Thursday Nov 23 2006
Well this is rich: Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation tells us that “shopping is entertainment”, and that’s why some stores are opening ON Thanksgiving this year.
Forget chatting about life and the kids with your extended family after the big dinner. Or the guys watching the game, or the kids playing Monopoly with Grandma… When the sun goes down and dessert starts to settle why the hell relax in a warm cozy home and catch up with your rarely seen relatives? Fuck lets fire up the minivan and hit Target!
I honestly can’t think of anything more depressing, hell ENTERTAINING?, than plowing through Sears hunting down a drill or DVD player. You can’t blame Ellen Davis for stores choosing to open early. If the demand is there and people are clamoring outside the automatic door why SHOULDN’T retailers sell? But such an absolutely asinine statement further engrains into our heads the wretched idea that we’re EXPECTED to go shopping without questioning why. Does racking up debt buying cheap plastic shit really qualify as “entertainment”?
NEW YORK (AP) — A traditional day of feasting with family could turn into a day of early holiday shopping for some, as retailers offered more options — both online and in stores — than ever this Thanksgiving.
For the first time, BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. and CompUSA Inc. opened their doors on Thanksgiving, while online retailer Amazon.com offered special holiday discounts.
In the past, grocery retailers and 24-hour convenience stores like 7-Eleven Inc. were the only shopping options on Thanksgiving. Holiday gift shoppers turned to the Web or saved their breath for the next day, “Black Friday,” which is considered the official kickoff to the shopping season.
“Some retailers are trying to find a way to take advantage of the fact that once dinner is over, many families are looking for some kind of entertainment,” said Ellen Davis, spokeswoman at National Retail Federation, a trade group.
BJ’s opened from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., while electronics retailer CompUSA Inc. opened from 9 p.m. to midnight, where state laws permit stores to be open on the holiday.
“People start kicking off their holiday shopping early,” said BJ’s spokeswoman Stephanie LaCroix, who expected good sales of consumer electronics such as LCD televisions, computers and iPods.
Almost 1,400 Kmart stores, owned by Sears Holdings Corp., were scheduled to be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., offering buy-one-get-one free deals on board games and a Polaroid digital camera for less than $100, among other deals, said spokeswoman Gail Lavielle.
Nichelle Thompson, 36, of Los Angeles and her 14-yer old son Justin arrived just before the opening of a Los Angeles Kmart to take advantage of a one-day sale and pick up a $54 combination DVD player and VCR.
Thompson said she decided to start her Thanksgiving with a trip to the store after seeing the player advertised in a newspaper ad. The machine is a family gift.
“Tomorrow they’ll have a whole new ad. Now I have to go through and circle all the things that I want to buy tomorrow and send my husband out.”
Wal-Mart, whose more than 2,000 24-hour supercenters were open on the holiday, said it planned to begin advertising eight “top secret” Black Friday deals on its Web site beginning on Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven planned to offer gift cards for Apple’s iTunes, Circuit City, Blockbuster, and Borders, as well as DVDs, toys, and other gift items.
As for online opportunities, Sears, Roebuck again allowed holiday shoppers to pay for Black Friday deals on its Web site on Thanksgiving, such as 20 percent off Kenmore appliances and 50 percent off certain Craftsman-branded tools. Customers can then pick up their purchases when stores open the following day, or have them shipped, said Lavielle.
Online retailer Amazon.com was also pushing for shoppers to get started a day early by holding an ongoing poll to select one steeply discounted gift item to be offered in limited supplies beginning on Thanksgiving day, on top of other deals.
The winner of the poll was Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video game system, which was set to go on sale for $100 at 2 p.m. ET, beating out a Mongoose Domain Dual-Suspension Mountain Bike for $30.
“We’re always open on Thanksgiving,” noted spokesman Craig Berman.
“Online retailers are making Thanksgiving a huge priority, because they have no competition from stores,” said Davis. “I think we’re going to see that trend increasing.”