At last count, an online petition asking the new owners of Peck’s Markets to close the doors to its local grocery stores on Thanksgiving Day had more than 840 signatures. 

As the petition says, “Many large and small retailers across the nation have made the decision to close on Thanksgiving to honor their teams and promote a healthier work-life balance. We believe Foodtown, as a new member of our community, should respect that spirit and help keep the tradition of family-focused holidays alive.”

The words “as a new member of our community” jumped out at me when I first read through the petition a few weeks ago, adding my name to the list of local citizens who have long used the days and weeks before Thanksgiving to plan and prep for a day of cooking, eating and football-watching. 

Since childhood, those of us who have grown up in this community have known that stores would be closed on the holiday. 

We’ve known this means we need to plan ahead, mapping out the meal, hitting the stores for all the fixings, and filling the fridge and the pantry with those extra “just in case” items that allow us to pull off the biggest meal of the year without a hitch. 

We’ve also known that if we don’t stock up before the big day, we have only ourselves to blame. Our lack of forethought should not prevent others from enjoying the day at home with their own families. 

Isn’t this what it means to live in a community? To think about the needs of the other people who surround us, and not just our own? To act in ways that will benefit us all? 

Sure, there are people whose work must go on even when the majority of us are gathered ‘round the family table, from the EMTs on the ambulance on call in case of a medical emergency to the 911 dispatchers on hand to take those emergency calls to the highway crews called out if there’s a storm. These people are part of our community too as they think of us, their friends and neighbors. They act for us, and they deserve our thanks on Thanksgiving and every day throughout the year. 

There’s not much we can do about bad weather blowing into town on Turkey Day or any of the countless medical issues that crop up around the holidays, necessitating a fully staffed hospital. 

So we do what we can do. We shop early. We stock up our shelves. We find ways to give as many of our friends and neighbors a chance at a happy Thanksiving as we can. 

Procrastinators, please consider this your official warning: We are officially one week and two days away from Thanksgiving. 

If you’re thinking about putting off your planning — and your shopping — until the very last minute, do us all a favor. 

Don’t. 

Pies can be baked up to two days before the holiday