In the last few years, the trend for retailers itching to generate substantial sales in the final two months of the year is to launch Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving, a time when families are together cutting the turkey, imbibing gravy and passing the stuffing.
This year, retailers are doing the exact thing that many had worried would happen: opening earlier on Thanksgiving for the Black Friday sales, otherwise known as the Black Friday Creep.
Macy’s announced that it would open its doors at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, which is two hours earlier than last year. The company noted that the 6 p.m. opening is a “response to the significant, sustained customer interest in last year’s opening on Thanksgiving, both at Macy’s and other retailers.”
Last month, Macy’s confirmed that it would be hiring 86,000 seasonal workers for the upcoming holiday season, a 3.6 percent jump from 2013.
In previous years, Macy’s hesitated following other stores in opening on Thanksgiving. However, the retailer reluctantly opened its doors last year at 8 p.m. Other stores did the same thing across the United States, including Target, Sears, Kohl’s and J.C. Penney.
Kmart outdid everyone last year as it stayed open for 41 consecutive hours when it turned on the lights at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving until 11 p.m. Friday night. Old Navy, meanwhile, opened at 9 a.m., Toys R Us opened at 5 p.m. and Best Buy opened at 6 p.m.
Although there have been critics lambasting the business strategy, store traffic on last year’s Thanksgiving increased 27 percent to 45 million people. Black Friday, however, remains the most popular shopping day of the year with 92 million consumers shopping.
Opponents make the case that opening doors on Thanksgiving takes away family time, especially the employees that fill the shelves and cash out customers at the register. In addition, they believe it diminishes the value of Thanksgiving and just another day to shop.
Proponents say that consumers usually wait outside in the cold on Thanksgiving night and stores are simply accommodating them. Retailers aver that employees usually volunteer to work those hours because it provides them with extra pay.
Companies have been trying to make the extra effort on Thanksgiving financially rewarding for employees. Not only do workers get time and a half, Walmart employees, for instance, receive a free holiday meal and a 25 percent discount on all items in-store.
“We also heard last year from many associates who appreciated the opportunity to work on Thanksgiving so they could have time off on Black Friday,” Holly Thomas, a Macy’s spokeswoman, wrote in a statement to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Additionally, associates who work an opening shift on Thanksgiving will be compensated with incentive pay.”
Others also like to point out that those same critics often don’t complain about NFL games being played, movie theaters staying open, restaurants serving patrons and all of the other entities that remain open on Thankgiving. Some economists simply allude to the fact that it’s the store’s right to open whenever it feels like.
