Stores Get Ready To Open For Black Friday Shopping

The NRF, the nation’s largest retail group, expects holiday sales to rise 3.6 percent for November and December, better than the 3 percent growth seen for those months past year. Most of those shoppers will be 18 to 34 years old.

Keith Richardson, managing director retail sector at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “Everything points to Black Friday being as big as ever this year”.

Black Friday has lost some of its luster, with sales starting on Thanksgiving Thursday, and stores are already promoting “pre-Black Friday” sales.

Sears will be open from 6 p.m.to midnight today and from 5 a.m.to 10 p.m. on Friday.

“We do the gift card giveaway every year”, she said.

Notably, past year saw Walmart making an early start and it took off with the Cyber Week on Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend. Mall of America is suspending operations on the holiday, though individual stores in the mall can choose to stay open.

41% of people polled plan to start their online shopping sprees during office hours (9am – 5pm) on Black Friday, with a third of these beginning at 9am.

At Pena’s store, meals will be provided for its workers during the busy weekend.

“The department stores, with the exception of Dillard’s, will be open”, Keating said.

The Somerset Collection, 2800 Big Beaver Road in Troy, is closed on Thanksgiving. “We have 1,500 CBL employees, and nearly 100,000 employees for our stores across our portfolio, and we think that they deserve Thanksgiving off”, he told financial network CNBC.

CBL owns the Fremaux Town Center in Slidell.

While these deals are doorbuster deals and can only be found in-store on Black Friday, Vincent recommends doing the majority of Black Friday shopping online. “But don’t tell my wife about the other stuff”, he said with a smile. “The energy is just phenomenal'”. “It’s really a good time to be a consumer”, said Cornell. “Time just flies by”. And they’re now offering numerous same deals online as they do in stores on Thanksgiving.

For long hauls like that, Tamura said, it helps to have a spot to store their early bargain purchases so they can keep shopping. Stores like JCPenney and Kohl’s began promoting Black Friday sales prices online this week. It was her seventh time in NY but her first time shopping on Thanksgiving.

Target, Walmart and Toys R Us all hand out tickets or wristbands on a first-come, first-served basis for certain hot items where demand may outrun supply. “I always had a houseful”. But she wishes they were after-Thanksgiving sales.

As for how he thinks this weekend will go, Pena said he expects it to be a good one. “They don’t have the option”.

The blog Best Black Friday has a list of when all stores will open on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

This expansion is definitely going to benefit customers. “We were the only store [open Sunday] in the whole area”. Tennessee-based CBL and Associates, which operates 72 malls across 30 states, is one company that had experimented with Thanksgiving Day openings.

“It’s terrible. It’s absolutely disgusting”, Scales said of the Thanksgiving openings.