Back to Basics

In years past, having worked retail, I was in the thick of things for black Friday, the day after thanksgiving. This year I'm going to be an observer and participant.  This year however it appears the retailers are very nervous and trying to be the first ones to open for black Friday. We even have some of them trying opening as early as 10:00pm on thanksgiving night to get to your dollar.  Walmart for example is requiring ALL of it's employee's to work four hour minimum shifts on Thanksgiving Day or sacrifice there holiday pay. What is wrong with that picture?

My true feelings are that we need to level this playing field and get back to basics. Start closing retailers on major holidays and stop them from opening on Sundays, let's get back to some family values, and get our economy back in balance. 

If businesses were required nationally to open certain hours during the week, they would have no problem, the competition would be the same and nobody would have to worry about getting the upper hand anymore over somebody else. Consumers would be able to make good choices and continue to go on with life.

Then again we have the free enterprise system here in the United States. You know what, enough of that, it is a crutch for business, people need some time off with family, and business needs to cool off and get back in line!  Big box retail needs to realize that the same amount of dollars are going to be spent no matter how many hours your open, people will reschedule their lives in order to accommodate business hours. Retail 101, your number one expense is payroll, and what better way to control your payroll and to increase your profits, by increasing the dollars per hour generated by fewer hours open.  Gee! That makes all the sense in the world to me!

And shame on us the consumer, we should know better. If we don't want business is to be open on Sunday we should stop shopping on Sunday. These businesses will get the message that people don't want it, and it would start closing on Sundays. Maybe we should start a national campaign to make this happen. Let's bring families back together and unite, let's bring life back to the basics.