excuse to get together when their everyday life can make that seem impossible. So why do we rush so much to get to holidays that we skip over others or at least forget to cherish the time in between holidays?

Just this year, Target stores across the country were already setting up their Christmas sections of their stores as far back as the first week of September. What happened to Halloween? What about Thanksgiving? There's no harm in shopping for Christmas presents early when you're working with a tight budget, but do we really need to push aside the Halloween costumes in favor of tree decorations that shouldn't be displayed before November? Are we really in that much of a rush?

Family Dollar stores in California, in the year 2013, actually placed their Halloween product and candy decorated in Halloween themed packaging on clearance sale the week BEFORE Halloween to make room for Christmas toys.

The holidays in their current form are already creations of the retail industry as it is. Days like Valentine's Day carry importance because of push made by the candy, flower, and greeting card industries. Independence Day in America thrives because of the fireworks, food (barbeque specific), and alcohol industries.

Consumers shouldn't be barraged with holiday décor and festive items that deal with a particular holiday until that holiday is next in line. It steals the valuable moments that belong to the next holiday coming up. How can you truly enjoy Halloween when you're worried about what color lights you're going to dangle across the tree?

The holidays already pass by too quickly and don't need help passing us by. Enjoy them the and savor those moments that hopefully you'll remember for years to come and can reminisce through pictures and home video.