NEW YORK—From Black Friday to … Black Thursday? To gain a bigger slice of the holiday shopping pie, some retailers have pushed up their schedules in the face of increasing competition.
Many big-box retailers—such as Target, Kohl’s, and Best Buy—have announced that they would open at midnight on Black Friday, or the Friday after Thanksgiving, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year.
But Wal-Mart Stores Inc. revealed that it would open its stores at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day nationwide, an unprecedented move that could force its competitors to also shift their holiday store schedules.
Walmart stores will feature discounts on home goods, toys, and some apparel items beginning at 10 p.m., while promotions on electronics and gadgets will begin at midnight.
In a sales preview for the press, Wal-Mart said that 10 p.m. promotions include Barbie dolls at $5 and Xbox 360 video game console with Kinect (as well as a $50 bonus card) for $199. At midnight, customers can expect Blu-ray players at $49 and laptops as low as $250.
“Our customers told us they would rather stay up late to shop than get up early, so we’re going to hold special events on Thanksgiving and Black Friday,” said Duncan Mac Naughton, chief merchandising officer, in a statement.
Wal-Mart isn’t alone in pushing sales dates earlier. However, it is attempting to trump its competitors by being the only big-box retail presence open on Thanksgiving.
Best Buy, the nation’s biggest electronics retailer, is also opening its doors at midnight on Thursday, Nov. 24, albeit reluctantly.
“We were going to be open at much more civilized hour, like 3 or 4 (a.m.),” Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn said in a speech at the Business for Social Responsibility Conference in San Francisco last week, according to the conference website. “I know that the decision has been a bit controversial with some of our folks. But the truth of the matter is, the customers will be out there, lined up, for that midnight opening.”
Essentially, Dunn said that Best Buy had to open at midnight because of some of its competitors in retail, such as Target, Kohl’s, and Macy’s, all of which announced earlier that they would open at midnight on Thursday.
According to reports, Target is also considering whether to open its stores on Thanksgiving Day.
But some say that this game of Black Friday “one-upmanship” may have gone too far, at the expense of customer experience as well as the wellbeing of store employees.
On Best Buy’s Black Friday promotion website on Facebook, some consumers have said that they prefer later opening times.
“I would rather stay home on Thanksgiving night,” one consumer said in her comment. “I feel bad for the Best Buy employees that have to cut their Thanksgiving short to work this shift.”
“Not worth the angst!” another declared, but so far, more than 8,000 people on Facebook have indicated that they would “attend” the sales event.
