BY KELLY LUCIW
SC Contributing Writer
Businesses and consumers across East Stroudsburg and the country kept their lights on during Thanksgiving for a jump start on Black Friday—the biggest spending day of the year.
Businesses cut prices and kept their stores open while people dined and dashed on their Thanksgiving holiday for all the best deals for Christmas.
The Thanksgiving holiday, traditionally spent with family, has been taken over by a race against the clock to eat the hearty meal and make it to the doorbuster sales.
There are people who still value the holiday and stray from the Black Friday hysteria, like ESU senior Amanda Smith.
“I’m sickened by the whole Black Friday ordeal. It’s worse this year because it’s not even Black Friday; it’s Black Thanksgiving,” said Smith.
As a Walmart employee, Smith claims the deals have changed.
“There aren’t any spectacular deals this year. Pretty much everything can be found as cheap, if not cheaper, online,” said Smith.
Because of the surplus of shoppers on this holiday invasion, Walmart requires employees to work on Thanksgiving and serves its employees a Thanksgiving dinner.
However, Smith said that none of the employees that are required to work are thrilled with have to spend Thanksgiving with their coworkers.
Employees who call off the day of, before, or after Thanksgiving will not receive holiday pay.
Working on Black Friday and Thanksgiving is mandatory.
Smith recalls the past policy that required a different action if an employee chose not to work.
“If you called off for Black Friday you got disciplinary action taken against you in the form of a coaching,” said Smith.
Walmart’s corporate holiday policies forced employees to take away time from their own
holiday and encounter the ‘Black Thanksgiving’ madness.
Many individuals time their dinners earlier, set their alarm clocks, and turn down dessert for the newest addition to the Thanksgiving tradition.
To those who take such measures, it’s probably best to eat dinner with your families, unplug the alarm clock, and splurge on desert.
ESU Junior Allie Pliska, who participated as a consumer and employee in the Black Friday event said the day was different than usual.
“I actually had to work from 1 AM to 9 AM at Charlotte Russe and it was dead. It didn’t affect my Thanksgiving, and as for shopping, it wasn’t too crazy this year.”
“People just don’t understand the meaning of spending time with family and enjoying each other. It’s all about the physical property now,” said Smith.
Email Kelly at:
kluciw@live.esu.edu