Author's Note: I originally wrote this six years ago. It's still important. I've updated it slightly to make sure facts are accurate for 2019.

Americans tend to be workaholics; we usually don't even take all of our few vacation days. We're a country of go go go, do do do, a country of go to work.

Except on Thanksgiving. In New York City, a multicultural melting pot where holidays like Christmas and Easter never really take hold for everyone, Thanksgiving stops all of us in our tracks. Look back at William Seward's original Thanksgiving proclamation and realize that this holiday isn't about pilgrims and Indians, but about Americans stopping, thinking, and embracing each other around the light even in dark times (albeit couched in some very 19th-century language.)

Obviously, some people have to work on Thanksgiving. Cops need to cop; fire departments need to fight fires. Airline pilots and flight attendants need to shuttle hungry Americans to their ancestral homes. Gas station attendants, bus drivers, and train conductors give up their holidays to make sure the rest of us get to our loved ones. Let's thank all these people, as we thank our families, for helping us and our families enjoy this holiday. But let's all work together to make the number of people working as small as possible.

There's no reason retail employees must be dragged away from their turkey and trimmings. According to the government, more than 8.4 million Americans work as retail sales clerks and cashiers; that's millions of people who may not be able to have dinner with their families this week. Millions more will feel compelled to rush to the stores before the "doorbuster" deals run out.

Most Americans agree with me here that we shouldn't command our retail workers into service on Thanksgiving. Our sister site BestBlackFriday.com ran a poll, and 72 percent of American consumers said they wanted stores to stay closed. Whether 25 percent or 65 percent of shoppers show up, the Kmart cashiers still have to get to work as long as the place is open.

BestBlackFriday.com has a list of stores open on Thanksgiving Day 2019 and of stores that won't be open on Thanksgiving Day 2019. Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Sears, GameStop, and Old Navy are all open Thanksgiving afternoon or evening. Meijer is doing one worse—it's open all day on Thanksgiving, but that may be because Meijers are also grocery stores—the one kind of store that needs to be open. All respect to the person who's making it possible for you to get that last-minute stuffing ingredient. Kmart is also open all day, starting 6 a.m., but it has no excuse.

Instead of shopping at those places for your holiday gifts, try Barnes & Noble, Costco, or Sam's Club, all of which stay closed until Friday. Or, even better, shop on that weekend at smaller local merchants who keep their profits in your community.

As more shopping moves online, think about how to get money direct to creators and average folks rather than to large retail corporations. Think about indie games, eBay, and Etsy. Or track down that one small, independent store remaining in your town. It's a day for family; put a bigger proportion of your money in the hands of families rather than into the deep pockets of investors several times removed from your community.

It'll Help Everyone, Not Just the Retail Workers

This call to inaction isn't just about helping the folks in the Best Buy polo shirts. Whether or not you believe in God, hopefully you think there's something higher than Mammon. Maybe it's a Being in a book that's endured; maybe it's in the people who created you, or just the people who surround you. We are more than the sum of our economic activity.

Black Friday has become a tradition in our cargo cult of a nation, and it's been the busiest shopping day of the year for a decade. Over the years, though, it changed from a happy-go-lucky celebration of materialism into a groggy, desperate, sometimes-violent exercise in midnight doorbusting, turning the same instincts that animate looters in anarchies to the service of our nation's retail giants.

There is absolutely no need to make Thanksgiving a Black Thursday. Will people shop? Of course they will. The desire to consume is all-consuming. Americans will gladly give up a sleepy Thursday afternoon in front of a football game in exchange for getting that one laptop at 50 percent off before the store goes out of stock. What they'll lose is much more important, but gives us much less of an immediate dopamine hit than finding a bargain: the subtle, stabilizing value of community.

Let's cordon off one day—0.27 percent of the year—to show that family, friends, and volunteering give us thrills, too. Make Thanksgiving a day of peace for all Americans. We have a heck of a three-day weekend to shop.

Further Reading

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