No thanks, big boxes

We’ve been pretty disappointed over the years to see a trend of retailers opening for Early Black Friday, aka Thanksgiving Day. Americans’ obsession with consumerism is bad enough, but seeing people support shopping on the actual holiday makes it that much more repulsive.

After all, the stores opening their doors generally are staffed with modest wage-earners who cannot simply tell their big-box bosses they refuse to come in to work. Instead, those employees have to leave their families as they would on a typical day. And don’t think this doesn’t happen locally. There are several outlets in Butte County who’ve taken on this practice.

Our request of readers: Send a message to these corporations with your pocketbook by staying home. Don’t enable them to continue to debase a national holiday that ought to be about family and togetherness. Then, after Thanksgiving, you can make a further statement by excluding them when you’re out and about shopping. Conversely, take notice of which companies are closed on Thursday. There are plenty taking a stand against this greedy trend.

As usual, however, we urge readers to spend money at the independent retailers that keep Chico from looking like homogenous suburban America. You know, the mom and pops and other locally owned shops you won’t find lining highways up and down the state. Instead of waking up at the crack of dawn on Black Friday, save your shopping for Small Business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, at stores owned and operated by your friends and neighbors. They’ll be thankful you did.