Black Friday has become “Black Thursday” with deals right on Thanksgiving Day. Here’s a look at how low prices will go. Walmart will start its real deals at 6 pm on Thursday. Among the jaw-dropping offers, according to DealNews.com:
- 50-inch LCD HDTV for $288
- 32-inch LCD HDTV for $98
- iPad Mini for a net cost of $199 ($299 – $100 gift card = $199)
Walmart will also offer wristbands this year for “guaranteed products” like the ones listed above. Getting a wrist band means you’ll get the product at the advertised price, if not that day, at least before Christmas Day. The wristband idea will also free up shoppers to go and make purchases throughout other areas of the store, liberating them from the long lines and avoiding customer melees. It’s a brilliant idea.
Walmart is far from the only store opening on Thanksgiving. A partial list of the other retailers doing the same at different times throughout Turkey Day includes Target, Toys R Us, Macy’s, Kohl’s, and J.C. Penney.
Many people have said they are annoyed by the retail salesfest encroaching too far on the American institutions of family and football that usually mark the fourth Thursday in November. But this is only happening because people in the past have shopped in huge numbers when retailers tested the waters on Thanksgiving.
As the comic strip Pogo used to say, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Meanwhile, you know that distinction where stores are dark on Thanksgiving and the day after people line up in the dark like crazy? That’s so over. Black Friday is now a multi-week extravaganza. It’s a state of mind, more than a day of the week.
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