Is it just me or are they opening earlier and earlier?

[draggar]

Sears is opening at 4 AM.

I just saw a commercial - so is J.C. Penny.

I've heard the same thing as Bookstore Escapee, regarding Walmart.

I have mixed feelings on it. On one hand, I think it will help avoid the crush that caused the employee's death last year. On the other hand, it sucks for the employees that would have otherwise not had to work those hours if the store was closed. Plus, I can just see it starting at about 4:30 or so;"C'mon! Give me the sale prices! It's almost 5:00!"

Mike

What'll happen is that lines at registers will form very early but everyone will REFUSE to have their orders rung up until 5:00AM - leaving people who don't care about the specials (buying needed items etc..) are stuck in the middle.

[Jack T. Chance]

I'm getting really pissed off at all the sacrilegious retailers that want to do away with Thanksgiving as a holiday when their stores are closed!

It was bad enough in the 1990s, when both Kmart and the now-defunct Ames decided to start being open on Thanksgiving Day as part of their rivalry. But then Wal*Mart had to get in on the act, too, because they couldn't possibly let Kmart be open on Thanksgiving Day without having their stores open, too. At least those stores usually have at least a small grocery section, so they at least sell some things that people should be able to go buy on Thanksgiving Day. I can accept it for that reason.

But it's now officially gone too far. Retailers that have NO business being open on Thanksgiving Day are now getting into the act:

• The family of stores owned by The Gap Corporation (The Gap, Old Navy, Eddie Bauer) are going to be open for 5 hours on Thanksgiving Day, starting at noon. So, basically, they're open Sunday hours (Noon-5.)
• I was in an FYE (For Your Entertainment) store last week, and I saw signs saying that they're going to be opening at 10 AM (normal opening time) on Thanksgiving Day and staying open AROUND THE CLOCK, 24 HOURS A DAY until Saturday night, November 28th!

I'm sure there's more examples and I just don't know what they are. I know we're in the midst of a recession, but this is just pure greed, plain and simple. Some soulless, greedy, corporate "suits" somewhere are behind this latest evil plot to do away with one of the 3 major holidays that retail workers usually get to enjoy as a day off.

If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on them repeating these Thanksgiving Day store openings next year. And if the economy's doing better by then, they'll just find some other excuse to justify it. I'd say we should try to convince the buying public to boycott these crass exercises in pure corporate greed, but knowing how many customers can usually be found shopping at a Wal*Mart or Kmart on Thanksgiving Day, and having seen first-hand just how many of them will load the family into the car and go out to see a movie on said day, I know it's already far too late for that.

I didn't used to be this cynical, honest, I didn't. But 20 years of working in retail and customer service tends to have that effect on people.

[draggar]

Sears is opening at 4am, too.

Even if there were some large chains open at 4am last year, it wasn't this many.

Screw the employees (because we all know for a FACT that the people making these decisions will NOT be working at all!) just to raise your profit margins a little.

Ethics? What's that?

[Racket_Man]

I have seen a Toys R Us commercial saying they will open at midnight.

Most of the other stores are advertizing either 4 or 5am openning

[draggar]

Honestly, I think within 10 years we're going to start seeing large chain stores open up on Thanksgiving night (and I don't mean midnight - 11pm or earlier).

Well, we had a lot of retailers opening at midnight here, the largest being Brandsmart and Walmart.

I think within 2 years we'll see stores opening at 11PM on Thanksgiving day - or not even closing just to snag some early sales (like large chain stores).

[Rapscallion]

We've got national legislation over here to prevent stores above a certain size from opening for longer than about six hours on a Sunday, and there are two or so days of the year they can't open at all (Easter Sunday and Christmas day are the two that spring to mind). Of course, before or after the non-opening days, it's bedlam.

Rapscallion

[blas]

My boyfriend and I watched footage on the news last night of people getting ready to camp out and get to the stores opening at 3/4/5 am this morning.

And last night was the coldest night so far this fall.....what are you people, on dope?!

[Racket_Man]

My boyfriend and I watched footage on the news last night of people getting ready to camp out and get to the stores opening at 3/4/5 am this morning.

And last night was the coldest night so far this fall.....what are you people, on dope?!

when I used to work at the gas station(about 3 blocks from the major mall in my town) the camping out starting on Wed night. I went into work at 2:30pm and there were already maybe 50 people in front of Best Buy up the street from my workplace. I got off work at 11pm (Thanksgiving night) and the line was ALREADY around the back of Best Buy and hordes of people were in front of the Mall entrances across the street. had multiple people walk/drive down to my station for coffee and snacks all during my shift

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

My boyfriend and I watched footage on the news last night of people getting ready to camp out and get to the stores opening at 3/4/5 am this morning.

And last night was the coldest night so far this fall.....what are you people, on dope?!

Hee hee. I imagined that in a Mr. Hand from Fast Times at Ridgemont High voice.

But that was probably your intention.

[protege]

When I left for work last Friday...Target was already packed. That is, the parking lot was totally filled, and the 4-lane ramp leading into the lot was bumper-to-freaking-bumper. I drove past that mess, and then encountered the traffic by the mall. It's barely 7am!

At least I didn't have to work the entire day. I was done around 1pm, but I did run some errands, including a hobby shop run. Even that place was busier than normal--most people were buying train-related items.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

The only place I went to on Black Friday was the Kitty around 8 . . . got told to work 2 hours, so I got my order done and was gone by 10 a.m.

Well . . . then Mom wanted to go get something to eat at Chick-Fil-A . . . but then we went back to the Kitty to grab a quick couple of items.

After that, it was straight home. I heard enough on the local news at 6 a.m. about stores being packed with Black Friday shoppers. I'll head out this coming Thursday with Mom, but it'll be to Old Time Pottery (she said the magic words: pocketbooks, wine glasses and charger plates.)

Other than that, whatever else I buy for Christmas will be done online via Amazon. There's simply not enough money you can pay me to battle crowds and human stupidity.

[blas]

Aloha, Irv.

[taxguykarl]

Out of morbid curiousity, I went to the Chicago Outlet Mall. I arrived about 11:30 PM and found a line of cars about 2 miles onto the interstate. I moved to the lane for through traffic and turned around at the first exit past the mall--by then the line of cars was easily 4 miles out onto the interstate.
When I passed my local mall (about 1:30AM) there were people waiting in sleeping bags outside my local Target and Best Buy.
Are the deals really that good?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Aloha, Irv.

So..watching people lined up on the TV, and having some food?

[blas]

Yeah, that was pretty much it.

And listening to the guy on the radio this morning describing his Black Friday experience at Best Buy.

I think he's being a total liar when he said he was in and out in 10 minutes, when he began his story saying how the line was wrapped around the store at 4 am and he and his group were probably at the halfway point of the line.