Remember when Black Friday was actually on Friday?
Yeah, hard to recall, isn’t it.
I just watched a J.C. Penney commercial that boasted of its stores opening at 3pm on Thursday.
I’m not sure what everyone else’s tradition are, but in my family, we’re eating Thanksgiving dinner at 3pm. We’re having family time at 3pm. We’re not thinking of running into Walmart or Target or Macy’s to get the lowest price on a new TV. I don’t know what other families do on Thanksgiving, but I do know that 3pm on Thanksgiving Day is not a time to be searching for deals.
In 2010, the only major retailer that opened on Thanksgiving Day was Toys R US (at 10 p.m.), and the next early-birds to follow opened at midnight on Black Friday.
But then, in 2011 Target decided to open at 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, and the frenzy began.
Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Best Buy, and more all decided to push their hours to midnight on Black Friday in an attempt to clinch the consumer dollar on this special new “holiday.”
But how did we let this slip away from us? We saw this coming. As soon as a superstore like Target decides to open on Thanksgiving Day, things get real. Everyone is going to follow. And they sure did.
2012: Kmart, Walgreens, Michaels’, Walmart, Sears, Toys R Us, and—your greatest friend—Target all opened their doors Thanksgiving Day.
And now, as we fast forward to Black Friday 2015, it’s dead. Kmart, Walgreens, Michaels’, Walmart, Sears, Toys R Us, and Target all have hours on Thanksgiving Day. The earliest begins at 6am, and the latest is 6pm—on Thursday. And that’s not even including the multitude of other stores who’ve decided to join the Thanksgiving craze.
How can this be okay? How can these retailers steal Thanksgiving from us? We subscribe to this idea that the best deal is the happiest deal, but is getting that low price really worth giving up treasured family time? No. It’s not.
But the big corporations like Target and Walmart are trying to convince us it is.
I’m not going to tell you to stop Black Friday shopping. I’ve been before, and I love it. But Thursday night is too soon.
Let Thanksgiving remain a day to remember what we’re grateful for and a time to be with family and friends. Don’t let the need for material things spoil that.