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Should government ban stores opening on Thanksgiving?

Doppel

Doppel

Lifer
Over time Black Friday has crept up and now it's Gray Thursday (though this is the first I've heard of the term): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-bargain-hunters-pile-Kmart-Thanksgiving.html

Walmart, Bestbuy, and likely others, are opening today at 6:00 PM.

Who is this good for? Are consumers actually happy with it? I can't imagine they are, as the pressure is on for some to get to the stores at this time instead of, say, 8:00 AM on Friday (although that's recently been 12am for many stores).

Are retail establishments? Again, I doubt it. The problem is in this, as in many businesses, when one does something others must follow suit, but in the end all end up at the same spot.

A few states have banned places of significant size from opening on Thursday: http://www.newser.com/story/178235/new-englanders-thankful-for-holiday-shopping-ban.html

I suppose a more elegant solution and one less likely to have unintended consequences is to simply say if you are an establishment of a particular size, you can't have prices lower than you typically do on Thursday. This allows stores to stay open and forces shopping to Friday.

At the rate things are going Black Friday will entirely be Black Thursday, and then you'll end up with stores opening 12:01 am on Thursday, and who knows where it will go!
 
The government shouldn't be involved with this and has no right to get involved. The reason these stores do this is because they know idiots want to shop and can't wait until the next day. The blame is on the consumers.
 
Incorruptible said:
The government shouldn't be involved with this and has no right to get involved. The reason these stores do this is because they know idiots want to shop and can't wait until the next day. The blame is on the consumers.
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Should government say who can sell and when they can sell alcohol.
 
I want less government not more. If consumers don't want to shop on thanksgiving they won't and the stores won't do it anymore. If employees don't want to work on thanksgiving, they can suck it up or get a different job.
 
WelshBloke said:
Cool.

Should the government say who can build a mosque and where?
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No but the government shouldn't give one religion special privileges while punishing others. No double standards and pandering.

I suspect you're talking about the Ground Zero Mosque. The people who oppose it don't want the government involved but are just patriots worried about what it will do.

By the way I am still waiting for you to condemn radical Islam and Anjem Chodary.
 
Incorruptible said:
The government shouldn't be involved with this and has no right to get involved. The reason these stores do this is because they know idiots want to shop and can't wait until the next day. The blame is on the consumers.
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But this is like a tragedy of the commons scenario; if even one big retail establishment opens early the others don't benefit by trying not to.

Consumers obviously are willing to go shopping to save a few bucks whenever. My point is this: nothing, absolutely nothing, is gained by anybody with stores opening on Thanksgiving. Yet they will despite this because nothing tells them not to.
 
Not everyone celebrates nor cares about Thanksgiving. For some people its just another day. Let people shop whenever their materialistic souls want.
 
No period. The very notion that this would be done for the benefit of anyone period is absurd. Those who do not care to shop are not shopping on Thanksgiving, those who want to shop go out and shop and rack up on mega bargains. Then you have businesses who depend on shoppers during this time of the year to make it back into the black, hence the term "Black Friday". On top of this you also have some employees who depend on working this time of the year to earn some extra pay, etc.

Thus any government involvement would basically end up being a giant cluster fuck of unintended consequences which would harm consumers, workers and businesses alike and would also result in a removal of personal choice to decided on your own what you want to do during this period of time. Nevermind if you get into the whole government setting/restricting prices bullshit.
 
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gevorg said:
Not everyone celebrates nor cares about Thanksgiving. For some people its just another day. Let people shop whenever their materialistic souls want.
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Totally agree. I personally don't have any reverence for this "holiday" but if others want to take the day off, or spend that time shopping for deals, raking up overtime pay, or businesses want to end the year in the black with their profits, so be it.
 
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Hell no. And I hate this stupid concept of opening on Thanksgiving, but I'm not that stupid enough to believe government should attempt to fix a problem that doesn't exist.
 
Doppel said:
But this is like a tragedy of the commons scenario; if even one big retail establishment opens early the others don't benefit by trying not to.

Consumers obviously are willing to go shopping to save a few bucks whenever. My point is this: nothing, absolutely nothing, is gained by anybody with stores opening on Thanksgiving. Yet they will despite this because nothing tells them not to.
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I personally don't think they should open. The reason they open is because of the consumers. The consumers are so greedy and it's because of them that the stores open.
 
Doppel said:
But this is like a tragedy of the commons scenario; if even one big retail establishment opens early the others don't benefit by trying not to.

Consumers obviously are willing to go shopping to save a few bucks whenever. My point is this: nothing, absolutely nothing, is gained by anybody with stores opening on Thanksgiving. Yet they will despite this because nothing tells them not to.
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When you say "nothing, absolutely nothing, is gained by anybody with stores opening on Thanksgiving." then the solution is going to eventually materialize because if stores did not gain anything financially from this they would in due time phase out this behavior or choose another day in which there is a financial incentive to open up for their customers which makes them more money. In the end the solution will come about without the need to involve government period and its only a matter of time.
 
Meh. Why should government legislate anything to do with *any* holiday, really? What, is Thanksgiving sacred? If so, what happened to separation of church and state that everyone crows so much about? Or should we just legislate our traditions?

If businesses want to be open on any holiday, who cares? If people want to be out shopping rather than home with their loved ones, then let 'em. Who cares?

Government can shut itself down on the holidays, but it really has no business dictating what anyone else 'including business owners' have to do on the holidays. And yes, even *GASP!* Christmas. Believe it or not, not everyone is Christian and actually celebrates it.

Now of course, I love me some holidays like most people. I love to be off from work during the holidays, love celebrating with my family. But if other people want to do whatever the hell they want to do rather than sit home in observation of something they may not care about- then so be it.

Maybe Good Friday or Yom Kippur or Ramadan (or whatever) are really, really, really special days for some people too. Should government mandate everyone's business has to shut down for those too? Why not? One religion's holidays and traditions are more important than someone else's? Says who?

Govt. has no business mandating anything to do with any of this.
 
Hell NO! The damn government is already too involved in day to day life.

What if they opened the stores and nobody came?
 
Nope. Not unless they're going to close every other business that's open on the holidays...movie theaters, hospitals, etc.

I protest the actions of the retailers by refusing to shop their sales.
 
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