Thanksgiving has become more than just a day of food and family. Thanksgiving is becoming the day before Black Friday which means “in the black” or “profitable” (Benjamin R. Barber 391). Stores stay open for pre-Black Friday sales instead of being closed for the holidays. The retail and marketing industry tries to do everything it can to advertise or build new shopping malls. On every holiday they find reasons why people shop. There are four non-work days and ninety-six hours of shopping on the weekend after Thanksgiving. All major holidays are becoming days and reasons to shop. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Television and radio stations say Black Friday involves using government spending and increasing profits. Moms agree that one day is not enough time to do all their shopping and dads think the stores should stay open the day after Thanksgiving because they can't get enough of the stores' low prices. Stores continue to celebrate Black Friday because they give their customers what they want. Benjamin R. Barber says people like to shop, but not all the time. According to him, “Black Friday is a supply-side phenomenon that is the result of companies “pushing”, not “pulling” (Benjamin R. Barber). Marketing and advertising are the main things that push people to buy the items sold and have increased by a quarter of a trillion every year and what encourages the shopping maniac. Shopping addiction is a serious problem for more than twenty million Americans who regularly shop without purpose. Rather than satisfying real needs and wants, capitalism produces needs and wants to sell all goods, whether they are wanted or not, and must sell to stay in business. Real needs, such as clean water, are disappearing in third world countries, while bottled water, an artificial need, is pushed into first world countries that have free tap water. Black Friday is not a day to please its consumers, but is used to please its shareholders who benefit from people buying the goods. It pushes consumers to buy things they don't need so that companies can make more money. Soon there will be nothing left of Thanksgiving and all that it represents. People who live for Black Friday need to learn that stores offering low prices on items aren't doing us favors, they're doing it for their own benefit. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Black Friday has never been a big part of my life.