Friday, November 23, 2007
Holiday shopping hours
are getting out of hand
EDITOR:
First, let me say that my background is in the area of advertising, marketing and PR. I am also a female who likes to shop just as much as anyone. But I can’t understand why some retailers are opening their doors at 4 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving. First, it was “door busters” at 7 a.m., then 6 a.m., etc. But now, four o’clock in the morning?
This means that the employees of these stores must wake up around 3 a.m. To receive a good night’s sleep, they will have to go to bed early on Thanksgiving day. What a nice way to enjoy a holiday: thinking about going to work at 4 a.m. the next day.
I also don’t understand the consumers who let themselves be led around the neck by retailers who have no thought or respect for their employees by making them work at ridiculous hours of the morning, plus are also open on the holidays. Consumers must stop patronizing retail businesses that are open on the holidays. To me, it shows total disrespect to something very precious to me: family. It’s not a very pleasant holiday when one of the family members is absent because he/she had to work at a retail store.
To those who were at the stores at 4 a.m. today, I hope the $49 DVD player was worth all the hassle.
C.V. WIRTZ
Canfield
UAW basher was uniformed
EDITOR:
A Nov. 15 letter stated that UAW members should worry about what the future may bring. The letter went on to state “that the members of the UAW are uneducated, overpaid, undeserving and unappreciative.”
I personally take offense. My husband was employed at the Lordstown facility for 40 dedicated years and is a proud member of this union. We raised three wonderful children, two of whom work at Lordstown, along with several other family members. All have had college educations. All are members of the UAW. How does this writer know that these deserving men and women are overpaid? Has he ever been to the plant? Has he put in 6 days a week, 10 hours a day to build a vehicle that ranks in the top five every month? These UAW pay checks pump thousands of dollars into the economy of this Valley.
We are a compassionate group of men and women who are trying to raise their families while supporting various needy groups such as the United Way, Red Cross, Speech & Hearing Center, Beatitude House, The Rich Center for Autism and many many more. This is hardly what I call “unappreciative.”
What does the UAW have to do with legalizing illegal immigrants? We leave that to our government to decide. We support the party that will do the best for the middle class. Otherwise soon there will be no middle class. Further we vote as individuals not as a group, therefore, it is unfair to lump us into a category of “just Democrats.” If the UAW is called “greedy, undeserving, rich Democrats” what are the rich Republicans called?
In closing, it is not only the UAW and the Lordstown workers who have to be worried about the future and what it may bring to this Valley. Everyone who wants to live in this area should be concerned. I can guarantee that if the Lordstown plant would close, who will build or buy the houses? Who will be in the grocery store lines? Who will be shopping in the retail stores? Not the UAW members, as they will be forced to leave the Valley just as the steelworkers did years ago.
GINGER KUBALA
Poland