US stores spark shopping frenzy as they open earlier on Thanksgiving
Print Edition
Shoppers in the US kept up a two-day buying marathon yesterday that began when more than a dozen major retailers opened on the Thanksgiving holiday, a break with tradition that drew protests from staff.
About 15,000 people waited for the flagship Macy’s in New York City’s Herald Square when it opened at 8pm on Thanksgiving. It was the most ever, up from 11,000 last year.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Terry Lundgren, Macy’s CEO. “Clearly people are in the shopping mood.”
Across the country, the frenzy continued overnight and through the morning of Black Friday, which until recently had been considered the official start to the holiday shopping season and the biggest shopping day of the year. It was named Black Friday because that was traditionally when retailers turned a profit, or moved out of the red and into the black.
But in the past few years, retailers have pushed opening times into Thanksgiving night. They’ve also moved to discounting in early November, instead of waiting until Black Friday.
The earlier openings and sales were met with some resistance. Some workers’ rights groups had planned protests on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday because they opposed having employees miss family gatherings. Some shoppers had said they would not venture out on Thanksgiving because they believe it was a holiday to be spent with family and friends.
Curtis Akins, 51, sat on a bench at 5am yesterday as his wife looked for deals at a mall in Atlanta’s northern suburbs.
“I think it’s going to end because it’s taking away from the traditional Thanksgiving,” he said of the Black Friday tradition.
But that sentiment didn’t stop others from taking advantage of the earlier openings and sales.
“We like to shop this time of night ... We’re having a ball,” said Rosanne Scrom as she left a Target store in Clifton Park, New York, in the early hours.
Last year, sales on Thanksgiving were US$810 million, an increase of 55 percent from the previous year after more stores opened, according to research firm ShopperTrak. But sales dropped 1.8 percent to US$11.2 billion on Black Friday.
Some big chains are already proclaiming a successful start to the holiday shopping season. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer started its holiday shopping sales events at 6pm on Thanksgiving, two hours earlier than last year.
It said customers bought 2.8 million towels, 2 million TVs, 300,000 bicycles and 1.9 million dolls.
Rival Target, which opened at an hour earlier this year at 8pm on Thanksgiving, said traffic in the early hours of Thanksgiving on Target.com and at its stores later in the day was “strong.”
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