JACKSON, Miss.–For the past few years, Black Friday has crept in Thanksgiving day with many big name retailers opening their doors that night.
The name of the game for most, if not all, stores opening early is profit over everything else. This year’s shopping season is almost a week shorter than 2012 because of where Thanksgiving fell this year.
Many smaller, local retail stores remain shut during turkey day and Claude Gunter of Claude Julian’s in Kosciusko said that’s the way it should be for stores.
“That’s a major thing for my family in spending time together,” he said. “And people from bigger cities see this as a breath of fresh air.”
Gunter said the press to kickoff holiday shopping earlier and earlier each year hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“This has gone on now for at least the last ten years with big retailers,” he said.
Gunter said he thinks it shows just how dependent the American economy is on the Christmas shopping season.
Just a few of the stores that will be open on Thanksgiving are: Belk, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Gap, K Mart, Macys, Old Navy, Sears, Target, Toys R US, and of course Wal-Mart.
For an interesting Facebook Group called “Boycott Shopping on Thanksgiving” you can click here. They have kept up with the “Naughty and Nice” list of which stores are opening and forcing employees to spend time away from their families.
Gunter talks about the early shopping season below.
