Black Thursday – Is it Too Soon Missoula?

The word on the street is that Black Friday is getting a bit of an early start this year. It seems that Target, Toys R Us and Walmart are all starting their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day, with Walmart’s sale starting at 8 p.m. I guess this will give your turkey enough time to digest? But, probably not quite enough time for an after dinner nap. I know there has been a bit of controversy over the decision these retailers made. It seems for every good, there is always bad.

I think getting an early start on the Black Friday shopping is great for those of us who are night owls. I would much rather be shopping from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m. than getting up at 3 a.m. and shopping until 10 a.m. I just don’t do mornings, especially ones that start hours before the sun comes up. This late night shopping wouldn’t interfere with our Thanksgiving Day family traditions. We eat turkey dinner at about 2 p.m. and then the guys watch football the rest of the night. So, a little ad searching, store strategy planning and some shopping would be a nice change. Maybe the men could do the dishes while the women hit the sales.

I don’t like the idea that if one retailer starts their sale on Thanksgiving night, that eventually all the other retailers will follow. Then the only thing retailers have left to do is start their sales earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving Day. Eventually Thanksgiving will be about sales and shopping instead of being with family and reflecting on how lucky you are to have what you do. We live in a society where more is never enough, so to take a day to just be thankful for what you do have is something important. It would be sad to lose the true meaning of this holiday.

What do you think? Will we be able to find some kind of balance? Can we really have our cake (or pumpkin pie) and eat it too?

Joy Larson is a mother of four boys, graduate of The University of Montana, animal lover and writer.