On Thursday, will you be holding a turkey drumstick or a credit card? That’s the decision that many consumers are weighing this year as a growing number of retailers are participating in Gray Thursday, the Black Friday Creep or Turkey Day (whatever you wish to call it) and offering deals to anxious Christmas shoppers.
Although it has been a popular concept that Black Friday is the best time to capture the greatest savings, new data from an analysis suggests this isn’t necessarily so. When is the most opportune day? Thanksgiving.
The Associated Press’s researcher Market Track published an analysis of promotions and discovered that shoppers will find better deals and savings on Thanksgiving than on Black Friday. For instance, there are 86 laptops and tablets discounted as door buster deals at a wave of retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, on Thanksgiving. However, there are only nine the day after.
With consumers refraining from heading to the shopping mall on Thanksgiving, they can simply travel to a website and garner bigger discounts as online prices are about 24 percent cheaper compared to 23 percent on Black Friday and 20 percent on Cyber Monday.
Fox Business opines that this suggests retailers are gradually redefining the shopping days. For years, it was Black Friday that was the most popular day for shoppers as they thought they would snag the best deals ahead of Christmas. However, merchants are shifting that time to Thanksgiving.
This year, retailers are opening early on Thanksgiving, which has many upset and outraged. Sears, J.C. Penney, Kohl’s, Macy’s and a lot of others are opening in the late afternoon on Thanksgiving – Kmart is open at 6 a.m. But there are numerous renowned brands that are refusing to open their doors on a day that is celebrated with friends and family: Costco, Barnes & Noble, Sam’s Club, Home Depot, Nordstrom, TJ Maxx and Marshall’s.
As Margie Fishman of USA Today sardonically writes, consumers may forget about feeding the homeless, refrain from watching the big NFL game and perhaps take part in a Burger King feast ahead of traveling to Wal-Mart for the latest PlayStation 4 deal. “Others can avoid the knife-fighting and cart blockades by simply toting their smartphones to the dinner table – a new Thanksgiving tradition,” wrote Fishman.
Industry professionals are concerned, however, that they will refuse to participate in the consumption experience on Thanksgiving in favor of eating a nice dinner in the comfort of their own home and spending time with their family.
The outrage over retailers turning on the lights on Thanksgiving is being misdirected, writes Laura Heller of Forbes magazine, who argued that the one demographic that is most to blame for this trend of the holiday creep is millennials. Heller cited a LoyaltyOne survey that found half of U.S. consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 think Thanksgiving Day shopping is perfectly fine, and they may even partake in it.
“For younger shoppers, shopping on Thanksgiving and Black Friday is as much a social experience as it is a buying mission,” said Prosper’s Principal Analyst Pam Goodfellow. “While these shoppers may not have the biggest holiday budgets or the longest shopping lists, they still enjoy the ‘tradition’ of heading out with friends and family on two of retail’s most exciting shopping days.”
Are you still on the fence of whether or not to take out your wallet on Thanksgiving? Saving Advice released 10 reasons why you should forget about shopping on this sacred day. Some of the ideas consist of spending your time in a more constructive manner, you don’t need the stuff being peddled, the crowds are a rabid bunch, it causes over-spending and you likely don’t have the money.
