Why Bother Calling It Black Friday Anymore?

Earlier tonight, while Jay was taking one of his super long naps he's been taking lately (we think he's going through a growth spurt as he seems fine, just super tired!), I decided to get online and check out the leaked Black Friday ads for next week as I'm going shopping tomorrow (yay payday!) and was wondering if I should wait on picking a few things up.

Anyways, I was a bit shocked.

Last year, most places opened at 4am. This year, midnight seems to be the norm.

However, Toys R Us and Walmart both have their sales starting at 9pm Thursday - THURSDAY!

Pardon me, but WTF???

You can't call your sales Black Friday sales when it's on Thanksgiving Thursday - that doesn't make any sense!

Yes, I know they opened at like 10pm last year, which I thought was a bit crazy too (but then again, last year we were the crazy ones outside Target in the freezing cold for 4 hours straight, me being almost 8 months pregnant, lol...).

But still... each year they seem to just be opening earlier and earlier... before you know it the stores will be open most of the day on Thanksgiving with the sales starting then...

Oh wait, Kmart already does that.

Yes, that's correct - Kmart is open for most of Thanksgiving with various sales going on.

Seriously.

I feel bad for the employees who basically have to skip Thanksgiving and having any time with family on the holiday all in the name of consumerism and corporate greed.

I know, nurses, doctors and other emergency and service people have to work or on-call, but they knew that when they decided to go into the profession. Most people that work retail can remember the days when stores weren't open on major holidays - Thanksgiving being one of them.

And I know personally it sucks - working at a movie theater, we're open 365 days a year so people can have their family traditions of going to see a movie together after Thanksgiving dinner or after they open the presents on Christmas... however we did have shortened hours, so we could have a chance to spend at least part of the day with our families (I usually took the closing shifts that started at 6pm so we could do an early, 4pm dinner).

This year we're one of several stores in the mall that are opening at midnight (although really, who's crazy enough about kid's clothes to come out at midnight for them?? We're not expecting to get busy until the rest of the mall opens hours later). Fortunately for me though, the acting store manager requested me as her closer again this year so I get the more relaxed shift as last year the crowd at the mall seemed to die down a lot after 4pm.

What are your thoughts?

Honestly, I think it's almost like they're trying to overrun Thanksgiving with consumerism and greed, making it obsolete and giving people little to no time to celebrate. And that's just sad!