Nobody can think of Thanksgiving without thinking of one dreaded part: shopping. Many people literally stampede each other on Thanksgiving or Black Friday to get products on sale or get them before they are sold out. My family and I have always avoided shopping on these two days of the year. Apparently, many more Americans are starting to think like us.
BestBlackFriday.com held a survey called "Thanksgiving Day Shopping Survey" and posted the results. The survey found that more than 50% of people are not happy that some stores are choosing to remain open on Thanksgiving. It included 502 American participants over the age of 18 and was conducted online by SurveyMonkey from October 2 to October 3.
The results revealed that only 17.69% of the participants feel that stores should be open on Thanksgiving. Another 27% said they are indifferent about stores being open or closed, in other words not caring.
The responses appeared to be affected by age. The survey results show that young Americans are more likely to encourage stores to be open on Thanksgiving or are indifferent about it. On the other hand, older adults feel stores should be closed. The majority of people who do not want stores to be open are between ages 30 and 44.
There are various reasons behind why some Americans do not feel like shopping on Thanksgiving. Some do it out of practicality, not wanting to be stampeded by other shoppers, get stuck in traffic, or be in a rush. Others feel that employers should give employees the day off on such an important holiday. Others will simply shop on Black Friday instead.
Apparently, the opinion of the public has swayed retailers as well as other factors. Many stores are opting to close on Thanksgiving and/or Black Friday this year across the nation. There are a couple of reasons behind this decision. One is that employers are tired of hearing complaints from employees about working on a major holiday, especially if they have kids. Retailers also know that they will make plenty of money on Black Friday, more than they will on Thanksgiving Day. Employers also know that online shopping is now the norm, so if anything customers will shop online, thus they will make money even though they are closed.
What you decide to do is your personal decision. It's whatever floats your boat. Just weigh all your options before you head out the door to get jostled by anxious shoppers and wait in painfully long lines.
