‘Black Thanksgiving’ Is A Lousy Idea
“Midnight is the new 5 a.m.,” said Consumer Electronics Association’s Shawn DuBravac, chief economist and research director, and Steve Koenig, industry analysis director, during their 2012 holiday season presentation at the International CES Press Preview in New York on Tuesday, referring to the new Black Friday trend at retail.
Actually, if they waited a day or two, they could have said, “10 p.m. is the new 5 a.m.” based on Walmart’s announcement to open at that time. Some have called the practice “Black Thanksgiving.”
The reasoning behind Walmart’s move: “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,” according to Duncan Mac Naughton, Walmart U.S.’s chief merchandising officer.
Sure.
Walmart is doing it for competitive reasons. Target, Kohl’s, Best Buy, hhgregg and Macy’s have all decided to open at midnight or earlier for Black Friday sales for the first time. Sears and Kmart have done it for a few years. And they are also concerned about those consumers who are at their computers on Thanksgiving night shopping online.
Yes, the economy is lousy, retail sales are less than robust and everyone needs to be competitive, but when is when is enough … enough?
I think this is a lousy idea. I’m all for commerce, but can there be one day in the year — just one day — where commerce does not rule?
I remember someone saying that Thanksgiving is that one holiday that is non-denominational, where you express thanks — to whichever God you pray to or to family and friends that you are sharing the day with — for the blessings in our lives.
The people that must work that day are involved in occupations that concern our safety and well-being: the armed services, police, firemen, doctors and nurses at hospitals.
Sorry, but I don’t think store managers and retail clerks fall into that category, no matter how bad the bottom lines of their stores are.
One of the reasons “Black Thanksgiving” is a lousy idea is that all these retail workers will now completely lose that day. Having to get to work by 5 a.m. was no bargain either, but they had some semblance of a Thanksgiving, one would hope. Not if your store is opening at 10 p.m. or midnight.
And how many would like to at least get a later shift on Friday, but are being strong-armed by management to get to work by the time the store opens or lose their job? Probably more than we care to know about.
I’d love to read a study from the National Retail Federation or someone to let us know how much of a difference it was to have consumers shop at 10 p.m. or midnight at stores around the country vs. 5 a.m. or later on Friday. Based on the economy, they might just be seeing the same number of customers they would have seen at 5 a.m., except they have more costs in opening stores and cutting prices deeper to get more traffic through their doors.
In my limited retail career selling men’s clothes at a local store when I was in college, my boss decided to open on the last two Sundays before Christmas one year during a recession. It smelled of desperation. The result? Saturday traffic was split between the two weekend days with no real sales gains.
Realistically, as our senior editor Alan Wolf mentioned to me today, “This year will be another Black November,” with all the promos throughout the month.
So, from a business standpoint, what’s so special about making Thanksgiving “Black Thanksgiving” when retailers are offering deals every day this month?
P.C. Richard & Son in the New York metropolitan area runs every year a Thanksgiving Day “thank you” ad to its employees and customers thanking them for their success and jabbing other retailers that are open on the holiday.
It looks like we will see how successful “Black Thanksgiving” will be in a couple of weeks.
If P.C. Richard & Son decides to open on Thanksgiving night next year, then I know it is a success.
Michael N. Marcus commented:
John Nemesh said, “Christmas day sales are next, mark my words!”
Actually, Crazy Eddie was open on Christmas in at least one year.
sofast1 commented:
Like everything else these days, it’s all about the money. Greed rules. In the long run, we’re screwed.
John Nemesh commented:
These "sales" are becoming more and more meaningless every year. Yes, they have "doorbuster" specials, for the (excuse me) idiots who camp out overnight, but most of the (excuse me again) crap these stores sell is only marginally cheaper than what you would find with a simple google search anyway. And yet...millions of Americans will flood the stores anyway, hoping to find that "great deal" on Christmas gifts. Thousands of retail employees will work their tails off, and in the end, the stores will report that sales are still off a point or two, or at best, have a marginal increase over last year. I worked retail for 12 LONG years, and the push for profits in Q4 got stronger and stronger each year....until the stores I worked for went under (Ultimate Electronics and Good Guys).
CE retail is DOOMED unless the entire industry gets its act together. We need manufacturers to quit undercutting retail with better management of the supply chain (get rid of the grey market guys! Onkyo, I am looking at you!). Some manufacturers have recently begun undercutting retail AND distribution! Panasonic is selling their sets direct to the public, with free shipping, BELOW dealer cost! Velodyne has also decided to bypass the middlemen and sell direct to the public off their website!
Maybe...just maybe, the solution would be to quit selling commodity products and focus on quality. Focus on customer service and education at the retail level with PROFESSIONAL, KNOWLEDGEABLE sales staff!
Unfortunately, I think its a lost cause, and when Best Buy starts closing the US stores (in addition to the UK stores they just shuttered), we will know that the future of CE retail is in the hands of Wal-Mart and Costco, and we will continue to see these insane sales on national holidays...Christmas day sales are next, mark my words!
ZoetMB commented:
I can see how one can make a case that by opening/having a sale earlier, you might (just might) take some dollars from the competition, but unless someone can prove otherwise, I don't see how this adds to sales. It just means that a consumer is purchasing earlier in the cycle.
And even taking dollars from the competition only works if the competition starts their sale after yours. If everyone copies each other, which they are likely to do, then everyone's back at the same place and opening at midnight gets you nothing except extra labor costs.
Besides, most of these sales are phony anyway. Either they'll be on sale again two weeks later at the same price or it's pretty much "always on sale". And while it helps the economy, I've never understood why the holiday season becomes the time that we go into debt to buy a bunch of poorly made crap that no one really needs anyway.
And that's aside from the point that putting everything on sale lowers your margins. The original concept was to "sell them a $25 DVD player and they'll also buy $600 of higher-priced stuff" but consumers have been trained to only buy the sale items and in such a tough economy, they self-impose spending limits anyway (especially people who shop at places like Wal-Mart).
I don't know about you, but I've always thought that those Wal-Mart sales riots, where people have gotten hurt rushing the store as the doors opened, so they could grab that $25 DVD player that was made in China by someone making $120 a month and that will fall apart in six months anyway truly represents the spirit of the Christmas holiday.
TheShopper commented:
The big box guys are painting themselves into a corner and creating a non event that formerly had been an event.
I can’t wait until someone comes up with a sale s-o b-i-g that they need to roll out “black week” — capped by a “double black Friday” where everything is buy one get two (or three) free. Why should I ever buy anything on regular days when I know that there will be a “big sale” on that item very soon?
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