I’m not going shopping today.
I’m not making some kind of a statement. I simply have too much to do: there are breads to bake, casseroles to heat and pie crusts to roll out in advance of dinner for fifteen people. There is hot chocolate to be made for those braving the sledding hills. There are parades and football to be watched (my Eagles are taking on the Cowboys… gulp). So, I’m staying put.
I get that’s not for everyone. There are as many different ways to celebrate Thanksgiving as there are people. My idea of holiday bliss may be someone else’s idea of a holiday nightmare. And that’s okay.
That sentiment is exactly why I can’t get behind the whole “Don’t shop on Thanksgiving” movement. You know the one – the posts on social media begging retailers not to open and shoppers not to go out on Thanksgiving? I feel like it’s not my place to tell retailers or shoppers how they should behave on the holidays anymore than I want someone telling me that I shouldn’t be making stuffing and potatoes.
A significant part of what’s driving this “Don’t shop” movement is the notion that families should be able to spend their holidays together, that no one should be forced to work on the holiday. I understand that completely. But I also understand that, outside of turkey and football, life goes on – even on Thanksgiving.
My dad worked at a factory when I was a kid. For as long as I can remember, he worked shifts. His schedule was unpredictable which meant that mealtimes shifted around when he was at work and when he needed to sleep. He missed holiday plays and concerts. Family gatherings were productions. But he had a job – in a tough market (friends of ours were not so lucky). That meant we had food on the table. And on Thanksgiving, we were all very thankful for that.
Like my dad, many Americans don’t have control over their work schedules. Doctors, nurses, police officers and firefighters don’t always have the luxuries of days off. Our military stays on duty. Toll workers, flight attendants and bus drivers? They’re working today. All of the folks at FOX airing football today? Working. Part of having a job may mean working on the holidays.
And this notion that everyone who is at work doesn’t want to be? It’s not always true. When I was in law school, I couldn’t afford the ticket home – rural North Carolina is a long way from Philadelphia – so I stayed in town for the holidays. And you know what? I was glad to be able to have something to do. More importantly, as a struggling student, I sure could use the extra money: I got paid time and a half. That helped buy books and pay the rent. I was one of those cashiers who stood at the register and chatted with folks who wandered out in search of holiday deals. And you know what? They weren’t all miserable. Many of them – like my fellow cashiers – were glad to be away from the football and the noise and the clatter of a family dinner. Not everyone hates working (or shopping) on Thanksgiving.
Shopping on Thanksgiving isn’t evil. I agree 100% that it’s not a necessity but then who really needs Walmart to be open 24 hours a day on other days? Or for The Gap or Abercrombie + Fitch to be open on Sundays?
Shops may take heat on social media for their decisions to remain open on Thanksgiving but people clearly want to shop or they wouldn’t be out and about. It’s a sentiment echoed by a number of stores, including Walmart, which has remained open on Thanksgiving for nearly 25 years, serving 22 million customers last Thanksgiving.
Other big name retailers that are open today include K-Mart, Target, Macy’s, Best Buy and Kohl’s. Those that plan to remain closed include American Girl, Bloomingdale’s, Costco and Nordstrom.
Best Buy said, about the decision to open:
While we recognize the decision to open on Thanksgiving affects Best Buy employees, customers have made it clear that many of them want to begin shopping on Thanksgiving evening. In recent years, millions of Americans have shopped on Thanksgiving, and our store associates are excited and prepared to help customers fulfill their holiday wish lists. Most Thanksgiving evening shifts are filled by employees who volunteer to work. All hourly store employees who work on Thanksgiving will, of course, receive holiday pay.
Of course, stores are only open where permitted. Three states, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island, ban stores from opening on Thanksgiving.
Moral judgments aside, does opening on Thanksgiving make a difference in the marketplace? The folks who grab discount HD TVs and Beats by Dr. Dre might think so but retailers don’t actually see much of a bump in total sales. According to the National Retail Federation, of the 61.1% of folks who plan to shop over the weekend, 18.3%, or 25.6 million, say they will shop on Thanksgiving. But are those shoppers buying more or merely shifting their shopping dates? Howard Feller, of MMG Advisors, says it’s the latter, saying, “Ultimately, if you look over the course of the holiday selling season, the fact the stores are opening on Thanksgiving as opposed to Black Friday doesn’t lead to increased sales.”
Over the holiday weekend, 140 million customers are expected to go shopping – most on Black Friday. Interestingly, the day which now unofficially marks of beginning of the Christmas shopping season didn’t even make the top five busiest shopping days for years. And the term “Black Friday” wasn’t a good thing – the term was used in Philadelphia to describe the ugliness and chaos of throngs of shoppers, saying in 1961, “Resulting traffic jams are an irksome problem to the police.”
Today, however, Black Friday sales are increasingly off the streets and instead, online. Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 3 American adults will shop via the web on Friday. (For more on holiday spending, check out this nifty infographic on Forbes.)
In terms of economic impact, online sales aren’t always equal to in person sales. Not withstanding the “extras” that accompany in person sales (gas taxes on the trip to the store, taxes on food and drinks consumed while out and the like) which don’t happen in the cyberworld, internet sales alter the behavior of retailers, too. Online retailers tend to focus more on technology and less on overhead and personnel, changing the way that dollars are paid out.
Cost efficiency can also be boosted with forum shopping, meaning that companies can choose where to put their headquarters based on a number of criteria, including tax laws and minimum wage laws. Careful planning can result in significant savings. Fewer payroll taxes. Fewer corporate taxes (just ask Apple). Fewer use and occupancy taxes. And don’t forget those sales taxes.
The rules for charging sales tax for in person purchases at brick and mortar stores are generally clear. However, many retailers do not impose a sales tax on purchases made online: when that happens, consumers may be required to pay a use tax. That said, while most states require a use tax of some sort when sales are not taxed at the point of sale, realistically most taxpayers don’t comply. It’s not necessarily purposeful: use taxes can be onerous, confusing and difficult to understand and pay. A study indicates that a mere 1.6% of taxpayers reported use tax on their 2009 income returns, hardly a compliance rate to write home about. Missed revenues due to under-reporting of use tax are thought to be in the billions (as much as $23 billion in 2011).
To stop the bleeding, some retailers and politicians have touted the Main Street Fairness Act (MSFA) which would streamline the ability of state and local governments to collect sales tax on internet sales. Under the terms of the Act, Congress would authorize the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (downloads as a pdf), a multistate agreement which was adopted on November 12, 2002. So far, twenty-four states have adopted the Agreement: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The idea behind the MSFA is to level the playing field. Brick-and-mortar stores – the ones that you and I will walk into this holiday weekend – are required by most states to charge sales tax while internet-based sellers often escape sales tax in states without a presence. The MSFA changes that by allowing states (and local governments) to collect sales taxes on internet sales made inside state borders even if the point of origin is outside their borders. So, for example, if I bought something from GenericStore-dot-com and GenericStore-dot-com didn’t have a warehouse or other presence in my state, under the MSFA, my state could still collect sales tax. To date, Congress has failed to act on the MSFA, which means that transactions made online generally escape taxation. I suspect that won’t always be the case (yes, I say that every year).
Realistically, consumers, like businesses, have lots of choices on the holiday weekend. For the most part, companies are entitled to choose when – and where – they’re open for business – and that might include Thanksgiving.
You, like me, don’t have to go shopping on Thanksgiving. Or, like my good friends who attack the outlets with a vengeance every year on Thanksgiving, you can stimulate the economy all you want. And you’re welcome to offer up any excuse/argument/explanation you want for your behavior – except one: don’t make the mistake of saying that all holiday sales are equal. They’re not. Especially when it comes to online.
Happy Thanksgiving.