Black Friday vs. Black Thursday !!!

 

 

It’s that time of the year again Black Friday deals. I never understand why so many people sleep outside all night to get something that is limited to very low number like five or ten pieces and the person there whose number eleven just got nothing but waited all night in cold weather. Last year I decided to try and shop at midnight I went to Macy’s waited in line for about two hours and when we finally got into the store I honestly didn’t find any good deals so I think it was not worth it for me to wait in cold weather for noting. I just wanted to experience it and I did but I don’t think I would repeat it again. Well I found this interesting article that talks about opening as early as 8:00pm on Thursday this year that means Thanksgiving will be cut short for a lot of people. Wal-Mart was the first one to announce that they will be opening as early as 8:00pm this year. And this is when competitors come in to place Sears also announced they will open at 8:00pm. Now Wal-Mart has to worry about their competitors and what they are offering to beat their prices.

Wal-Mart also announced that they will have enough inventory from 10:00-11:00pm for customers to get the same deal as they would get in store online. Now inventory managing will be a big part of this they will have to make sure that inventory will remain available and the numbers of inventory are accurate so that no problems will occur with consumers. Wal-Mart has to make sure that their entire inventory will come on time with correct amount to avoid any problems. The best way to make sure inventory is accurate is to forecast their inventory and make sure the demand numbers are correct. Some customers are already unhappy because they will have to cut their Thanksgiving with family and friends early to go shopping so that’s why inventory has to be done correctly so that customers will be satisfied. But what happens to those poor employees who want to spend some quality time with their family and friends on Thanksgiving Day? Now they have to come to work early but will the quality of employees towards customers be the same? Of course not employees will be unhappy and quality will go down. This is where Wal-Mart and Sears need to work on quality management system so that they will make sure their employees are happy so that customers will be satisfied and happy also. So maybe paying them double on that day will make their employees happier. So opening early is good but Wal-Mart and Sears need to make sure that quality, and inventory is in good shape for customers to be happy and for them to make good profit.

Do you think opening early this year is a good idea? And will quality and inventory be in good shape or will there be a problem?

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17 thoughts on “Black Friday vs. Black Thursday !!!

  1. Personally I don’t really see the benefit for opening early this year. To be able to truly get a jump over the competition they’d need to not only offer a larger array of sales on products that are sought after, but they’d also need to have a large enough inventory that they make it worth cutting short Thanksgiving if not people will just wait for Friday since they’ll get leftovers so to speak anyway. In regards to employee satisfaction I think it definitely bares consideration that many will be unhappy perhaps a possible solution is to make it a voluntary shift offering time and a half or like you said double pay whatever the company deems a lesser expenditure.

  2. Depending on the location, inventory will undoubtedly be depleted. The move by stores like Walmart opening early is a definite must nowadays. Before a few years ago, the novelty event of Black Friday store openings at midnight worked fine for the store. However, with the ever-increasing popularity of online shopping, stores like Walmart essentially have no choice if they want to be competitive. I definitely feel bad for the employees at the big-box retailers. From these retailers having to price-match online retailers like Amazon, to having to open several hours earlier this year, it is clear that brick-and-mortar stores are trying to fend off internet retailers.

  3. I think this is a lose lose situation for everyone involved, including the company hosting the Black Friday sale. Looking at this from a business standpoint, I believe that there will still be a large crowd whenever the doors open. There are people who wait all year round for Thanksgiving specifically for the shopping. At the same time, you have to consider the customer’s perspective. All of those people who are celebrating Thanksgiving with their families and cannot go shopping until Friday will ultimately lose out. By the time they arrive at the store, most everything worthwhile will be gone. That’s a problem for customers, and my opinion is that it will eventually be a problem for businesses as well. If stores continue to open up earlier, and a bulk of customers don’t enter into stores until Friday morning when there are a lack of good products available, eventually these customers will be disappointed and will either try a different store the next year or stop shopping on Black Friday all together. Opening stores sooner might help a company’s sales in the first few years; however, this idea could potentially harm customer satisfaction rates and therefore hurt businesses in the long-run. Problems with customer satisfaction would not only hurt the chances of them returning the following Black Friday, but these customers might also stray from visiting these stores regularly.

  4. I don’t think it is a good idea to open at 8 P.M. this year, because like you stated,families are going to have to cut down their Thanksgiving with their family to go and shop for the best deals. Stores this year will need to have a lot of inventory to satisfy their customers needs and wants. I think that there will be problems with quality and inventory because a lot of people are going to be willing to shop early for their Christmas gifts. A lot of people these days are looking for the best deals , and they will do anything in order to make family and frends happy with gifts. Walmart should have a good estimate of how much inventory they will have in store to satisfy a lot of customers.

  5. Inventory is defiantly going to be the biggest issue when looking at the opening times. If the stores run out of inventory very quickly in the night customers who had been waiting in line to get in will be pretty angry and could potentially cause a surge of people unwilling to enter the store.

  6. Inventory is going to be the biggest issue when looking at the opening times. If the stores run out of inventory very quickly in the night customers who had been waiting in line to get in will be pretty angry and could potentially cause a surge of people unwilling to enter the store. The most important thing that these stores need to take into account is whether or not they think they will be getting rid of inventory very quickly or over periods of the night

  7. I think this is very interesting and I really think that you made a good point on how inventory is a big part of all this process and I also I agree on how employees will be unhappy and wal-mart and sears have to do something good for their employees so that they could make their customers also happy. Very intersting concepts you mentioned in this.

  8. Great points mentioned in this I think that wal-mart and sears has to be very careful with inventory and quality. Employees will play a big role with this so they have to be given some benefits for working early on Thanksgiving Day so like you said I think giving them double pay will be a good idea to keep them happy so that they could provide good customer service to the consuerms shopping early that day. Also I like how you said about inventory has to be accurate and make sure that everything is done the right way to make customers happy so forecasting is great point to make sure everything is done right.

  9. It’s pretty interesting how you brought up this topic. In my family, we have a tradition of leaving around 8pm on Thursday night to start the Black Friday madness early. We normally sleep through the next day as we have shopped the night before. Though we do not always find good deal, this is just something we do together. However, what I noticed is that stores are not giving out as much “deals.” Really, we don’t really save that much from when we normally shop. So if these retailers want to stay competitive, I don’t think opening early would help because as someone had mentioned there would always be a line no matter what. They need to worry about having enough inventories and a good enough deal to keep its customers buying.

  10. This is an interesting article. I agree with the notiion that employee satisfaction is going to play a major role that day. Look at it from the employeess’ point of view. Having to leave your family dinner to go to work and deal with the chaos that is black friday may not be in the your top ten ways to spend the holidays. So I do agree that the employers are going to have to find a way to keep the employees happy with some type of incentive in order to reduce the possibilities of negative interactions with customers. The post was an interesting read.

  11. I really think this is a good article. I totally agree with you that Black Friday is a waste of time. I also went last year to best buy and also found no good deals. Nothing really was on sale and the things that were weren’t worth my time. I also agree the employers are going to need to find a way to satisfy their employees. It isn’t really fair to make them cut their thanksgiving short and family time to be at work. I don’t think this is going to be a success.

  12. You bring up a good point at the beginning of your post, that many people’s Thanksgiving will be cut short because of shopping. It is called “Black Friday” for a reason. I think that stores should not be allowed to open up any earlier than midnight, the official start of Black Friday. Most stores are closed on Thanksgiving for a reason and should remain that way. It is unfair to the unfortunate people who work at such stores and have to miss out on family time because people have become obsessed with shopping in our nation and material things. Thanksgiving used to be a time to spend with family and friends, since most people are off from work and school, but it has slowly been turning into Black Friday preparations more and more each year.
    The sooner stores open, the more of an issue there will be with inventory. The sooner they open, the sooner they will run out of their amazing deals and leave people unsatisfied. Only the people who prioritize shopping and material goods over quality family time will get the deals leaving other people paying regular prices. Also, due to stores opening up sooner, quality will slowly begin to go down as well. This shows us that nothing good comes out of opening earlier and earlier each year.

  13. This year I’ve noticed a lot of stores are staying open 24 hours starting Thanksgiving day to give consumers a better opportunity to shop early for the holidays or get a better deal before anyone else. Only problem I see is, are these companies slowly getting away from the “true spirit of Black Friday”? What’s going to happen to door buster events if there was no line to go to begin with. In this case it is good for companies because they can help the generate more sales if they stay open, plus they can purchase more inventory to get more money for their bank.

  14. This whole idea of black friday amazes me. In general most items are discounted either online or in store on an everyday basis. The one thing that is different about black friday is they have 1, yes 1 tv for $300, or 1 xbox for $50… in my opinion I would rather buy used or online instead of rush and wait in lines…

  15. I find this article very interesting and I feel as though this a good way for Walmart to forecast demand for the holiday period and future years as they can note market trends based upon the earlier holiday rush. Walmart also has an advantage of opening earlier by increasing sales from customers with Black Friday fever. The only disadvantage I can see with Walmart opening earlier is that some customer is going to be standing in line and walk away unhappy.

  16. I understand what retailers are trying to do, but from a macro perspective it will not have significant impact on their bottom line or the quality of life of their customers. The retailers are swimming in a red ocean full of competitors by focusing on driving sales during the holiday shopping season, and might generate traffic but will not improve their margins. The consumers, meanwhile, are in large part buying what they do not need and which will neither make them more productive or happier. Some will even think they are improving the economy when the overextend themselves to buy more stuff.
    My recommendation to all is to avoid being taken up in the craze of consumerism, budget long-term, and find employment in areas where they truly impact the productivity of the world around them – which is the only way to improve our economy.

  17. When it comes to Black Friday I can only think of Inventories. I don’t know how stores handle inventors on Black Friday. When it comes to Wal-Mart and electronic every other store like Best – Buy, Kmart, Target and Frys need to have some similar to what Wal-Mart is offering. Because Wal- Mart is all about customer service, they don’t want any customer to walk out that door being not satisfied. So no matter what Wal-mart is going to have high inventories for Black Friday. For last two year of experience I think is not worth it to stand in a line for whole night and a cold weather. I have notice after Black Friday they have better deal other there because most of the stores are trying get rid of their old inventory that they are not selling.

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