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Black Friday Now Begins on Thanksgiving Day
Target, Kmart and other big-box stores push holiday sales back to Thanksgiving Day. Is that too early to start holiday shopping?
If you have a black belt in Black Friday shopping, listen up: Area big-box retailers are gearing up to dazzle bargain hunters even earlier this year—starting Thanksgiving Day, right after you put away the pumpkin pie.
Walmart, Target and Kmart are planning all-out holiday shopping assaults. Why doze off in a turkey slump watching football when you can be out taking care of holiday shopping business?
Walmart will offer, beginning at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, holiday gifts for the entire family, while supplies last. That includes an electric scooter for $79, a steam mop for $39 or men's jeans for $9.50. (Why do Mom and Dad always get the boring presents?)
Target's deals begin an hour later, at 9 p.m. According to an ad leaked online, the best deals will be for a Nook, TV and Nikon camera.
Kmart's mega-deals will begin in-store throughout the day on Thanksgiving with special deals beginning at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day continuing until 3 a.m.
Walmart will offer its biggest deals from 10-11 p.m. Thanksgiving night. The store will offer three items at low prices — an iPad, a TV and a Blu-Ray Player — and if the store runs out, you can still buy them but must register for them online by midnight and they'll be delivered to your local store.
According to TheBlackFriday.com, several other stores will also have "doorbuster" sales Thursday night or at midnight Friday, including some Toys R Us, Best Buy, Kohl's, hhgregg, and Macy's stores.
For the traditionalists, several stores open at 4 a.m. with special sales for Friday morning early birds.
If you want to keep up with all of the Black Friday deals, you can check your favorite retailers' Facebook pages.
If there's an upside to spreading out the Black Friday wheeling and dealing, it could possibly lessen the early-morning mega-crowds. A Walmart seasonal employee was trampled to death by a crowd estimated at 2,000 shoppers four years ago at a store in Long Island, N.Y., when its doors opened at 5 a.m., according to The New York Times.
Want to avoid the holiday shopping mega-crowds altogether? Look for Cyber Monday deals on Nov. 26 or visit your local ly-owned retailers on Small Business Saturday, Nov. 24.
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June
8:55 am on Sunday, November 11, 2012
It's unfair to the employees of these retail stores not to be able to spend time with their loved ones on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day. I don't start shopping until 3 or 4 days after Thanksgiving anyway and most of my shopping is online. Blessing to all.
Dave Webster
11:19 am on Monday, November 12, 2012
I agree with June. Can't we give these employees a break? Many of them will have to work. I can wait a day to shop.
Florence Frey
2:29 pm on Monday, November 12, 2012
Give us a break! This is a national day of reverence to spend with our friends and family to reflect on the goodness bestowed upon us fortunate enough to live in this country. Family and friendships should not have to compete with mass consumerism and greediness. We owe a big debt to the brave pilgrims, pioneers and patriots who persevered through all kinds of hardships and wars to establish a new nation of freedoms not found anyplace else in the world. The retailers who open their doors that day are completely out of touch with what is important as are we who do the shopping.
Ken Fredgren
4:28 pm on Monday, November 12, 2012
Greed supplants family time for giving thanks at home. How awful.