Black Friday Becoming Black Midnight

Holiday shopping madness is getting even madder -- and many retail employees are pretty mad about it.

It all has to do with time creep, the definition of "Friday" and retailers' desperation to move as much merchandise as they can during the holiday season.

Best Buy is the latest to join the list of retailers planning to open at midnight Thanksgiving night (or Friday morning, depending on your preference).  Others include Target, Macy's and Kohl's.

The advantage for shoppers?  They don't have to get up early Friday. They can just stay up late and hit the stores in the wee hours. 

The disadvantage for the poor souls who work in the stores?  Well, it's obvious.  It puts a big crimp in your family holiday if, instead of sleeping off the traditional feast, you have to stay up and work all night, dealing with unruly and often tipsy crowds.

This is basically the grueling ordeal that's routinely faced by police officers, firefighters, medical personnel and industrial workers.  Oh, and newspeople too, not that anyone wastes any sympathy on them.

Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn admits the decision won't be popular with his employees.

"I feel terrible," Mr. Dunn, who was once a store manager, said, according to The Wall Street Journal.  "It will change some Thanksgiving plans for our employees. It certainly changes mine."

So who has not yet joined the party?  The biggest retailer of all, that's who.  WalMart has not yet tipped its hand about iots plans for Black Friday.  Many Walmart stores are already open 24/7 but Black Friday sales don't usually start until 5 a.m. on Black Friday.  Whether that holds true this year is still unknown.

Who cares?

Shoppers like Black Friday -- real and virtual

More importantly, does any of this really matter?  With daily deals sites galore and giant retailer Amazon offering low prices, giant selections and fast delivery, who wants to stay up all night just to go shopping for the same stuff that's available 365 days a year.

It's not as though previously unknown magical products will magically appear at the stroke of midnight, after all.  It's the same stuff we see in ads and on stores shelves and Web sites all year 'round.

Nevertheless, it seems that -- like a little red-nosed reindeer -- Black Friday has wormed its way into consumers' hearts.  ConsumerAffairs.com conducted a computerized trend analysis of about 1.8 million consumer comments on Twitter, Facebook and other social media over the last year.

Who likes Black Friday? Shoppers!

We found consumers strongly positive, although many were directing their comments towards online Black Friday sales.

The message for retail workers, then, must be something along the lines of, get used to it.   

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