Why so many Thanksgiving Day sales?

November 22, 2006

So I know that Black Friday has become the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, when so many stores open extra-early with doorbuster specials meant to entice customers and their wallets.

But this year I’m seeing a bunch of stores planning to jump the gun early and open on Thanksgiving itself instead of waiting for Friday. Meijer, KMart, and CompUSA are three that I’m aware of. I’m sure there must be more planning to do the same thing.

Is that really necessary? My fear is if these retailers do well this year then next year it will only encourage more stores to try opening on Thanksgiving itself instead of waiting for Black Friday.

I understand that the consumer is the single biggest driver of our economy but really can’t we just take one day off from being consumers? The only thing we should be consuming on Thanksgiving day is some turkey and yams. Plus some pumpkin pie. With lots of Cool Whip.