It's On: Retailers Skirmish Over Thanksgiving Day 'Black Friday' Sales

By Beth Dalbey

A sure sign “Black Friday” shopping – and, increasingly, Thanksgiving Day bargain hunting – is out of control: Retailers start shaming their competition for opening before the pumpkin pie is served.

TIME reports that a slew of big-name retailers – Costco, Sam’s Club, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Dillard’s, Nordstrom, DSW, PetCo, GameStop, Burlington Coat Factory, Marshall’s, T.J. Maxx and others – have made a point of telling bargain hunters they won’t miss a thing if they stick around home not only for the pie, but also a turkey sandwich as they collapse in front of the TV for NFL Thanksgiving football.

Macy’s set off the one-upmanship when it announced Black Friday sales would start two hours earlier than in prior years, at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving. Kohl’s and Sears fell in line with 6 p.m. openings, and J.C. Penney jumped ahead in line and said it would open at 5 p.m.

(Of course, they’re minor league bargain-apalooza players compared with Walmart, which closes many of its stores only on Christmas Day; Kmart, which will open well before the turkey goes into the oven, at 6 a.m.; and other big-box stores like Best Buy and Toys R Us, which seem to open earlier and earlier each year to snare their share of Black Friday deal hunters.)

The stores eschewing Thanksgiving hours are marketing themselves as family friendly.

For example, Iowa-based Von Maur, which has 29 stores in 13 states, said it wasn’t going to sacrifice its values for the sake of a sale.

“Some things are sacred, including spending time with family and loved ones on Thanksgiving and other holidays. We profitably run our business during the remaining 358 days of the year, so we don’t have to sacrifice tradition for the sake of sales,” Jim von Maur, the department store chain’s president told TIME. “Our family-oriented focus has been the cornerstone of our culture since 1872, and that is never going to change.”

Tell Us:

• Do you plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day? Does a retailer’s decision to open on Thanksgiving change your buying habits there?

Costco said in a statement that “our employees work especially hard during the holiday season and we simply believe that they deserve the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their families. Nothing more complicated than that.”

There’s even a Boycott Black Thursday Facebook page, which states in its “about” section:

“Target, Walmart, Best Buy and other major retailers have made the decision to open stores for “Black Thursday” shopping as early as 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day. This means employees will be forced to work the majority of the day and evening in preparation for the huge sale. We believe this is an unethical decision that does not consider the families of the men and women who work at these stores, so we’re boycotting Black Thursday. Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday that is meant as a day for giving thanks for what you already have, not as a day for shopping for material items that you probably don’t need. We suggest you boycott Black Thursday as well and tell the big box stores that it’s okay to save at least one day every year where we can set aside our desires for more possessions and be thankful for what we already have.”

In her column in the Detroit Free Press, On Style writer Georgia Kovanis says the stores’ collective statement against Thanksgiving Day openings won’t have much overall impact.

“For the most part, the stores that plan to remain closed aren’t generally known for their door busters. They aren’t the types of stores – we’re talking Home Depot, Lowe’s, JoAnn, Nordstrom, Saks, Neiman Marcus – where people stand in line, waiting to pounce on dirt cheap large screen televisions or Lego kits.

“Sure, they may have some nice sales, but really, when was the last time you or someone you know interrupted your holiday dinner to wait outside Home Depot for a drill or trash cans? Or hightailed it to JoAnn for a glue gun?”

Many Americans agree that the move by some retailers to remain closed on Thanksgiving Day is largely symbolic.

According to a survey by Accenture of 2014 holiday shopping patterns, 45 percent of consumers say they will shop on Thanksgiving. About half of them plan to go to stores between 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving and 5 a.m. on Black Friday.

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Video and screenshot via YouTube