Deals start early as Black Friday shopping expands

There are some people who remember when Black Friday fell on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Now, it starts before autumn leaves begin to fall.

The National Retail Federation estimates that 137.4 million consumers plan to shop this Thanksgiving weekend in stores or online.

According to the NRF’s annual Black Friday survey, Americans plan on spending an average of $935 on Christmas shopping.

“In the retail landscape, Black Friday used to be the real kickoff – the one and only day for those Black Friday holiday shoppers,” said Jessica Offerjost, spokeswoman for Toys R Us. “But it has shifted over the last couple of years.

“And what we are finding is that customers want to shop for the holidays as early as Halloween. So we have taken that into consideration and are starting more and more deals as early as Nov. 1 and continuing them through the month of November.”

When stores open; deals

Towne West Square opens on Thanksgiving at 6 p.m. and will remain open until 1 a.m. Friday, then reopen at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. Friday.

Towne East Square will open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving and remain open until 1 a.m. Friday. It will open again at 5 a.m. Friday and close at 9 p.m.

Kohl’s stores open at 6 p.m. Thursday and will remain open for 30 hours. They will be offering special deals both in-store and at Kohls.com.

Wal-Mart sales start at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving, but most Black Friday online sales will be available at walmart.com starting at 12:01 a.m. Thanksgiving. One of the items the store is offering is a Disney Princess Cinderella Royal Dreams Dollhouse with furniture selling for $88; it normally sells for $149.

At Toys R Us, Thanksgiving weekend deals begin at 8 p.m. Wednesday online at toysrus.com. Stores open at 4 p.m. Thursday and will remain open for 30 continuous hours. Toys that are hot this year include the Fisher Price DKT39 Think & Learn Code-a-pillar, which sells for $50. The caterpillar crawls across the floor in a certain direction depending on how a 3-year-old assembles it.

Best Buy opens at 5 p.m. Thanksgiving Day and will feature Toshiba 49-inch 4K Ultra HDTVs for $200 and Samsung 55-inch LED 4K Ultra Smart TVs for $480.

Target opens at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving Day and will have 50-inch Hisense 4K TVs for $249. Door-buster deals will also be on target.com beginning Thursday morning.

Kmart opens at 6 p.m. Thursday with door-busters throughout the day on 32- to 58-inch Samsung 108p Smart TVs for $190 to $430.

Tips for shoppers

Some shoppers have made it an art form to escape their families and gravitate to the stores on Thanksgiving Day and Friday. They will shop until they drop.

The Better Business Bureau is offering six tips for those who might be less advanced in their shopping skills:

1. Compare deals: When is a sale really a sale? Do comparison shopping. Check prices for the same items at different stores.

2. Create a budget and stick to it: Make a list. Check it twice. Determine how much you can spend on each person.

3. Search for Black Friday ads ahead of time: Newspapers have coupons that often give discounts for Black Friday. Ads may also be posted on the internet.

4. Maximize advance alerts: Sign up for e-mail alerts from your favorite retailers.

5. Know return policies, restocking fees and refunds: Ask before you buy. Save your receipts. Many stores require a receipt before they will accept a returned item.

6. Ask for gift receipts: Without proof of purchase, recipients may be turned down if they return or exchange an item or risk a refund at a lower price.

How Black Friday began

Blame Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, Lincoln designated Thanksgiving – the last Thursday in November – a national holiday.

1932 – Stores begin having special after-Thanksgiving sales.

1950s – The term “Black Friday” is coined, in part, because employers said workers would call in sick to have a four-day weekend.

1983 – Parents spend Black Friday waiting in long lines for the season’s most popular toy, the Cabbage Patch doll.

1996 – The big-ticket item is Tickle Me Elmo, a Sesame Street doll that laughs when tickled.

2008 – A Wal-Mart employee in New York is trampled to death by a Black Friday crowd that shatters the doors and rushes inside for deals.

2009 – Wal-Mart announces it will stay open between Thanksgiving and when sales start at 5 a.m. Friday to help control crowds.

2010 – Stores begin opening on Thanksgiving; Toys R Us opens at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving.

2015 – More people shop online than at stores on Thanksgiving Day.

This story was originally published November 22, 2016 at 7:34 PM with the headline "Deals start early as Black Friday shopping expands."