Black Friday: Will You Take on Some Shopping?

Traditionally, every last Thursday of November obeys an unchanging rule. American families come together around a stuffed turkey for Thanksgiving, before letting go a little the next day, running down shopping aisles to make the most of Black Friday and its exceptional sales. It’s a kick-off for end-of-year shopping.

But this Thursday, Nov. 28, shopping has dethroned the turkey, as The New York Times highlights in its report. This year, around a dozen retail chains have actually opened several hours earlier, from 6 a.m. for the whole day or from 6 p.m. for the whole night, upstaging the poultry occasion. Even if people did not want to brave the cold, they could swing across to online shopping sites like Amazon, which also started its sales early.

But for The Wall Street Journal, shops opening on Thanksgiving Day will not necessarily equal a Black Thursday. Adding another day of sales will not change the rising total reserved by Americans for buying gifts, but simply the date of these purchases, according to the daily newspaper.

No Black Thursday in Sight

“It will be a real challenge for [the retailers] to maintain the momentum throughout the season and avoid a deep post-Thanksgiving lull,” according to Marshal Cohen’s analysis on the NPD Group blog, a market research company. Not to mention that some will be forced to cut margins to reach the expected turnover … perhaps around 40 percent of their entire year’s earnings.

They will also need to make use of the morale of American households, which is far from rosy. According to the consumer confidence index, set up by the Conference Board, household morale has dropped in November to its lowest level in seven months.

This is not enough to frighten the National Retail Federation who nevertheless expect 140 million Americans to shop, a figure slightly higher than 2012. These Americans are expected to spend at least $600 billion.

Among employees, this is no longer a time to celebrate. According to Business Insider, 1,500 of the 4,000 American stores of worldwide retail leader Walmart should be affected on Friday by protests.

As for the defenders of the American tradition, they aren’t being left out: They have launched a petition evocatively entitled, “Save Thanksgiving” that has a Facebook page with more than 8,000 members.