I am NOT impressed that the “Black Friday” deals are starting as early as 8pm on Thanksgiving this year.
In the last couple years we’ve seen the 5am Black Friday openers turn into 4am, then 3am, then midnight. Now the big box stores are opening on Thanksgiving in the evening while we otherwise would all lay around, stuffed from having just finished our huge meals.
All You Magazine shared these sale start times:
- Walmart, 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, select Black Friday deals
- Kmart, 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, select Black Friday deals
- Sears, 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, select Black Friday deals
- Toys R Us, 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, with free goody bags for the first 200 shoppers in line at each store and another door-buster deal at 5 a.m. on Black Friday
- Target, 9 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, select Black Friday deals
Best Buy, Macy’s and Kohl’s will all open their doors at midnight on Black Friday.
I’ve already looked at the Target ad, and must say, there ARE some very good deals. A lot of half price deals for electronics that caught my eye. View it here.
So what do families do? I know many spend Thanksgiving day looking through all the big Black Friday ads and planning their shopping for the following day. But now, those plans must be made WHILE dinner is cooking (moms often doing both), because the best deals will start earlier than ever this year.
I’d prefer they keep the deals for Black Friday itself, and not cut into Thanksgiving family time. But since greed seems to win for the big retailers, here’s what you can do to take advantage of the big deals without sacrificing family time:
1) Plan ahead. Study the ads ahead of time. The big stores have already leaked their ads, which helps. See ALL the ads in one place by visiting The Black Friday website. Have your shopping plans mostly in place before the family is all together.
2) Flip Thanksgiving. In previous years, due to work plans and other obligations, my family has celebrated Thanksgiving after the actual day. My family will be visiting from Friday to Sunday, and we’ll be eating our Thanksgiving turkey on Saturday. That gives all of us Thanksgiving to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, prepare for visiting and plan our shopping. Though it sounds odd, it actually has worked for us. We get our shopping done before we even sit down for the big meal together. It certainly takes the distractions away – we’re not thinking about what stores to hit first while trying to have a family conversation at the table.
I realize not all families have this option – many work in retail and cannot possibly take Friday or Saturday off. (Though many will now be working ON Thanksgiving anyway!!!) But if your family can, it’s worth considering.
Check back to my site as I’ll be sharing more Christmas and holiday season shopping tips soon!