Editing Black Friday (shopping) (section)

=== Black Thursday ===

[[File:Gray Thursday KF Walmart.jpeg|thumb|Black Thursday, [[Walmart]]]]

For many years, retailers pushed opening times on Black Friday earlier and earlier, eventually reaching midnight, before opening on the evening of Thanksgiving. In 2009, Kmart opened at 7:00&nbsp;a.m. on Thanksgiving, in order to allow shoppers to avoid Black Friday traffic and return home in time for dinner with their families. Two years later, a number of retailers began opening at 8:00 or 9:00&nbsp;p.m., on what became derisively known as "Black Thursday". In subsequent years, other stores have followed this trend, opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving Day, or remaining open all day, beginning in the early morning hours.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/22/business/la-fi-black-thursday-20111122|title=Black Friday becoming Black Thursday as stores open on Thanksgiving |last=Li|first=Shan|date=November 21, 2011|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=November 22, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/business/make-room-for-deals-after-turkey-this-year.html|title=Make Room for Deals After Turkey This Year|last=Clifford|first=Stephanie|date=November 9, 2012|work=The New York Times|access-date=November 10, 2011}}</ref> Some retail and media sources have used the terms "Gray Thursday" or "Brown Thursday" instead.<ref name="gray1">{{cite news |url= http://abcnews.go.com/Business/black-friday-shopping-kicks-off-thanksgiving-dinner/story?id=17784755 |title= Black Friday Shopping Kicks Off After Thanksgiving Dinner |first= Anthony |last= Castellano |date= November 22, 2012 |publisher= ABC News |access-date= November 23, 2012}}</ref><ref name="gray2">{{cite news|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec12/shopping_11-22.html|title=How 'Black Friday' Morphed Into 'Gray Thursday'|last=Sreenivasan|first=Hari|date=November 22, 2012|access-date=November 23, 2012|work=PBS|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121123124251/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec12/shopping_11-22.html|archivedate=November 23, 2012|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref name="brown">{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/11/22/thanksgiving-black-friday-brown-thursday-shopping-leno-stewart-kimmel-letterman/3674429/|title=Punchlines: The new Black Friday is Brown Thursday|date=November 22, 2013|access-date=November 27, 2013|work=[[USA Today]]}}</ref>

The 2014 "Black Thursday" sales were, in general, a failure, as overall sales for the holiday weekend fell 11% compared to the previous year despite heavy traffic at the stores on Thanksgiving night.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/01/business/thanksgiving-weekend-sales-at-stores-and-online-slide-11-percent.html|last=Tabuchi|first=Tiroko|title=Black Friday Fatigue? Thanksgiving Weekend Sales Slide 11 Percent|work=The New York Times|date=December 1, 2014|access-date=October 2, 2015}}</ref> In response, a number of retailers decided to go back to closing on Thanksgiving for 2015, and [[Walmart]], although it is holding firm opening on the holiday and holding its sale, also pledged to offer the same deals online for those who wished to stay home.<ref>{{cite news |last= Fores |first= Betsi |agency= Associated Press |date= November 12, 2015 |url= http://rare.us/story/wal-mart-just-made-a-black-friday-announcement-that-might-be-a-game-changer/ |title= Wal-Mart Just Made a Black Friday Announcement that Might Be a Game Changer |work= Rare.us |access-date= November 12, 2015}}</ref>