Who's Going Shopping On Black Thursday?

Wal-Mart, Best Buy and others are opening on Thanksgiving day this year. As much as I'm all about Black Friday and waking up at 3am to get to the stores early with my Mother and deal with the insanity (it's tradition for us when I fly down and we actually do have a lot of fun) I think stores opening up on Thanksgiving day is just wrong. So many people are going to opt out of spending the day with their families so that they can line up at Best Buy to get a cheap computer and that's just sad.

But of course with people who depend on Black Friday to do their Christmas shopping (and even personal shopping that they're able to do once a year for things they need) since they don't have a lot of money, it's kind of a no-win situation for them since they'll have to miss Thanksgiving in order to do this.

I feel sorry for the employees, since I doubt employees of stores like that have much say in their work schedules. (In other words, I doubt that it's on a volunteer basis.)

Some of the loss leaders are great deals, but I have never been a fan of crowds to begin with - so a black Friday/Thursday night seems literally like hell on earth.

I don't shop when there are crowds. I don't care what day it is!

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What if someone threw a consumer whore party and no one came?

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i dont see a problem with it...the girls can all go shopping after dinner when the men are watching their football.

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I have NO IDEA where anyone would get the idea that it is trolling.

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Pinnocchio/GretchenWeiners/Jordan, if people want to go shopping on Thanksgiving, why do you care? to each their own

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Updated On: 11/12/13 at 01:17 PM

Listening to Diane Rhem today I heard about the horrors of what it's like to be a worker bee at an Amazon.com "fulfillment center" and the human toll it takes for Americans to sit at their computers and have items speedily shipped to them for free.

It really is remarkable that a company that doesn't make a profit can effectively wipe out whole industries (farewell American bookstores) and cause physical damage to underpaid employees. Talk about your end stage capitalism.

Knowing things makes shopping in the US a complicated experience.

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Luckily KMart workers can't afford food or families.

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I know some people who are working on Thanksgiving and are delighted to get holiday pay.

Not saying it's true for everyone, but they are being compensated for it.

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Taz, I think it's fine if it's their choice. And I'm sure it can be useful for some people to be able to shop that day.

Was it Bergdorf's or Bendel's that held out from opening on Sundays for years?


I remember their ads were in the same spot every week in the Sunday paper "Never on Sunday" (or words to that effect).

What quaint, old-fashioned notions--newspapers and making a gesture to the idea that there is more to life than consumerist consumption.

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