Black Friday gets earliest start yet

Black Friday got off to its earliest start ever as the nation's shoppers put down their turkey and headed straight to the malls.

Stores typically open in the wee hours of the morning on the day after Thanksgiving that's named Black Friday, because it's traditionally when they turn a profit for the year. In fact, generations of shoppers have made Black Friday rituals of going to bed early after munching on turkey and pumpkin pie so that they can head out to stores early the next day.

But Black Friday openings have crept earlier and earlier over the past few years as stores have experimented with ways to compete with online rivals like Amazon.com that can offer holiday shopping deals at any time and on any day. And this year, crowds gathered across the country as stores such as Target and Toys R Us opened on Thanksgiving evening, while retailers from Macy's to Best Buy opened their doors at midnight on Black Friday.

About 11,000 shoppers were in lines wrapped around Macy's flagship store in New York City's Herald Square when it opened.

Joan Riedewald, a private aide for the elderly, and her four children ages six to 18, where among them. By the time they showed up at the department store, Riedewalde had already spent about $100 at Toys R Us and planned to spend another $500 at Macy's before heading to Old Navy.

"I only shop for sales," she said.

Retailers are hoping that the earlier openings will help boost sales this holiday season. It is unclear how many shoppers took advantage of the earlier openings. But about 17 percent of shoppers said earlier this month that they planned to shop at stores that opened on Thanksgiving, according to an International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs survey of 1,000 consumers. Overall, it's estimated that sales on Black Friday will be up 3.8 percent to $11.4 billion this year.

Jeff Jones, the chief marketing officer at Target (TGT), says it's the customers who asked for it. "They tell us every year that they would love to be able to shop after dinner on Thanksgiving," he told "CBS Evening News," "and really not battle the overnight scene if they don't have to."

The earlier hours are an effort by stores to make shopping as convenient as possible for Americans, who they fear won't spend freely during the two-month holiday season in November and December because of economic uncertainty. Many shoppers are worried about high unemployment and a package of tax increases and spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff" that will take effect in January unless Congress passes a budget deal by then. At the same time, Americans have grown more comfortable shopping on websites that offer cheap prices and the convenience of being able to buy something from smartphones, laptops and tablet computers from just about anywhere.

That's put added pressure on brick-and-mortar stores, which can make up to 40 percent of their annual revenue during the holiday shopping season, to give consumers a compelling reason to leave their homes. That's becoming more difficult: the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, estimates that overall sales in November and December will rise 4.1 percent this year to $586.1 billion, or about flat with last year's growth. But the online part of that is expected to rise 15 percent to $68.4 billion, according to Forrester Research.

As a result, brick-and-mortar retailers have been trying everything they can to lure consumers into stores. Some stores tested the earlier hours last year, but this year more retailers opened their doors late on Thanksgiving or earlier on Black Friday.

In addition to expanding their hours, many also are offering free layaways and shipping, matching the cheaper prices of online rivals and updating their mobile shopping apps with more information.

"Every retailer wants to beat everyone else," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, a research firm based in Charleston, S.C. "Shoppers love it."

Indeed, some holiday shoppers seemed to find stores' earlier hours appealing. "I ate my turkey dinner and came right here," said Rasheed Ali, a 23-year-old student in New York City who bought a 50-inch Westinghouse TV for $349 and a Singer sewing machine for $50 at a Target in New York City's East Harlem neighborhood that opened at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving. "Then I'm going home and eating more."

Carey Maguire, 33, and her sister Caitlyn Maguire, 21, showed up at the same Target about two hours before it opened. Their goal was to buy several Nook tablet computers, which were on sale for $49.

But while waiting in line they were also using their iPhone to do some online buying at rival stores.

"If you're going to spend, I want to make it worth it," said Caitlyn Maguire, a college student.

By the afternoon on Thanksgiving, there were 11 shoppers in a four-tent encampment outside a Best Buy store near Ann Arbor, Mich., that opened at midnight. The purpose of their wait? A $179 40-inch Toshiba LCD television is worth missing Thanksgiving dinner at home.

Jackie Berg, 26, of Ann Arbor, arrived first with her stepson and a friend Wednesday afternoon, seeking three of the televisions.

The deal makes the TVs $240 less than their normal price, so Berg says that she'll save more than $700.

"We'll miss the actual being there with family, but we'll have the rest of the weekend for that," she said.

While some hoppers appreciated the early start to the holiday shopping season, some workers were expected to protest the expanded hours. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has been one of the biggest targets of protests against holiday hours. Many of Wal-Mart's (WMT) stores are open 24 hours, but the company offered early bird specials that once were reserved for Black Friday at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving instead.

The issue is part of a broader campaign against the company's treatment of workers that's being waged by a union-backed group called OUR Walmart, which includes former and current workers. The group is staging demonstrations and walkouts at hundreds of stores on Black Friday.

Mary Pat Tifft, a Wal-Mart employee in Kenosha, Wis., who is a member of OUR Walmart, started an online petition on signon.org that has about 34,000 signatures. "This Thanksgiving, while millions of families plan to spend quality time with their loved ones, Wal-Mart associates have been told we will be stocking shelves and preparing sales starting at 8 p.m.," she wrote on the site.

OUR Walmart said workers walked off their jobs in stores in Dallas, Miami and Kenosha, Wis., on Thursday. But a spokeswoman for the group did not immediately give numbers on how many workers participated.

For their part, retailers say they are giving shoppers what they want. Dave Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said that the discounter learned from shoppers that they want to start shopping right after Thanksgiving dinner. Then, they want to have time to go to bed before they wake up to head back out to the stores.

Still, Tovar said that Wal-Mart works to accommodate its workers' requests for different working hours. "We spent a lot of time talking to them, trying to figure out when would be the best time for our events," he said.

[phwtb100]

No longer is Christmas about the birth of our Lord and Savior, but about His mortal enemy. No longer is it a simple time of family and friends celebrating the gift of having that family and those friends, but it has become who can outspend who. No longer is it a time of peace and goodwill, charity and love toward our fellow man, but how much we can guilt trip someone into spending on us. What a horrible tragedy, and how sad it truly is, that we have all fallen prey to it.

What would be like if people decided- just once- to spend the holiday celebrating the true reason for the season? What would be the results if we all were to only offer gifts made solely from our most precious and valuable commodity-our time?

Sounds a little ridiculous, doesn't it?

But what WOULD the results be if, all of the "gifting" were about giving the most precious and completely unique gift we all have to offer anyone? Better yet, what would it be like when everyone "unwrapped" the knowledge that by giving only of themselves, they are the ones who will receive the greatest gift of all?

What do you think a mother of a soldier wants more than anything in the world for Christmas? What do you think YOUR mother wants more than anything in the world for Christmas? What about your grandmother and your grandfather? Your father? Your brothers/sisters, aunts/uncles?

What about the all those mothers and fathers that have had to bury their child or worse, bury their children? What gift could any store on "Black Friday", or any other time of the year, offer them that will replace the loss of their child's time? And vice versa, the loss of a parents' time?

What do you think that single person down the hall wants for Christmas? The one that has recently moved to town and hasn't made any friends yet? Or the widow that lives down the block whose children have moved far away? What about a single man who lost his wife and family in a bitter divorce and only has a six pack to celebrate Christmas? What gift do any of those retailers have to offer any of them that would be better than a plate of cookies and a simple smile from the neighbor down the hall/street? What better any "thing" could they have than a friendly hello and a small amount of time, from a complete stranger, spent in friendly conversation?

What then, for the "gifter", would Christmas be?

I wish I could say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year but I can't. It is filled with more grieving memories than any other time of the year; more suicides; more parents filled with guilt or shame because they can't afford for Santa to come see their children; parents who will spend the entire day wondering IF their children will call; a time filled with soup kitchens that don't have enough food to feed all the faces that will walk through their door and not enough volunteers to dish it out even if they did.

But the stores are all filled to overflowing with deep discounts and the newest fads.

What I can say is, the MEANING of Christmas, makes it the most important time of the year for me. While my daughter and her children live far away, and I will spend time missing them as I do every single day, my son and his family live close. While I have already lost both of my brothers and my mother, I still have my father. I have a few friends that I consider to be my very best friends and will take time to pay each of them a little more one-on-one attention and strive to put an extra smile on their face. But most of all, I will celebrate the TRUE reason for the season and give thanks for the most wonderful gift of all- the gift MY King gave me when He came to be my Savior. It is for his birth, and his love for me, I celebrate Christmas.

But, sadly, so long as Christ is replaced with greed as the leading role in the story of Christmas, and people celebrate "Black Friday" and all the other black days to come over the next 5 weeks, only the executives of the giant retailers will truly have a bright and "happy" one.

[myopinionpal]

If stores can afford to sell their products that cheap on black friday and make a profit then they can sell that same product year round at the same low price and make a profit. With that said the consumers are price gouged
through out the year.

[emelder2]

An absolutely awful idea ... my oldest son works retail at Sears and he reports that he was yelled at and cursed at by customers for hours on end. He suggests we enact nation-wide blue laws to protect our last remaining holidays. All of us can help by NOT shopping during these extended black Friday hours. Shame on us all for putting employees in this kind of a situation ... how utterly selfish of us. Let's put a stop to the madness.

[myopinionpal]

I'm for the employees I don't do the black friday thing, I rather pay the regular price than to get out in that mad house and shop. Its a lot better watching people act crazy on black friday on the evening news from my lazy boy.

[myopinionpal]

The headline should read Corporate Greed Gets Earliest Start Yet.

[monvonma1]

It's only going to get worse. :( Consumer and Corporate greed are feeding off of each other.
The stores say consumers want it. Consumers are enticed by the ridiculous "early-bird" specials.
Just cancel Thanksgiving altogether and all head to the strip-mall for National Shopping Day.

[nojoy01]

In a few years "Black Friday" will be starting on the Monday BEFORE Thanksgiving. And the slogan will be "get your shopping done early so you can spend time with your family on Thanksgiving".

There is "mission creep" in the military. Are we now witnessing "holiday creep"?

[DanielCocciardi]

Christmas is a pagan festival; not a holy-day (holiday). If the apostles didn't celebrate it, why should we?

I think parents that go to lengths like this to buy their kids the latest toy are spoiling their children anyway. We should pass out baseball bats at the door of the mall and lock the gate behind them as they go in. Cull the herd.

[democracy8]

I'm not big on the over-commercialisation of Christmas either, but you just sound like a Scrooge.

[8141]

I boycotted this shopping weekend.

These PEOPLE THAT WORK THERE... have NO HOLIDAY...

Ridiculous!! NOT INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING... I ENJOYED Friday...

NOT THURSDAY... DISGRACEFUL!!

[8141]

I boycotted this shopping weekend.

These PEOPLE THAT WORK THERE... have NO HOLIDAY...

Ridiculous!! NOT INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING... I ENJOYED Friday...

NOT THURSDAY... DISGRACEFUL!!