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Black Friday creep

Black Friday seems to be gaining ground as one of the nation’s leading holidays, right up there with Christmas, New Year’s and Thanksgiving, and second only, perhaps, to Super Bowl Sunday.

Black Friday is the nickname for the Friday after Thanksgiving, which has long been considered the opening of the Christmas shopping season, a day when retailers set out big bargains in hopes of sparking a vigorous and profitable final quarter.

In recent years, Black Friday has been creeping closer and closer to Thanksgiving. Many retailers have begun opening late on Thanksgiving to cater to shoppers anxious to get a jump on the bargains. This year it more and more are joining with the Thursday opening trend, and some are opening earlier.

We are all for capitalism and the free market system, but we wonder what’s going to happen when some major retailer decides to open at noon on Thanksgiving Day, or even earlier. We’re sure there will be people willing to line up in front of their doors well in advance of the opening. What will happen when the family heads over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house, only to find Grandmother is staking out a spot in front of Walmart?

Perhaps American retailers should create Black Wednesday, making the day before Thanksgiving the official opening of the Christmas shopping season. Let’s leave Thanksgiving Day free for family and friends.

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