ckkalyan wrote:timmy - 'Marketing Money Grabbers' - well, they started the tradition of Black Friday in the US (first Fri after Thanksgiving)
Yes, you are correct, and it is actually worse than this. When we first moved to Texas in the late 90s, the stores would open on Black Friday at 6am and people would stand in huge lines, waiting to be the first in the stores to grab up the deals.
As time went by, it became traditional for the stores to open at 0:01am on Friday. People would stay up and go to the stores before going to bed. It was common for people to figure out how to buy things like flat screen TVs at the cut rate prices offered by stores like Walmart, only to turn around and sell them on Ebay later on for a profit.
Now, some stores are already opening at 6pm on Thanksgiving. The idea is for the early opener to pick the customers' pockets before another store has the chance. It is only a matter of time before stores are open all day Thanksgiving, just like any other day, and the whole day of a holiday is completely gone -- gone for the shoppers, because they are such losers that they would rather be out shopping than spending time with family (possessions are already much more important than people in many circles), but also gone for the poor slobs that have to wait on these losers (I have had to do it, BTW), because the people who work in retail are subject to the demands of the almighty dollar, and that alone.
My prediction is that, within the next 10 years, Christmas will also no longer be a day when the demands of losers force retail serfs to work. I think that, in the USA, the only sacred day will be Superbowl Sunday, when most people currently do stay home (although the retail serfs still have to work).
But one of the many things I am thankful for is having a job last year and this year where I didn't have to do this. Instead, we were able to spend Thanksgiving with my teenaged granddaughter from Denver, and a few days before Thanksgiving, we took her up to Edison and shopping through the jewelry and sari shops on Oak Tree Road. She had never seen anything like this, and her eyes were certainly wide open. Then, we went to see Deepika Padukone in
Ram Leela. She liked the show. It was so much fun talking to a group of ladies after the movie at the theater door, and watching their surprise when they found we
liked Bollywood, and that my young granddaughter knew about SRK and Aamir Khan, Kajol and Aishwarya -- and Madhuri, my favorite. Then we went to Mirchi's for some Biryani. The next day, we went to NYC and took her to "The Lion King." On Thanksgiving, we took her to the shore. She had never seen the ocean. Then, the three of us gave thanks and had our meal.
Despite the commercialism and the corrosive effects of mammon on society, we still have so much to be thankful for!
PS: Yes, we also showed her a Rajinikanth movie at home -- we watched "Chandramukhi," my favorite. She liked it!