Dear Black Friday,

First off, you are meant to be on a Friday, hence your name Black FRIDAY. Not Thursday. Thursday is meant for Thanksgiving. The order goes: Thanksgiving, BLACK FRIDAY, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday. NOT Thanksgiving/Black Thursday, Black Friday, so on and so forth. I feel as if Best Buy is whispering in my ear at the Thanksgiving table saying, “Go to the mall NOW! We opened at 6 and all the good deals are going to be gone if you wait. C’mon just go, you know you can’t wait.” And then the second dinner ends I feel inclined to rush to the mall, when in fact, there is a LARGE amount of stuff left because it is so damn crowded and impossible to find any sorts of parking.

And as I leave the mall, I realize I have spent the same amount on clothes as normal because I forgot once again Black Friday is sales on mainly electronics. As I pull out of the parking lot, I remember the workers. If stores like Walmart and Target are opening at 6 pm on Thanksgiving Day, that must mean that people have to sacrifice their own Thanksgiving meals to work. It means that parents have to leave their kids at the dinner table to go sell flat screen TVs to people who can’t wait till the next day. It will still be there if you just wait 6 hours till Friday actually starts, trust me. If you lived all this time without your brand new Apple Watch, you can wait until the sun comes up tomorrow. Think of the sacrifices people had to make so you could shop a whole 6 HOURS EARLY!

And most of all:

Dear people shopping on Thanksgiving,

Go home. Spend time with your family. Once your meal is over sit and talk. Don’t rush to the stores. There will always be material items, but family may not be there forever. Spend moments with your loved ones. I promise you that the world will never run out of televisions or video games or whatever people buy on Black Friday. Think of what people are giving up so you can shop on a national holiday. Just take a moment and think.

So Black Friday, please stick to Friday. And shoppers everywhere, please consider the less crowded, hassle-free option of Cyber Monday. You won’t have to leave your bed, you can spend time with your family, and employees can do the same.

Sincerely yours,

A Fed-Up Holiday Enthusiast