In your area, have they changed Black Friday from that day only to Black Friday "events" that last for days? Here, they start on Thursday now, which means they want you to go out shopping on Thanksgiving. The last thing I want to do after cooking and serving all day is go fight crowds. I guess it's cool for younger people, or those who go to someone else' house for dinner, but for me... no thanks.
I guess I don't understand the complaints about Black Thursday, if you don't want to go that early, then don't, just like people didn't have to do anything on Black Friday. I think it actually is a good thing for people as for the most part, you will be off on Thanksgiving, but not everyone can be off on the following Friday or even Saturday, so now they have a chance to get a few deals.
Like I said, it's cool for other people. It's just not for me. I'm just curious how Black Friday has been extended in other areas as well, because I was really surprised when they started doing that here. That's a good point about people that may only be off on Thursday, so I'm glad I asked about it.
It's a marketing and business thing. I think the market figured out that people love to shop on Thursday after their Thanksgiving dinner and figured "Hey we can totally make more money if we bumped our shopping to Thursday instead of Friday!" This pisses me off, quite frankly. Because unless the store I went to was run by robots and self-check-out, it means there are other people working in the store and missing time off to be with their family. On Thanksgiving. That's just criminal if you ask me (and probably is to some degree but I guess it varies per company). I know if I go Black Friday shopping (which I never do because I don't like dealing with crowds), I will still definitely go on Friday...or you know, wait for Cyber Monday and shop from the comfort of my own home
I never go Black Friday shopping. I have heard of the "Black Thursday" phenomenon and it bothers me too. I suppose most of the people who work retail on those days are people who do not celebrate Thanksgiving anyway, for whatever reason. But you know there are some evil retail managers who force some employees to work on those days even though the employee wants that holiday off. I guess it just makes me sad, because Americans get such little time off from work as it is. Now with this Black Thursday we are being encouraged to spend (possibly our only day off of the week) at least part of the day out fighting crowds and spending more, more, more. It's meant to be a holiday. Thanksgiving tradition has always been a big deal to my family, and none of us would want to go out shopping that day, but I understand many people don't celebrate like us. Even if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving at all, I think you should enjoy the time off from work and just chill, and give the retail workers a break from all the chaos they will have to deal with on Friday as well! It's not like you can't get good deals at other times in the season. I hope Cyber Monday takes over the Black Days so we won't have to hear any more news stories about people getting trampled to death in the crowds at Walmart.
Black Friday refers to getting in the black, starting to make profits. Most retail stores are in the red at least a little until Black Friday, and basically make all their profits between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. I don't shop black Friday though because I do not want to deal with the crowds. It's a fun experience for some people, but I'm not the type. I don't need to buy anything that would be on those kinds of sales anyway.
I really like Black Friday events. I remember some people throwing a fit about department stores opening on Thanksgiving. I don't have a problem with it. If I was still working in a department store, I would work on Thanksgiving for the holiday pay. . I didn't buy much last year, but I am looking forward to great deals this year. I love the early start.
I think the idea is that stores also want to reduce the insane crowds that happen on black Friday. So by starting early, they're hoping they don't get as mad a rush as when stores just open on Friday. It probably really helps business as well as they probably get some people who go out on Thursday,but don't want to get up super early for Friday morning deals.
Yep, it's all marketing. They want to lure shoppers out of their homes on Thanksgiving and black friday. Lots of stores do different deals for each day. I for one love to stay at home on thanksgiving, eat wayyyy too much, and be lazy I usually don't participate in black friday either. I do not have the patience to deal with crazy crowds.
I feel sorry for the staff who are forced to work, cutting short their holiday because of Thursday openings. Most stores will feel pressured to do so, though some will start their online sales on Thursday instead. It's when there are limited numbers of items that people line up and wait for. I don;t think it makes people spend anymore, though they think it might.
You're implying that businesses care about serving their customers with shorter lines on Black Friday and reducing the stress on workers, but that's just not the case. It's all about the money. By opening the doors on Thursday night, retailers can get a head start on Black Friday, and consumers have stupidly shown a willingness to come out in droves on this day. It doesn't necessarily reduce the rush of Black Friday itself, either, as sales are still going on that will draw consumers out the next day, whether they went on Thanksgiving or not. It's just another instance of companies putting profit over all else, which I'm not totally against, but come on, opening on Thanksgiving?
Exactly. So many people have been hurt and killed during previous Black Fridays, like the Walmart worker who was trampled to death. I think they are trying to mitigate the crowds by spreading out the sales over several days.
I have mixed feelings about making employees work during the holidays. While it sucks for people who want to spend time with their families, but are forced to work and get paid crap wages on top of it all, there are also people who have nothing to do on the holidays, and actually enjoy the opportunity to get out of their house and do something rather than sitting around alone and depressed. I think the stores should just use a little more discretion on who they put on the schedule for those days, and reach out to see if any employees actually do want to work those shifts. I'm sure there would be some that do want to work them. For many years, my friends and I would go out to the bars on Thanksgiving and Christmas evenings, even after a long day of food, family and gifts. Most of the time we were so stressed out with dealing with out own families, we needed to get out and go have some drinks among ourselves and recoup, lol. Some of the gay bars in my area do full dinners during the holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, since some of the patrons don't have spouses or kids to celebrate with, they can socialize and celebrate among each other. Plus it would suck for people not celebrating those holidays in the first place, since most stuff is shut down. Not everyone is fond of Thanksgiving and not everyone celebrates Christmas. Some people even chose to volunteer during these times instead, and help with the homeless.
