Early Hours Prompting Black Friday Backlash
MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – The annual rite of passage into the Christmas season, Black Friday, is looking more and more like Black Thursday as stores continue to open earlier and earlier to try to land all of the bargain shoppers.
But, not everyone is happy about stores opening at midnight the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's even sparked a Black Friday blowback after a Target employee posted a petition to ask the store to open at 5 a.m. instead of midnight.
The Target petition has more than 100,000 signatures as of late Wednesday afternoon.
Locally, the Dolphin Mall is set to open its doors at 9 p.m. Thanksgiving day. Sawgrass Mills Mall will also be opening Thanksgiving Day at 10 p.m.
And it's not just malls that are pushing their doors open earlier. Big box retailers like Walmart and Toys R' Us will also be opening Thanksgiving night, with Toys R' Us opening at 9 p.m.
Jessie Mendoza of the Miami International Mall said it's not the fault of the shops they have to continue opening earlier and earlier. Instead, it's supply and demand with customers demanding more and deeper discounts.
"It's the shoppers, they want to shop and we want to give them the experience of the shopping and all those sales that are starting," Mendoza said.
And in a down economy, the short-term pain of missing some holiday time may pay off in the end with big gains in paychecks for workers.
