Shoppers enjoy the experience
Target CEO Brian Cornell, CBS This Morning: “We spend a lot of time talking to our guests, the shoppers who come to Target. And we listen to them really carefully, and they’ve told us they enjoy the experience. So we’ll open up at 6 p.m. (on Thanksgiving Day). Last year we had millions of shoppers in our stores, and we expect the same experience this year. .... It’s a big event. We see families turn out. We see brothers and sisters kind of reuniting in our stores. … So I’ll be out there. … I really appreciate the fact that our team members want to work on Thanksgiving. … They get time and a half for those days. … They’re excited to come out. … It’s really when Target’s at its best.”
Daniel B. Kline, The Mot
ley Fool: “Black Friday has for many retailers become Gray Thursday as the traditional start to the holiday shopping season has moved from the day after Thanksgiving to late afternoon or early evening on the holiday itself. That’s an unfortunate thing for those who liked spending a day off with family, basking in the afterglow of a big meal, watching football. ... It’s also unfortunate for the retail employees who would rather not work that day, but like it or not most large retailers have to open on Thanksgiving as long as their competitors do. ... Even with the season stretching out and more sales moving online, the American consumer has shown a willingness to line up outside of WalMart, Target, Best Buy and other chains before they have finished cleaning up from their Thanksgiving meal. ... Any chain that chooses to close has almost certainly done so at the cost of sales it will never see back.”
Bob Greene,
CNN.com: “Black Friday has become a holiday of its own. ... Black Friday — with its door-buster sales, hordes of frenzied shoppers shoving for position, employees nervously waiting for the onslaught — has shrugged off the confines of its name and has now established squatters’ rights on Thursday. ... Established religious holidays, such as Christmas and Hanukkah, have long been occasions for gift-giving. ... Black Friday does away with the middleman — in the universe of holidays, it is the only one that exists solely to sell merchandise. It celebrates nothing; it commemorates only itself. It is an annual festival of the cash register.”