By Robin Fiedler

Thanksgiving-Day sales are catching on. Forget a prolonged turkey dinner and leisurely pumpkin pie dessert. Black Friday sales are bleeding over into the Thursday Thanksgiving celebrations, especially in the world of online shopping.  freedom-from-want-posters

In previous years, a few physical stores have been open, such as Kmart and Wal*mart on Thanksgiving Day proper. In 2007, an ABC News article reported Thanksgiving Day store hours: "'Kmart's opening at 7 a.m. . . . That's pretty aggressive,' said Christine Augustin, a retail analyst at Bear Stearns. 'There's a lot of midnight madness where the mall's opening at midnight and having bands and entertainment,' she added.  CompUSA is open tonight from 9 to midnight. It's enticing shoppers with sweet deals and serving free pumpkin pie."

Hence, shoppers can eat their turkey dinner, clean up the kitchen, and then head to their local retailer for dessert. Do shoppers like the idea? "In New York, some shoppers ABC News talked to liked the idea. 'It gives us the opportunity to kind of have a split day where we're spending time with our family for Thanksgiving and yet we still have an opportunity to get out and shop,' said one shopper."

One shopper, however, does not make a trend. Kathy Grannis with the National Retail Federation claims that besides shopping increasing on the Saturday and Sunday following Black Friday in 2008, "Thanksgiving Day also continues to increase in importance as the number of people who shopped on Thursday was up 48 percent over last year (16.2 million people vs. 10.9 million people)."

According to a 2007 Washington Post article, "Ellen Davis, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation, said the Thanksgiving openings may be a way of generating early enthusiasm ahead of a holiday season that's widely expected to be sluggish. Still, she said, no matter how stiff the competition is, for those new in the game, opening on Thanksgiving is still considered a tough decision when weighing employee time off and other factors,"

Retailers who opt out of opening physically rely on their virtual stores. Online shopping has allowed retailers to operate 24 hours a day, and as they promote Black Friday on their websites, the number of consumers who browse the web and make purchases on Thanksgiving Day is rising. comScore, a company that measures online consumer activity, released the numbers for online shopping. On Thanksgiving Day 2008, shoppers spent $288 million online compared to $272 million in 2007, up 6%.

Some online retailers offer preemptive Black Friday discounts. Many, however, do not allow Black Friday discount prices to kick in until 1am on Thanksgiving night or early morning Black Friday.

Not everyone is happy; the net is filled with blogs and editorials expressing anger and derision at retailers who 'dare' to be open on Thanksgiving Day. The assumption was that once stores open their doors, consumers are forced to enter through the glass gates into the florescent-lit aisles to roam like hungry zombies searching for flesh. But in reality, we have a free will to choose to shop or not, and it's nice to have the option.

Footnotes

Bomkamp, Samantha. “Retailers Focus More on Thanksgiving Day.” The Washington Post. 22 Nov. 2007.

“E-Commerce Spending Jumps 15 Percent on Cyber Monday to $846 Million, the Second Heaviest Online Spending Day on Record.” comScore. 3 Dec. 2008.

Grannis, Kathy. “NRF Survey Finds Black Friday Gets Holiday Season Off to Energetic Start.” National Retail Federation. 30 Nov. 2008.

“Why Wait? More Stores Open for Thanksgiving Shoppers.” ABC News. 22 Nov. 2007.

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Interested in shopping on Thanksgiving Day?  Check out our Thanksgiving Sales page!