A Few Bits; No Pieces

Bit One:
There was an ad in yesterday’s paper for a big sale at Macy’s department store. Do you like fonts and have you ever taken a look at Macy’s font? Apparently it’s called “Moderne” and I like it and if I had it I’d type this paragraph using it, but alas… Anyway, back to Bit One. The ad in yesterday’s paper announced their “BIGGEST ONE DAY SALE OF THE YEAR!” and they’re boasting their lowest prices of the season. The sale started yesterday and runs through today and it’s apparently so monstrously big that, according to the ad, they actually had a preview day yesterday. I don’t know, but I think there are going to be some might lucky gift receivers this Holiday season with a sale this big!

The thing I don’t understand about the sale is that even though it’s billed as a “ONE DAY SALE”, it has specific hours. Two days, yesterday and today, only until 1:00 p.m. I guess maybe in retail lingo, two half-day sales combine to be a “ONE DAY SALE”. Either way, it’s not too late. Grab your coupon and head to Macy’s before 1:00 p.m. today and you can save $10 on your $25 purchase. Be sure to read the fine print because the number of items excluded from the coupon seems to exceed the number of items included in the sale.

Bit Two:
Target is opening their stores at midnight on Thanksgiving evening to get a jump on Black Friday sales. Employees scheduled to work that shift will have to punch in at 11:00 p.m. to begin their 10-hour overnight shift. This means that anyone scheduled to work that shift effectively loses their Thanksgiving holiday. In a test, Target is opening stores during Thanksgiving day until (I believe 2:00 p.m.) in the Denver, Colorado area and if sales are brisk they may open stores during Thanksgiving day nationwide next year.

Anthony Hardwick of Omaha, Nebraska, a part-time cart attendant at Target, is upset about Target’s decision and has started an online petition at Change.org asking Target corporation to save Thanksgiving and the petition has already garnered nearly 100,000 signatures. You can read the petition here.

Says Hardwick: “Thanksgiving is about family and spending quality time with the people you love.”

Apparently major retailers don’t agree because Target isn’t alone in their decision to open at midnight on Thanksgiving to get a retail jump on Black Friday. Macy’s (home of the big two-day, one-day, half-day, I’m confused all-day sale), Kohl’s and Best Buy are also opening at midnight. Walmart plans to open their doors at 10:00 p.m. and Toys R Us is opening at 9:00 p.m. Kmart doesn’t plan on closing during the day.

So what do you think? Personally, I think there comes a time when we should draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. I understand that retail sales are important for the economy, but people are also important. There are plenty of days and plenty of nights between November 24th and December 25th for people to buy gifts, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with giving people – a lot of them low-paid and working two jobs to put food on the table – a day off from work with pay. I think it would be nice to keep one secular holiday, one day out of 365, apart from the rest and let it be a special day for everyone. If the issue was public safety employees working on Thanksgiving my thoughts would be different, but it’s not and I don’t think the economy is going to crumble into dust and ruin the nation if the doors to retail stores are closed for 24 lousy hours.

What do you think?

Bit Three:
Clichés. We see them in bad books and poorly written TV shows all the time and we hear them on the radio with every other Pop song that gets played. But can Classical music be cliché? On the radio this morning they played “Morning Mood” from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite and four seconds into the piece I’m seeing Bugs Bunny skipping down a flower-lined path tossing flower petals from a basket left and right before he starts dancing circles around a confused Elmer Fudd.

Here it is. What/who do you see when you close your eyes and listen to the music?

Tell me, is it just me, or does Edvard Grieg look a little bit like Mark Twain?