So here's the thing, I have done Black Friday every year for like the last 10 years. I am a self-labeled professional Black Friday shopper. As in, I used to visit all the stores I planned on hitting on Black Friday the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so I could check out the places they cleared out around the store to figure out where the big doorbusters would be located.
I strategically planned my shopping route based upon the demand for the item I was looking for and the hours of the store. You might think that if I needed something at Walmart that I would go to the Walmart closest to my house, but that wasn't always the case. For example, one year I went to a Walmart that was at least a 30 mile drive from my house, because the way my route went that year I wanted to be at stores that were in a different neighborhood.
The downfall started two or three years ago I think- when the Outlet Malls opened up for "Midnight Madness". I think that was also the same year that some stores started experimenting with opening at 4am instead of the 5am ritual. That year I was at the outlet mall at 2am (couldn't stomach the midnight thing), then I hit all the other stores I needed to go to and was home by my standard 8am. But I was more exhausted than ever before, because being at a store by 2am meant I had to be up by 1:15am.
But this year? This year all bets were off. I think the fun of Black Friday shopping has seriously been downgraded with all the stores now making their own rules and opening willy-nilly. Seriously- there should be a rule against a retail store being open on Thanksgiving Day for Black Friday shopping. I mean, how exactly can you get your drink on for Thanksgiving and then still be out shopping that day? It ruined not one day for me, but two.
Michaels (the craft store) was open from 5-9pm on Thanksgiving Day. I mean, really? That cuts right into the post-dinner coma time, where the warmth from the kitchen, the full tummies, and the bottles of wine have just set in. I actually had to pass on hitting Michaels this year, for the first year ever.
Then the outlet mall opened at 10pm instead of midnight. So in essence, we didn't go to bed, we put our kids to bed then my friend and I hit the mall. We were doing fairly well, until the line in the Gymboree store derailed us with over an hour wait. After that it was 1am and we just said, screw it. Black Friday is officially over for us. There was no physical way we could stay up until the next round of specials beginning at 4am.
So, retailers, if you are listening, I think you all need to band back together. No more of this "one-upping" each other and starting your sales earlier and earlier. If you want to open up your online shopping and let people have a go at it on Thanksgiving, so be it. But opening your stores at crazy odd hours like that just to try and capitalize on the shopping hours? Not so much. Black Friday is just that. FRIDAY. Not Thursday. And what about all the poor retail people that have to work on Thursday when you open your stores? I hope you paid all of them triple time and a half to give up their family time. I just want you all to know that this year, I didn't really shop. I probably would have done much more shopping if I could have stuck with my routine of trying to hit at least 6 stores and be home by 8am. Unfortunately, having to start at 10pm just took all the fun out of it for me.
I really hope that next year we can get back to the "rules" of Black Friday. Otherwise I just might have to give it up, which would be sad... very, very sad...