Will You Shop on Thanksgiving?

I'm probably not their Target (or Walmart) customer but I am interested in the trend for moving Black Friday up a day.

Part of me looks at this question and wonders what the draw is? Does the extra 4 to 8 hours of shopping really make a difference? If you really want to increase the shopping opportunities between Thanksgiving and Christmas, how about simply keeping doors open later? Open at 8 AM and close at midnight, or go 24 hours.

If you want to draw more customers in during those extended hours ... offer loss leaders on other days than Black Friday.

Then we get to the question of "Do we really need to sacrifice the family time of Thanksgiving so retailers can make a few more bucks?" Now I've shopped on Thanksgiving and Christmas and been very appreciative of the convenience stores that were open. But that doesn't mean I want the whole country going to work on Thanksgiving Thursday. I like the fact that my family gets together. I'm sure other families like this too.

The preference for retailers would be to have the stores open everyday of the year. This holiday thing just gets in the way of corporate earnings and profits.

My preference is to stage an Occupy Main Street protest and simply stay home. Shopping is crazy enough during the holidays. Doing it with crazed housewives focused on getting the best deals they can find is way more than I can handle.