It aint what it used to be! Let's discuss early opening times...

[Iliveforblckfri]

My problem is that I am already tired and I haven't started shopping yet. It is a lot more work now than when there were two - three stores to go to and that started at 6 am.

[Shellyshopper]

I am an old timer Black Friday shopper back when everyone I knew thought I was nuts to be going out shopping at 6am! (yes, Best Buy used to open at 6am on Black Friday about 10 years ago and I was able to arrive at 5:45 and still buy front page items). Now that Black Friday is a news event and everyone knows about it, I don't think brick and morter Black Friday shopping is targeting the well educated extreme deal shoppers. Those consumers are doing research, reading blogs, websites etc. and they know that the best way to shop is online, cherry pick Black Friday extreme deals and shopping on other days. Retailers need foot volume and items to be purchased in their very high overhead stores, not just used as research centers for online purchases. I think these new store hours are looking for those people without the time or desire to do a lot of research to find the best deals, those not willing to shop in the middle of the night and those people who find the experience fun (something for everyone). They assume all purchases on Black Friday are a great deal. The real profit margin is in all the non-door buster items that people pick up because they are already in the store and everyone around them is shopping. This year I am going out but like last year most of my real shopping will already be done on my computer. I am now taking my 13 year old daughter out with a group as a social outing. Last year we went and a lot of her friends were talking about it ahead of time, posting on social media sites pictures of themselves at 3am and then talking about it afterwards. I have to admit that with my daughter with me, we bought a lot of items just because we were out. Now we need to decide "when" to shop for this experience. I am not willing to shop from 8pm Thanksgiving night throughout the entire night. hmmmm ...

[jenirvt]

I won't leave the house til about 3:45am-ish on BF. I refuse to cut Thanksgiving with my family short, and usually by 8PM on Tgiving I'm so full and sleepy that going anywhere sounds wholly unappealing Thankfully I'm not in the market for anything "major" this year, so I think going out Friday AM will suit me just fine.

 

Last year, I actually went to a lot of the major retailers (Target, WM, TRU etc) in the morning around 8AM and there was still lots of stuff left! I found everything I wanted and the stores were dead, I didn't even have to wait in a line to cash out! I'm hoping that I have the same luck this year. I do think that the whole concept of Black Friday is dying....most stores are opening on Thanksgiving and starting doorbusters, etc before Friday even rolls around.

[MICKEY3601]

Forget Black Friday, it is rapidly becoming Black Thursday. What happened to everything but the gas station being closed on Thanksgiving. All the people who work in retail for Black Friday no longer get to enjoy their Thanksgiving. Such a shame. You used get the paper with all the ads on Thursday and spend all day planning for Black Friday but long gone are those days. After spending all day Thanksgiving cooking an entertaining I am ready for bed at 8pm for a few hours of sleep before waking in the middle of the night to go get in line for the 5am-6am store openings. Now you do not even get time to digest your Thanksgiving meal before having to rush out the door at 6pm for the 8pm opening!! To me the earlier and earlier store openings are ruining my Black Friday tradition. I miss the old Black Friday's. Personally I blame K-mart 1st (For being open on Thanksgiving) & Wal-Mart 2nd (For the earlier & earlier doorbuster times) for my Black Friday being ruined. Edited November 14, 2012 by MICKEY3601

[DownNDirty]

I started working retail when I was 15 years old in 1995 at K-Mart. Our town had one of the bigger/better K-Marts in the region and really still does good business all things considered. K-Mart was open on Thanksgiving Day even back then but our hours were something like 8:00 A.M - 6:00 P.M. And then we didn't reopen until 5:00 A.M. on Black Friday. I worked that madness from 1995-2001 before I was able to get out of retail and into banking. As a 15 year old kid on my first Thanksgiving/BF I was totally shell shocked. I had never seen anything like it and was not prepared for what happened. I'll never forget standing on a chair over the automatic doors and triggering the sensor on Black Friday for the doors to open. The people literally knocked the chair out from under me and I hung over the door while people ran between my legs trying to get in the store for the big ticket items.

 

As someone who was forced (no choice in spending time with family) to work the 8 hour shifts on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday every single year I really hate it and sympathize to the retail workers who have to be on hand. I thought we had it bad - and really putting the screws to the high school kids by making them work 8 hours on the holidays was bad - but this madness is even worse. I can't imagine how big of a scheduling nightmare this will be for the stores. And how bad of a deal it will be for their employees who will maybe be forced to work some during the day on Thanksgiving, come back that night, and then likely work a long shift on Black Friday and into the weekend.

[shay]

Ugh. I remember when I worked retail, I would have to go to bed at like 3pm in order to be awake at and work by 11pm for a midnight opening and a 12 hour shift (at 9 weeks pregnant). I think that retail workers miss Thanksgiving regardless. They're either having to go to work, or having to go to sleep

[Elmck]

One of my DS's works for Best Buy. He has to be at work at 11:00 PM off at 4:00AM and back to work at later that day until close. It would not be so bad if he could go home and sleep. but his his DW has to work so he will be home with a 2 year old and a 10 month old. Not much sleep for him.

[sweetdiggity]

Wish these retailers would make it like it used to be, early Friday morning, not Thursday.

It's technically not Black Friday anymore, so they either need to stop calling it that or open Friday instead. LOL

[tinkrbel]

I got a rude awakening last night when I called my Walmart and was told they'll be open Thursday then close at 11 and open again at 6 for BF. I'm going in tomorrow to get clarification. I just don't see how the pm sale things will be paid for and out the door by 11pm for closing time.

[wittenlover]

Oh wow. Yeah that sounds like your WM could descend into total chaos pretty quickly with a plan like that, tinkrbel. I don't even go anywhere near the WM stores by me. The people that go there around here are too dang crazy! lol

[TazErase]

Do you guys think you shop for a longer or shorter overall time in stores because of the Thursday night openings?

Well I'll probably be first on line for about 4 or 5 stores due to the different time openings. Priority #1 is first for Best Buy, so anything before that is out. After that I can do Lowe's, Harbor Freight and others and possibly hit a few others. In between I may make a stop at other stores that are open. I will have my list with me of what opens when, etc. Might be an idea for an official thread with a list of all start times that is updated as new ads come out.

[TazErase]

I am an old timer Black Friday shopper back when everyone I knew thought I was nuts to be going out shopping at 6am! (yes, Best Buy used to open at 6am on Black Friday about 10 years ago and I was able to arrive at 5:45 and still buy front page items). Now that Black Friday is a news event and everyone knows about it, I don't think brick and morter Black Friday shopping is targeting the well educated extreme deal shoppers. Those consumers are doing research, reading blogs, websites etc. and they know that the best way to shop is online, cherry pick Black Friday extreme deals and shopping on other days. Retailers need foot volume and items to be purchased in their very high overhead stores, not just used as research centers for online purchases. I think these new store hours are looking for those people without the time or desire to do a lot of research to find the best deals, those not willing to shop in the middle of the night and those people who find the experience fun (something for everyone). They assume all purchases on Black Friday are a great deal. The real profit margin is in all the non-door buster items that people pick up because they are already in the store and everyone around them is shopping. This year I am going out but like last year most of my real shopping will already be done on my computer. I am now taking my 13 year old daughter out with a group as a social outing. Last year we went and a lot of her friends were talking about it ahead of time, posting on social media sites pictures of themselves at 3am and then talking about it afterwards. I have to admit that with my daughter with me, we bought a lot of items just because we were out. Now we need to decide "when" to shop for this experience. I am not willing to shop from 8pm Thanksgiving night throughout the entire night. hmmmm ...

The stores are realizing people will line up regardless of how good the deals are at this point. They used to go all out for Black Friday and place all the best sales on that 1 day. Now they spread the deals out every weekend with early openings, etc. The deals get worse, the start times earlier, and they don't put all their best deals in a day sale.

[TazErase]

Forget Black Friday, it is rapidly becoming Black Thursday. What happened to everything but the gas station being closed on Thanksgiving. All the people who work in retail for Black Friday no longer get to enjoy their Thanksgiving. Such a shame. You used get the paper with all the ads on Thursday and spend all day planning for Black Friday but long gone are those days. After spending all day Thanksgiving cooking an entertaining I am ready for bed at 8pm for a few hours of sleep before waking in the middle of the night to go get in line for the 5am-6am store openings. Now you do not even get time to digest your Thanksgiving meal before having rushing out the door at 6pm for the 8pm opening!! To me the earlier and earlier store openings are ruining my Black Friday tradition. I miss the old Black Friday's. Personally I blame K-mart 1st (For being open on Thanksgiving) & Wal-Mart 2nd (For the earlier & earlier doorbuster times) for my Black Friday being ruined.

All I can say to that is THANK YOU GOTTADEAL.COM FOR POSTING THE ADS EARLY ENOUGH THAT WE CAN MAKE OUR CHOICES BEFORE THE OFFICIAL ADS COME OUT IN THE PAPER ON THANKSGIVING DAY!!!!!

[TazErase]

Wish these retailers would make it like it used to be, early Friday morning, not Thursday.

It's technically not Black Friday anymore, so they either need to stop calling it that or open Friday instead. LOL

I agree. As a veteran of about 19 years of doing Black Friday, it has changed A LOT, and I don't like it. Yes I am an addict and I will still be camping out a few days early, but it's not so much for the deals any more as it is for the tradition and trying to retain my "crown" as the current 3 time first on line at Best for 2009, 2010, 2011, as well as 2007 and 2006. ok so 2005 and 2008 someone beat me, lol. Fact is my biggest concern is making sure I'm first at all cost even though many of the items I'm getting can either be bough early online since they are not doorbusters or in other stores for the same price or close, althoug some of the items include a BB gift certificate, another new thing BB is doing this year. At least MOST places did away with the rebates... I hated having to mail in 30 rebates every year for Circuit City, Staples, and many of the other retailers. I think Staples is one of the only ones left that has rebates, and I haven't bothered shopping there for the past few years since I can get other items similar without the hassle of laying the money out to get it back 6 weeks later.

[beeman65]

I think we should get use to stores opening on Thanksgiving Day. In this economy, stores are looking for creative or different ways to increase customers and sales. All it took was for Store A to have this idea, open on Thanksgiving Night, have success, and now Stores B, C, and D want in on that action. Within a couple years, everyone is doing it and the deals are spread out. Someone probably got paid a lot of money to basically say, "Open Thanksgiving Night and spread the deals over the weekend for increased customers and sales."

 

The mainstream media has caught on to this, along with the rise of social media, and now BF shopping is the cool thing to do. Which is why many of you have noted that teenagers and first timers are out and about more than ever. Years ago I remember the thrill of viewing a leaked BF ad on this site because you thought it was a secret. Now, it is no big deal. I have gotten emails from Target showing off their ad already. Its all mainstream now. I remember going to a Macy's when they opened at 5AM (which made you felt like you were getting exclusive deals by them opening a few hours early) to get some items. There was no line, but it was like a busy Saturday there. No one was putzing around window shopping. People were moving, getting their things, and moving on. You felt like it was an underground club and if you told friends and family about it, you got laughed at. Now they are the ones out doing the shopping.

[Svuroo]

I don't think the trends we're seeing will last forever. I already see interest in Black Friday dropping. The boards around here are usually a lot more active at this point.

 

Plus labor is protesting this and I think that trend will increase.

[Needs a deal]

If only they would all open noon Thursday we could forget the pain of a ugly pain riddled holiday

[guilliam]

I hate the earlier shopping times and because of them I don't shop nearly as long. We used to go to the local Walmart and then head to the malls in the next town because our small town only has a Walmart. Because of having to stay up late to go to Walmart, I plan to just go home afterwards. With that being said, in my opinion, the REAL problem with the Black Friday sales are that the retailers aren't taking into consideration that we can get on the internet and get deals every day. I currently have 95% of my shopping done and it was all done online (my UPS man loves me lol) The stores need to offer sales that make it worth my time to go to their stores and shop, and the sales that I've seen this year don't do that. As I said, I will go to Walmart,unless I am able to get the 2 things I want online between now and then.

[DivaOfDeals]

I preferred the early morning openings. The overnight part of the wait in line is the worst and I prefer it to be the "home stretch". This year I'm getting in line Wednesday night. I'm going to be in line the entire day Thanksgiving. I at least wish SOME stores didn't open until Friday morning so I could have a second shot at doorbusters.

[happysunshine28]

I will miss shopping online thursday and hitting walmart friday. Maybe the online sales for Wednesday will be just as good, lol.

[BlackFrdayVet]

tl;dr

 

But you can blame online retailers "amazon" for the midnight/late thursday openings.

[JohnnyLaRue]

Not a fan of the change. What is next moving it to Tuesday? Thanksgiving is family time and not everyone is lucky enough to have family close enough where they can see each other often

 

I agree with others that this change may result in meaner and aggressive crowds.

 

I do my shopping online now and would not be braving the crowds if I was in the USA this year.

[smorebore]

Black Friday was a tradition that was enjoyed by my husband and me only. Kids would leave with Gramma and we would enjoy wine while making our game plan. THis will no doubt be our last year. We did our normal 5am last year and NO ONE was out. Stores were empty. I am thinking...have 2 galsses of wine and shop online!