Skip to main content

Why are we neglecting dipping into pockets at Thanksgiving time?

It is just a bit sad that Thanksgiving is becoming the forgotten holiday.

I went to the Gardeners' Supply today and it was a Christmas wonderland.  At the drugstore,  Christmas items shared the better part of an aisle that also included a few shelves worth of Halloween markdowns.

Grocery stores are mentioning Thanksgiving--sales on turkeys and cranberries and pumpkin pie spice.  Otherwise, what is wrong with the entrepreneurial spirit of our country that we have not yet thought of a way to exploit this day of family gathering and gratitude for commercial gain?  Black Friday is as close as we can come?

Come on corporate America!  I have faith in you.

Comments

  1. JuneNovember 15, 2014 at 6:43 PM

    There's a fortune to be made by somebody who invents a Thanksgiving tradition.
    Not a tree, not a bush . . . maybe oversize displaying turkey tailfeather fans on which we all could hang decorations. We'd have to buy the tails and the decorations.

    Okay. Not an entrepreneur here, but still. There IS a fortune to be made there somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MuffieNovember 15, 2014 at 6:58 PM

    Retailers have little to offer in the way of profit-making for themselves at Thanksgiving. Besides food, kitchen ware, linens, or decorations, TG isn't a money-making holiday for this capitalistic society. I don't care -- I love it. Being with family and friends, cooking and baking, thinking about my blessings, and not getting involved with all the sales and shopping hoopla -- that's my kind of holiday!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 15, 2014 at 9:26 PM

    Muffie is right -- the grocery store is the only one to make money on Thanksgiving! I think it is my favorite holiday - good food, family and leftovers!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Linda ReederNovember 15, 2014 at 10:04 PM

    Oh, Olga, me thinks you are a bit cynical today. :-)
    What's even worse for capitalism is that we can use the same decorations for Thanksgiving that we used for Halloween, at least if we didn't carve that pumpkin.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Linda MyersNovember 15, 2014 at 10:18 PM

    May the retailers leave Thanksgiving alone forever.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jenn JilksNovember 16, 2014 at 10:01 AM

    I keep forgetting yours is coming up. Christmas is in all our stores now.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousNovember 16, 2014 at 10:48 AM

    Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday, so I really don't care if stores are displaying Christmas goodies.

    ReplyDelete
  8. TaborNovember 16, 2014 at 11:10 AM

    We have not yet found a way to exploit Thanksgiving. You absolutely have put into crisp words what the real issue is. Christmas is not a Christian holiday ... it is a day that commerce can exploit!

    ReplyDelete
  9. TomNovember 16, 2014 at 12:15 PM

    Thanksgiving is still an important holiday, even if retailers and consumers can't conspire to cash in on it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. SextantNovember 16, 2014 at 1:31 PM

    Thanksgiving, isn't that Black Friday Eve? Anymore you can go to Black Friday services at the cathedrals of consumption starting 6 PM on Black Friday Eve.

    Who has time for giving thanks when there are bargains to be had, and who gives a damn if the employees have to work on Thanksgiving?

    The Chinese tried capitalize on Thanksgiving. My wife bought a bag full of Thanksgiving decorations made in China at one of the paper stores. One was a turkey and it had 4 drumsticks on it. Well back to the drawing board on that one.

    ReplyDelete
  11. SakuNovember 16, 2014 at 1:43 PM

    We have our Thanksgiving earlier but you're right there isn't nearly as much "stuff". Something to be thankful for!

    The retailers started bringing out the Christmas stuff in September right after the school supplies moved off the shelves. But at least the Christmas hasn't started yet. My son works retail in electronics and he's working an extra shift today as they start getting ready for their busiest season.

    Have a great Thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete
  12. CarolNovember 16, 2014 at 2:20 PM

    What I like about Thanksgiving is it represents food, family, sharing and caring, but not with gifts or lots of expense. A meal one looks forward to all year, watching football or playing family games, visiting with people we love. Togetherness, that is what it is. As for stores with Christmas out before Thanksgiving gets here ... it doesn't bother me.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Arkansas PattiNovember 16, 2014 at 4:37 PM

    Perhaps it is the best of all the Holidays because of the lack of commercialism. This is our holiday-- not to be tainted by tacky displays and promos. Well there is that Black Friday thing but I ignore that.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I appreciate readers' comments so much. You don't even always have to agree with me.

Popular posts from this blog

It's TIme

 It's been a while since I have posted anything and even my reading your posts is falling by the wayside. I am in Florida now. I have a yard where little attention was spent on landscaping for the past years so I am slowly and (somewhat) methodically addressing that. I also volunteer to work at the pollinator garden and the edible garden I helped install at the UU grounds and I took over the volunteer job of cleaning out the overgrown community garden by my neighborhood mailboxes. The neighbor who was doing that got sick and could no longer attend to it. It's a bigger job than I'd thought at first -- not only overgrown with weeds, but the plants that are wanted there are in life and death competition for each others' spaces. And two walks a day, morning and evening, so Levi can keep up with addiction to canine social media and a daily rousing came of stick or ball midday take up another chunk of my time. I have a weekly meditation group that I co-facilitate, and my own ...
10 comments
Read more

New Furniture

 We went shopping for a new couch. I liked this one, the first store we went to. Of course it would be an impulse to buy the first one so we trekked around to other stores -- something we liked more, a better deal? No surprise that we ended up going back to that first store the next day and purchasing that couch for our living room. Also a matching love seat for the den where we watch TV. Because I had replaced my old love seat with two recliners. We couldn't keep three households worth of furniture after all. Well, my recliner was not big enough to accommodate both Levi and me. Poor boy had to watch TV from his bed on the floor. There! This is much better! Spoiled much? The little tail on the floor belongs to his toy squirrel, Buddy. It's like having a toddler with the need to be picking up toys or risk tripping over them. But his very favorite play thing is that bathmat that can be found anywhere but the bathroom floor.
10 comments
Read more

Walking

 I have always been a walker. Now that I have a high energy dog there is no excuse for not getting out there. And the weather is not an interfering factor here. Early morning and early evening are our preferred times so even when it gets hot we should be okay. We can get quite a long walk going around the neighborhood, greeting neighbors out working in their yards or walking their own dogs. But the landscape changes quickly just beyond the confines of the housing developments. It could be described as natural Florida or as sites of future housing developments. I do prefer the first option. And I really enjoy being out in natural areas so I often opt to head to a nature setting. I would have liked to put a picture here. Unfortunately my iPhone has made a unilateral decision. It will no longer be sending my photos to my computer. Why? I have no idea. However, we may be walking along happily enough -- me listening to the birds or trying to identify wildflowers and other plants while L...
10 comments
Read more