It was about five years ago that the Thanksgiving shopping trend began to metastasize throughout the retail business: opening times on Black Friday crept back from the wee hours of Black Friday morning to the late hours of Thanksgiving. Malls joined big-box stores, and Thanksgiving Day was fun for a few years. Then a widespread backlash began, and retailers took advantage of that. [More]
thanksgiving
Mall Of America, Staples, BJ’s Make Sure You Know They’re Closed On Thanksgiving
By 10.5.16 — Updated: 11.14.16
Retailers Are Wearing Us Down: Shoppers Don’t Mind Holiday Creep So Much
By 9.20.16
Holiday Creep, and more specifically Christmas Creep, are common annoyances of modern shopping. When the school supplies disappear from shelves, the Christmas trees and lights appear, making shoppers feel like the holiday season begins earlier and earlier every year. This is becoming more normal, though: some recent survey results show that fewer Americans find Christmas Creep less annoying than in previous years. They’re wearing us down. [More]
Is Shopping On Christmas Day The Next Big Thing In Retail?
By 12.10.15
For better or worse, we’ve come to a point where shopping on Thanksgiving day is no longer a fringe case. But what about Dec. 25? With the exception of some vital retailers — drugstores, the occasional supermarket, gas stations, and, most importantly, movie theaters — most stores don’t even mess with the idea of opening on Christmas. But a new survey says that a not insignificant number of shoppers would be willing to buy stuff after they clean up all the wrapping paper. [More]
Online Retail Passes In-Store Shopping For Black Friday Weekend
By 11.30.15
Going online for your Black Friday sales fix is now just as popular as trudging out to the mall to shop, according to a new survey from the National Retail Federation. [More]
Be Thankful That No One At Your Thanksgiving Is Lighting A Cigarette After Every Course
By 11.26.15
No matter where you celebrate Thanksgiving and what you’re eating, take a moment to be thankful that this suggested tradition from the mind of a marketer never caught on: lighting up a Camel cigarette after every course of your meal. No, not after dinner, after every course. [More]
6 Thanksgiving Movies You Can Stream Instead Of Talking To Your In-Laws
By 11.25.15
So your mother-in-law is asking you again, whether she’ll ever be a grandmother. Your options include feigning a disaster in another room, straight up ignoring her or claiming you have to go to the bathroom, again. Or, you could turn on a Thanksgiving-themed movie and have everyone gather ’round, shut up and watch it together. [More]
Survey Says: Supermarkets’ Turkey Giveaways Aren’t That Exciting To Younger Shoppers
By 11.25.15
Getting a free turkey to serve proudly on your Thanksgiving table used to be a source of great excitement for shoppers in the holiday season, and an easy way for supermarkets to attract more customers (who then buy more stuff when they’re in the store). But nowadays there’s a new demographic on the block that everyone’s trying to please, and a free turkey just isn’t going to cut it. [More]
Some Shopping Malls Forcing Stores To Open On Thanksgiving
By 11.25.15
Everyone knows that a handful of major retailers now choose to open on Thanksgiving, but most smaller businesses have remained closed on the holiday — whether it was out of a desire to enjoy the day, or simply because the extra expense of paying people to work on Thanksgiving wasn’t worth the few hours of additional sales. But now some shopping mall operators are spoiling the holiday for their smaller tenants by forcing them to open up on Thanksgiving. [More]
42 Million Drivers Likely Grateful They’ll Be Paying Lowest Thanksgiving Gas Prices Since 2008
By 11.24.15
The roads are going to be crowded this Thanksgiving, with 42 million drivers expected to travel the highways and byways of the U.S. According to AAA, they’ll be enjoying the lowest prices at the gas pump for the holiday since 2008. [More]
Turkeys Decide This Thanksgiving Thing Is Not For Them, Escape From Moving Truck
By 11.24.15
Though Americans around the world will be giving thanks for the turkey on their table this Thanksgiving, let’s all stop for a moment to honor two birds that won’t be the starring event this year: a pair of gobblers escaped from a truck on its way to the slaughterhouse in Wisconsin, thus thwarting their holiday fate. [More]
Walmart Starting Cyber Monday On Sunday Because That’s What Happens Now
By 11.23.15
Here’s a proposal: why don’t we toss out all the special names for the big holiday shopping days and just accept the fact that retailers are going to throw sales at the public before, during and after Thanksgiving? Walmart seems cool with that, as it’s moving its Cyber Monday sale-a-palooza to Sunday. [More]
Is Your Thanksgiving Turkey On Drugs?
By 11.20.15
We’ve written before about the overuse of antibiotics in turkeys and how it contributes to the development of drug-resistant bacteria, and some companies have pledged to cut down on the amount of unnecessary antibiotics they feed to their birds. But was the turkey you’re planning to carve up next Thursday raised using these and other potentially harmful drugs? [More]
Turkey Talk: What Do Labels Like “Young,” “Fresh” And “Natural” Actually Mean?
By 11.19.15 — Updated: 11.17.16
Whether you’re strolling down the supermarket aisle or perusing online grocers’ offerings ahead of Thanksgiving, you’re bound to see turkeys with a wide range of labels: “young,” “fresh,” “premium” and other distinctions that you may think you understand… but you probably don’t. [More]
The Average Price Of Thanksgiving Dinner Predicted To Top $50 For The First Time Ever This Year
By 11.19.15
It’s only a week until Thanksgiving, which means you’re probably getting your shopping list ready for the big day of feasting. Prepare yourself for (slightly) higher prices than last year, as experts predict that the average Turkey Day dinner will cost more than $50 for the first time ever. [More]
Turkey, Pumpkin Supply Issues Won’t Impact Thanksgiving Meal Prices
By 11.12.15
While the aftershocks of this summer’s avian flu outbreak and the recent loss of pumpkin crops to high rainfall have led to higher prices for the products, analysts say those costs shouldn’t affect this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. [More]
H&M Says It Will Close U.S. Stores On Thanksgiving For The First Time
By 11.10.15
While some stores are dedicated to giving people a way to escape their families after stuffing their faces on Thanksgiving (we’re talking to you, Target, Macy’s and Toys ‘R’ Us), others are changing the way they celebrate the holiday: for the first time, H&M says it will close its U.S. stores on Thanksgiving. [More]
Toys ‘R’ Us Will Open At 5 PM On Thanksgiving, Stay Open 30 Hours Straight
By 11.9.15
If you enjoyed having a wide selection of toys available to you for 30 hours straight between Thanksgiving and Black Friday, we have some great news for you! Toys ‘R’ Us is keeping the same holiday hours as last year, opening their doors at 5 PM on Thanksgiving and keeping them open straight through until 11 PM on Black Friday. [More]
Target Will Open At 6:00 PM On Thanksgiving Day
By 11.9.15
We could be incredibly lazy today, since it turns out that Target’s Black Friday plans are pretty much identical to what they did last year. They’re opening at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day, which is also what they did last year. They’re starting Black Friday-style deals on November 9 instead of November 10, so we’d have to change that. Otherwise? Pretty much the same. [More]
