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As Black Friday approaches, I am seeing more and more advertising materials. Between the customer facing ads I get myself (via email and my mailbox) and the newsletters I am getting from the merchants I promote, it’s obvious that everyone is ready to start making that anticipated holiday money. But at what cost?
When I was younger I would get up early with my mom and go Black Friday shopping. That was officially the start of holiday shopping season. More recently, companies started running their “Black Friday” deals online on Thursday. (I’ll admit that I sometimes check those out while watching football.)
Now I am hearing more about brick and mortar stores that are actually starting their holiday deals on Thursday…Thanksgiving…in the morning! And I am sure that there are plenty of cash back and deal sites who will be running big fun things on Thanksgiving to try to capitalize.
I will not be one of them. Sunshine Rewards will not be one of them.
My company will be closed on Thanksgiving. Just like it was last year. In fact, we even let our customers know in advance that we will not be working on that day and that they can reach us again starting Friday morning. We’ve sent out emails in the past saying that we will be closed so that our employees could spend time with their families. Not a single customer has ever complained.
Why am I so adamant that we will not be open on Thanksgiving even though I know that we could probably make more money if we were? Quite a few reasons.
First, I’m busy on Thanksgiving. Plain and simple I have a lot to do! Between turkey baking and wine drinking and football games, time is of a premium on Thanksgiving.
Second, Thanksgiving is a family day. For pretty much the entire rest of the year I am on a laptop, tablet, or phone working. Whether I am in my office or my family room or even the school pickup line, I am always working off and on. Thanksgiving is one of the only days of the year where we are all together without work or school or dance class or Zumba or any other noise. If there were ever a time to truly focus on spending time as a family without any distractions except for food and football, it’s Thanksgiving.
Lastly, everyone deserves a break. My customers deserve a break from endless streams of sales emails in their inboxes. I deserve a break from the computer. Affiliate managers deserve a break from hearing from me. If we all agree to take a break on the same day, it can work out. When others don’t follow our lead, it creates expectations that we should all continue to be online because others are.
You could make the argument that I will still make money on Thanksgiving because people can technically still shop through my site. That’s true. But it is a fraction of what I would make if I were out pushing deals that day. I could even automate my Daily Deal newsletter to go out that day, but I won’t. I don’t want people looking for the email. I want them doing whatever it is they like to do on Thanksgiving. If that includes online shopping, they can feel free to visit my site. I just won’t be on it.
Will you be working on Thanksgiving? Is it too good a marketing opportunity to miss?
For me, it depends on how you celebrate Thanksgiving… And I respect that! I do also the belief that I have to put into my customers and my employees!
I respect your decision to close on Thanksgiving. Most people that make a living online spend Thanksgiving making sure they are posting and updating with Black Friday deals or other offers that go out over the weekend.
It bothers me that affiliates have to work on Thanksgiving because merchants are still making changes for Black Friday up through Thanksgiving. We had a few made MAJOR changes that we had to account for.
But it is also different to work behind the scenes because you CAN as opposed to either requiring your employees to work that day or having customers to expect you to be open.
As Americans we have lost so many basic freedoms in recent years because we as a society have allowed it to happen. It feels so good to see a person of Integrity like yourself stand up and do what’s right even if you could cash in and feed that “Greed Monster” like so many others are doing.
Thank you for being a great American and not losing sight of what’s most important in these holidays. Congratulations and best of luck to you. Enjoy Thanksgiving!
p.s. “can we still call it Thanksgiving”? lol
Dave Puckett