Black Friday creep

The day after Thanksgiving is a quasi-religious shopping experience in the United States. It kicks off the all-important holiday shopping season with a day of frenzied buying amounting to over $10 billion in sales. This year, many big box retailers plan to open a little earlier than the normal 4 a.m.—some on Thursday, Nov. 24, Thanksgiving Day itself. Target, Macy’s and Best Buy will all open at midnight on Thanksgiving, reports the New York Times. Wal-Mart, the hours-expanding trailblazer of the bunch, will open at 10 p.m. Thursday. Critics say this is yet another sign of the evils of consumerism. Employees will have to work on the biggest holiday of the year, while shoppers will have to head to the mall before the turkey is even carved, if they hope to beat the lineups. But with recent data showing worrying signs that retail sales are slowing leading into the holiday season, retailers appear to be wisely searching for any kind of advantage—even if it’s only an extra hour or two with the tills open.