Opening on Thanksgiving Backfires for Retail Stores

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/2014/12/01/opening-thanksgiving-backfires-retail-stores/

Retailers that open their doors on Thanksgiving Day in hopes of boosting holiday sales are shifting purchases away from Black Friday, rather than increasing the number of overall transactions.
According to an initial reading of data from consumer analytics firm ShopperTrak, “combined sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday fell 0.5 percent from the same period last year,” the New York Times notes.

The data shows that sales increased 27.3 percent on Thanksgiving Day, but fell by 5.6 percent on Black Friday. A different survey from IBM also found that online shopping was up 14.3 percent on Thanksgiving Day from the same time last year.

“People are changing their behavior,” said Bill Martin, ShopperTrak’s co-founder. “We’ve seen this for two years in a row now. Stores opening on Thanksgiving are simply eroding sales from Black Friday.”

Some stores decided to stay closed on Thanksgiving Day in order to preserve the holiday for their workers and avoid siphoning off Black Friday customers. But at least 12 major chains were open on Thanksgiving Day, staffed by workers who have very little to say in the matter. Some are told that they will face repercussions if they refused to work on Thanksgiving and those who volunteer tend to do so because they are part-time, underpaid employees who are given erratic schedules and need all of the hours they can accumulate.

[TwilightGardener]

1. I can't understand why people can't just fucking go one DAY without shopping.

A non-religious holiday. It's insane--and I have a couple family members that are perfectly happy to go shopping on Thanksgiving, which is why these retailers are ruining the holiday for its workers.

[Cha]

11. +1~

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. I know someone who put on QVC on Thanksgiving day.

[BlueStreak]

16. How about taking the whole season off?

How about buying what you need when you need it if you can afford it?

This whole shopping season is such crap. It is the result of a hundred years of brainwashing.

People, take control over your lives.

[Thespian2]

19. K & R +++

Last year I discussed Black Friday with a business man who owns several stores as well as real estate. According to him, and he should know, stores make a profit on crap sold on BF because the companies make really cheap merchandise for the BF weekend. Thus the $190, 50 inch TV, was built for at least 30 maybe 40 bucks. Glad people camped out to buy cheap crap that they don't need.
(sarcasm)

[PatrynXX]

48. still getting over 4K TV's on newegg for $400

O_O

cheap crap for $400 Vizio 4k just under $1000 might be okay but not Chongchong.. something smells?? yeah Fire. They killed black friday. Now I'd rather work on Thanksgiving and later on Christmas day but not Christmas eve/morning. Make some darn good money on Thanksgiving but from a biz point of view killing black friday is moronic.

[joeglow3]

50. That is true.

Look at the specs and the tv's on Black Friday are shit. So are the laptops and most gaming consoles. Now, my wife and I do Black Friday shop, but stick to stuff that truly is a good deal (got a ping pong table and foosball table for over 50% off).

[yeoman6987]

27. If you have children, that is impossible

On Christmas morning, oh Santa decided to skip our house? Good luck with that. There is no way I would do that to children. And you can't go back to giving oranges and needed clothes. No you need Frozen, apple products, gaming systems etc. this is not 1800's anymore. Sorry it just isn't.

[liberalhistorian]

34. No, you do not "need" them now

and neither do children. We've just brainwashed the children and consumers into THINKING they need them. I never plied my son with material crap like that for Christmas; in fact, we'd often be helping other kids on the holidays. Yes, he got gifts, but I never put up with the "everyone has this new fancy gizmo and I have to have it too or I'll just die" bullshit. And guess what? He SURVIVED into adulthood. He not only survived, he turned into a very giving, non-materialistic young man who is far more concerned with others than in having the newest gadgets and gizmos and material bullshit.

For the kids who just have to have the latest crap or they'll die, they need to be shown that there are countless children in this country alone, let alone much poorer nations, who don't even get enough to eat and often go to bed hungry, or not enough warm clothing, etc. I live on a poverty-stricken Indian reservation in the west where too many people struggle just to live every day. I have very little patience with posts such as yours, frankly.

[Caretha]

41. You are a sad

little person if your Christmas is all about that. I'm so so sorry for you.

[yeoman6987]

42. Oh brother.....we go to church too

We do it all! No need wasting your time crying for me. Others need real concern.

[BlueStreak]

44. How about if Santa leaves

an allowance, a token, a chit that the child can use any time during the year? I am not opposed to kids getting some things that make them happy. I am opposed to the feeding frenzy that we are all brainwashed into participating in.

It seems to me there could be a "teachable moment" for both children and adults here. And in the process you could teach children from an early age to be smart consumers.

[yeoman6987]

45. Your ideas are fine

I just think too many things have been taken from kids already. They can't even celebrate their birthdays at school anymore. Christmas is out. Forget playing outside for all hours doing this and that. We have taken enough away. I want kids to be kids one day a year and of that spoils them. So be it.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

47. Time to teach the kids the difference.....

Between "need" and "want".
They, and from your post, apparently you also "want" those things.
You don't "need" them.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

[Scootaloo]

52. Well, if you have the cash to burn on that stuff, do whatever you like

Really, what you're describing is a situation you put upon yourself.

[Scootaloo]

51. I "dropped out" of the holidays years ago

I still cook dinner for my family for both christmas and Thanksgiving, and those closest to me get gifts - mostly of the meaningful or useful variety (it helps that my family tends to collect stuff, and doesn't have expensive tastes). But other than that? "Holiday shopping" is not in my vernacular.

Interestingly enough, this dropout from the "shopping season" roughly coincides with my decision to cut television out of my life. if I'm interested in a show, I find it online. It's been a decade since I owned a television, and so it's been a decade since I had that damned thing screaming at me with demands that I throw my wallet at the screen.

Probably the best decision I eve made. it also makes those occasions where I do watch TV - such as during visits to my folks - vastly more entertaining... because I can watch the commercials and I feel like Xi from "The Gods Must be Crazy." These things are just completely alien. What's more, you start wondering how these things could ever sell anything to anyone... and htne you notice your little 3 year old cousin sitting on the floor bopping his head to the tune of that jingle...

[hedgehog]

21. I think shopping has become a major, unrecognized sport.

Note I said shopping, which isn't the same as buying. There are people who get a kick out of cutting out every coupon in every ad and traveling store to store to see if they can get the best price on something. Trying on clothes they have no means of actually purchasing is a major activity for some people. Take a look at mall parking lots December 26 - lots of people give out gift cards because the pleasure of shopping for oneself is a major part of the gift.

Before you criticize it, consider our other major national sport - watching young men run full speed at each other to knock the other player to the ground hard; ruining their knees, shoulders and elbows and losing brain power to repeated concussion in the process.

[notadmblnd]

28. I don't understand it either

I haven't spent a dime in over a month.

[titaniumsalute]

43. I walk into a mall maybe twice per year

Once around Christmas to get a few things for my wife and kids...and it seems mid Summer I'm in need for some clothes. That's it! Besides the big stores I couldn't even tell you what stores are in between the Dept stores. (OK I know there's a Food Court with those pretzels. Yumm.)

[joeglow3]

49. Or go to fucking Burger King. Or fucking walgreens. Or the fucking gas station.

Or the fucking movie theater. Or fucking sporting events. Or watching the fucking news. Or one of the fucking other places that has been open on thanksgiving for fucking years that no one fucking cared about.

[ReRe]

2. I'm with grouchy cat:

Good!

[zentrum]

3. I think of it

...as an addiction. And on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the dealers of this particular drug are offering bargain prices for the fix.

Some can't resist. It gives them an actual short lived adrenalin rush to shop, get the article and find a bargain. Nothing to do with "values". It's a "fix".

[montana_hazeleyes]

7. And nothing proves your post more

than the wacky as people who actually camp out for days to be front of the line at some stores!
Every year I see that and just shake my head in What the hell?

Oh, I just love ticked-off kitty! lol

[Beartracks]

4. There's only 'X' amount of shopping that will occur, no matter how many days you open.

Did stores really think, "Hey, if we open on Thanksgiving, we'll get TWO Black Fridays!!!$$!"?

===================

[lunasun]

8. +1 exactly !

[C Moon]

10. I kind of thought this all started because the recession limited buyers' money...

Then, one of the major outlets (Target or Walmart) started opening at midnight (or thereabouts) on Thanksgiving to get more of the shoppers, so other stores followed to get the dollars; this year it bled into opening on Thanksgiving Day.

Maybe now that times are getting better for some, these heartless corporations can ditch this cold idea of opening on Thanksgiving.

[Beartracks]

20. Well, true -- Open early, entice buyers to avoid crowds by coming to YOUR store

So, not TWO Black Fridays, per se, but a bigger slice of the Black Friday pie.

But, yeah, with economic changes and more shopping options (more stores opening earlier and earlier, increased online shopping, Small Biz Saturday, Cyber Monday, etc.) the whole Black Friday rush is getting diluted. There may no longer be a good bottom-line reason to open up on Thanksgiving anymore.

I guess we'll see.

====================

[jmowreader]

13. Especially when the same stores were also running "Black Friday All Month!!!" sales

[OldRedneck]

5. No doubt . . .

No doubt the idea of opening on T'giving Day as well as on Black Friday so as to attract TWICE as many shoppers was the brainstorm of a bright young Harvard Business School MBA who was admitted as a legacy and who never pulled a 12-hour shift on the sales floor.

[Trajan]

9. Hey ... you have 420 posts ...

just sayin ....

[Hekate]

14. ?

[herding cats]

17. Four-twenty is marijuana day!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_%28cannabis_culture%29

[Trajan]

25. ? ... I thought everybody knew this

[Hekate]

29. Apparently not

Always glad to learn something new, though.

[JI7]

6. there was more criticism this time about forcing people to work on Thanksgiving

so maybe people are becoming aware more. they don't even have to totally boycott the stores. just not shop there on thanksgiving day and i think most people were ok with that.

i also wonder if more people went out of town for this thankgiving because of low gas prices and so they would prefer to spend the day with people they don't see regularly than out shopping.

[Liberal Lolita]

12. There has been a lot of backlash

against Thanksgiving store openings. People letting the retailers know that they won't waste their money at the stores that open might get through to them. These numbers give me hope that is happening.

[herding cats]

18. There's still only so much to be purchased

No how early they start the holiday season, or if they're open on Thanksgiving, or not. People still will only purchase a finite amount of items. Pretending otherwise is insanity.

[CrispyQ]

31. This:

People still will only purchase a finite amount of items. Pretending otherwise is insanity.

[greatlaurel]

39. You hit the nail on the head.

These business executives must not understand simple math.

[BlueStreak]

46. Microeconomics versus macroeconomics

Is is like the old joke about the two campers who heard a bear prowling outside the test. One camper said, "Do you think we can make a run for it and outrun the bear?" The other camper said, "I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you."

If Target is opening on Thanksgiving, they don't believe that will create more spending at the macroeconomic level. But they do figure they will get some of Nordstrom's share if Nordstrom's stays closed on Thanksgiving.

[joeybee12]

22. Good is right...knr

[niyad]

23. grumpy cat has it right. besides, we all know that the best sales start on 26 dec!

[eridani]

36. Yep--that's when I pick up next year's cards and ribbons

I already have all my presents wrapped and ready to go.

[HockeyMom]

24. Stores track you online

My DIL wants a set of pots and pans as a present. I went searching around online before Thanksgiving. Found a good deal at one store online. The price at the physical store was higher for less pieces. I decided to wait for Cyber Monday.

I went online Monday and the price was HIGHER than either in the store or previously online. Made me furious. Then I went on FB to talk to my daughter, and there was a pop up for the pans, AT THE LOWER PRICE. Somehow they knew that I looked before Thanksgiving, and after. To get my business, they gave me the lower price, not listed on their online site.

My husband, works in IT, said yes, that there is a program that can do this. If they want the business, they are willing to keep a previous/potential customer by offering it just to certain customers at a lower price.

Hell, I will take a $50 lower price with free shipping!

[hifiguy]

26. Excellent - screw the greedheads for

making their employees come in on Thanksgiving.

Grumpy Cat speaks for me.

[CrispyQ]

30. Rec'ing for the story, but I love the cat!

I spent zero money on T-day & got a haircut & some booze on Black Friday, both local shops.

[eridani]

35. I have a link stashed in my files for cases like this.

Seemed particularly important for this issue.

[Cleita]

32. I agree with grumpy cat.

I made a point of not shopping at all this whole weekend. It's time to end the insanity.

[liberalhistorian]

33. Good. Fuck any retail store that opens

on Thanksgiving and bonus points if they discipline or fire employees for daring to want to actually spend a holiday with their families instead of refereeing crazy materialists who think stuff is more important than a holiday with family or allowing others to have a holiday with family.

There is NO reason for a retail store to be open on Thanksgiving, period. They are not a fucking hospital or emergency room or fire/police station, or other essential services that need to be open all the time. There is NO fucking reason for them to be open, period.

[greatlaurel]

37. Well said!

Exactly. All these business execs must have fried their brains at the same frat parties in college. Forcing people to work on Thanksgiving and trying to force people to shop for some phony bargain is beyond idiocy. Karma would be for all those execs that went along with this idiocy to get fired and be forced to work retail jobs.

[LiberalElite]

38. Yeah but they have a Plan B -

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/super-saturday-will-be-a-really-big-deal-for-retailers-this-year-2014-12-02

"NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Saturday before Christmas, or so-called Super Saturday in retail parlance, could be this holiday season’s biggest shopping day of the year.

After retailers’ Black Friday sales declined, Super Saturday, for the first time since 2005, is expected to edge out Black Friday as the top sales day of the year, according to mall-traffic tracker ShopperTrak.

With many stores shifting their openings to Thanksgiving, Black Friday sales fell 6.8% to $9.1 billion, ShopperTrak said in a news release Tuesday. The four-day holiday weekend sales fell 2.1% to $21.8 billion. The ShopperTrak figures only cover in-store sales; a different survey by the National Retail Federation estimated sales both in stores and online over the four days plunged 11%.

“Four days is just too much for consumers to endure,” said ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin."

[Baclava]

40. Not for me ... my sister has a holiday job at Kohls.........double employee discount

Those Colombia fleece jackets are mighty nice

thanks Sis ..I'll take 2



$30

[MADem]

53. Give people CASH for a holiday gift.

Sure, it might seem cold and uncaring, but if you're giving money instead of a stupid frou-frou gift to someone who NEEDS money to maybe make the light bill or pay the car note or get their kid's school lunch account out of arrears, you can be damned sure they appreciate that cold hard money more than they do some frou-frou gift.

I put "thought" into my gifts in that I give people who need more a bit more.

It's enough Holiday season work for me to find the cards to put the cash in.

[Blue_Adept]

54. I continue to be glad that few stores are open in MA

due to the various laws in force here.

But at the same time, I've spent the last ten or twelve years doing all my Christmas shopping online outside of a couple of items. A good part of it tends to revolve around movies as you get the best deals at this time of the year. Build up a nice wishlist that you would normally buy spread throughout the year, get it all on one weekend and save upwards of 70%. Then I've got plenty of movies to watch over the coming year at my leisure.