With Thanksgiving Day shopping slumping, make sure to ‘buy local’
Our ‘Black Thursday’ fever might finally be breaking.
After years of holiday shopping creeping into Thanksgiving Day, many large retailers are now refusing to open their doors Thursday night, instead waiting a few hours until Black Friday – the traditional start of holiday shopping – to start offering deals.
There are now dozens of big-box retailers, many of which are in our area, that say they’ll wait until Friday to invite shoppers in to find those can’t-be-beat deals.
It’s a much-needed reprieve after several years in which shoppers lined up at the door just moments after polishing off their turkey dinner. It’s also a nice break for employees, who were unfairly dragged from family gatherings to supervise stores that had no business being open on Thanksgiving.
Are these changes coming because company CEOs finally had a change in heart in recent years? That’s doubtful.
Instead, it all comes down to the bottom line.
While there clearly were passionate shoppers willing to wait in long lines to get their hands on the best deals, there weren’t enough of them to make a difference. The number of people shopping on Thanksgiving Day has declined over the past three years, with deal-seekers instead gravitating to online sales that allow them to peruse Christmas gifts from the comfort of their home.
Cyber Monday, an online shopping holiday, has become one of the biggest buying days of the year as more stores offer deals on their websites.
Keeping stores closed on holidays is a welcome development for all of us, regardless the reasons.
But we shouldn’t forget the small businesses that are embedded in our region. The advent of Small Business Saturday several years ago has met with mixed results. Some communities have taken advantage of it with choreographed sales between businesses or entertainment to bring people to their downtown business districts.
It’s important shoppers understand the need to support these small businesses, especially in their own communities. These store owners don’t have the massive advertising budgets to attract shoppers, or slick websites that offer free shipping.
These stores are on our streets, and the owners are a part of our community.
With Thanksgiving Day shopping seemingly slipping into the past, it would be wise for us to transfer the energy we would’ve spent on that day to Small Business Saturday.
It isn’t always easy for small-town retailers to lure holiday shoppers, but these “buy local” programs are showing creativity and passion that should be rewarded by savvy customers.
Their success will benefit us all in the long run.