How do you feel about the earlier store openings?
It used to be that Black Friday shoppers could get at least a few hours of sleep before racing out in the pre-dawn darkness in search of deals.
No longer.
Target, Best Buy, Kohl’s and Macy’s are among major retailers planning to open at midnight Thanksgiving night, making Black Friday — the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional start of the holiday shopping season — an ideal event for night owls.
Some retailers aren’t even waiting until Friday for Black Friday to begin. Wal-Mart will begin some Black Friday specials at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving. Toys R Us stores will welcome shoppers beginning at 9 p.m. Thursday and will remain open until 11 p.m. Friday, making for a 26-hour shopping day.
The Outlets at Castle Rock begins its annual “Moonlight Madness” at 9 p.m. Thanksgiving as well. That’s an hour earlier than last year; when Moonlight Madness began in 2007, midnight marked the start.
Some aren’t pleased with Black Friday intruding into the Thanksgiving holiday.
“What happened to FAMILY HOLIDAYS!!” a reader posted on The Gazette’s Facebook page. “The almighty buck pushing in on family time. ”
Anthony Hardwick, a part-time Target employee in Nebraska, has pushed back against Target’s plan to open at midnight on Black Friday by launching an online petition that has gained national attention. And even the retailers aren’t necessarily thrilled by the race to be first. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn expressed unhappiness about the company’s midnight start, noting that it would change Thanksgiving plans for some employees. But, he said, “we made a decision at Best Buy that we need to be where our customers are.”
Merchants are competing for shoppers on a weekend that can be critical for their annual sales and profits, and a growing number fear opening at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m., as they have in recent years, may be too late in this challenging economy. According to a Black Friday shopping survey conducted for the National Retail Federation by BIGresearch, up to 152 million people plan to shop Black Friday weekend, up from the 138 million people who planned to do so last year.
'We have heard from our guests that they want to shop Target following their Thanksgiving celebrations rather than only having the option of getting up in the middle of the night,” said Molly Snyder, a spokeswoman for Minneapolis-based Target.
People in several fields — even retail — have traditionally had to work on Thanksgiving, said Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation. She noted that many drugstores and food stores remain open on the holiday. And Kmart stores have been open on Thanksgiving Day for many years.
“I understand the employee’s concerns, but at the same time, I’m sure if they don’t want to work on Thanksgiving, there are plenty of people who would be happy to step in for them,” Jason “Cliffy” Haag said on gazette.com. “I guess they have to decide which is more important for them, going to work on Thanksgiving night or collecting a paycheck.”
Michael Niemira, chief economist for the International Council of Shopping Centers, is not convinced that the longer Black Friday hours and midnight openings are such a good idea.
“I’m not sure how successful it will be,” he said. “I think it just shifts sales instead of adding incremental business.”
Still, it’s a strategy that many retailers can’t ignore.
“If their competitors are doing it, they are doing it,” he said.
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The Associated Press, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Bill Radford of The Gazette contributed to this story.
STORE OPENINGS
Here is when some major retailers will open their doors:
Best Buy, midnight Thursday
Dick’s Sporting Goods, 5 a.m. Friday
J.C. Penney, 4 a.m. Friday
Kmart, 5 a.m. Friday (also open 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Thanksgiving)
Kohl’s, midnight Thursday
Macy’s, midnight Thursday
Old Navy, midnight Thursday (also open 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Thanksgiving)
Sears, 4 a.m. Friday
Toys R Us, 9 p.m. Thursday
The Citadel mall will open at midnight Thursday, though not all stores will be open; Chapel Hills Mall will open at 6 a.m. Friday, but some stores, including Aéropostale and Victoria’s Secret, will open at midnight Thursday while some others will open in the hours between midnight and 6 a.m. The Promenade Shops at Briargate opens at 9 a.m. Friday, though several stores will open earlier.
Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/black-128797-call-stores.html#ixzz1eLtkN0HX
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