For as long as most people can remember, the Holiday shopping season has kicked off the day after Thanksgiving with Black Friday. Black Friday is a day where retail stores offer massive price reductions on all sorts of products in the hopes that shoppers looking for Christmas gifts will take advantage of these deals. You may be familiar with TV commercials advertising these sales, or viral internet clips of a Walmart turned warzone as a result of shoppers eager to save money on usually pricey gifts. These hallmark Holiday traditions however, are becoming less common. With an increase in retail stores offering mass deals for shoppers to choose from, stores are taking on new approaches to become the ideal place to go Holiday shopping. These can include offering the same price reductions in the stores online websites, which allow shoppers to get the same savings without dealing with a mob of other shoppers. Another tactic that stores use is to reduce the level of value on the sales, and spread them out over the entire months of December or November to reduce the sense of urgency that shoppers feel, making for a more enjoyable shopping experience.

 These schemes have all diminished the importance of Black Friday, but perhaps the gambit that has cost the tradition of Black Friday the most has been stores actually opening for Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving itself, starting at 8, 7, or even 6 PM. Speaking from a logistical standpoint, this is actually optimal for all parties involved. Stores get to profit more, and customers get more time to shop. However, in order to fully decide whether opening earlier is ideal or not, one must consider the morals of pushing store opening times earlier. Thanksgiving has historically been a day of rest to start off the holiday season. It is a time to relax and have a nice meal with extended family and friends. By pushing opening times earlier, stores are taking this time of relaxation away from both employees and customers. While there is technically enough time for customers to shop and return home for Thanksgiving dinner, the question stands: Is this simply an optimized method of getting customers the deals they so love, or is it the beginning of a slippery slope of sacrificing tradition and morals for efficiency and profit?