When Target, the Mall of America, and Best Buy said they will open at midnight on Black Friday, I was a bit dumbstruck.
"Where else is there left to go on Black Friday?" I told a colleague. "You can't really go any earlier than 12 a.m."
Unless you start Thursday.
Acting on cue, Wal-Mart Stores said Thursday it will open its toys, home, and apparel departments at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving, thereby upping the ante on retail crazy.
"Our customers told us they would rather stay up late to shop than get up early, so we're going to hold special events on Thanksgiving and Black Friday," Wal-Mart chief merchandising officer for U.S. stores Duncan Mac Naughton said in a statement.
There's actually some logic, perverse though it may be, in Mac Naughton's reasoning. As the unlucky retail reporter who has to cover Black Friday, I suppose it would be much easier to stay up to 10 p.m. on Thursday night than drag my butt out of bed before sunrise on Friday morning.
Come to think of it, maybe Congress should pass a law officially moving Black Friday to the Friday before Thanksgiving.
Or better yet, just move Thanksgiving back a week.
