Merry Christmas! Stay Home!

Let me begin by saying this is not an angry rant. I simply cannot keep my mouth shut any longer about something so obviously and blatantly hypocritical. Follow along carefully, kids, there will be a test in your future.

For the past few days, I have listened to a number of people bitch and moan about my store being open on Christmas day. These folks hold and strong and firm belief that as a country we are getting too far from the morals of yesteryear when everyone was able to huddle around the family hearth and enjoy their holidays in the warm embrace of family. They sing the praises of those times all the time standing at the register to make a purchase.

Those same folks turn right back up on Christmas day.to buy stuff. Now the story changes to ” you really should be getting paid more to work a holiday” or the even more sung “your manager / owner sure must be greedy to make you work the holidays.” Neither argument does more than frustrate and confound the people who are working. It lowers their morale and boosts their hatred towards their employer. The customer feels better for having used the system while still expressing their hypocritical outrage.  

Let me just say there are lots of places that still do it “the old way”. Beiersdorf Germany, where I used to live, is very much a little town. The shops all close at 6 pm. They are closed Sundays and all holidays (and the Germans celebrate a bunch of holidays!). They live the life that all these customers want to revert us back to, and you know what? It sucks!

If you get a cold or run out of toilet paper, there is no corner market to grab Sudafed and Charmin. God help you if its Sunday night, or worse a Christmas falling on Friday. You may not be able to wipe your nose or your ass until Monday around 9. Talk about a miserable holiday…

Now as for greed, yes maybe it is a capitalist greedy thing to do to have businesses open, but at the very same time it is successful. Consumers who shop and travel on the holidays enable corporate entities to justify being open in any day or hour that they stand a good chance of making more profit by being open. If you want to change this the answer is very simple, don’t make use of the stores during the hours you don’t want them open. Staffing, product, and electricity aren’t cheap so using them only makes sense if there is a demand. The first year that not a single purchase is made on Christmas I can guarantee you that more businesses will be staying closed the following year.

In other words, the customer who are bitching are the very ones keeping folks at work on the holidays. If you want everyone to have a Merry Christmas, shut up and stay home!