Black Friday has become more and more of a shopping holiday celebrated earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving over the years, but some stores could be reversing that trend this year by announcing plans to change their hours back so they are open only on Black Friday itself.  

Staples & Target Make Big Announcements About Holiday Shopping

While most retailers haven't even begun to officially announce plans for the most anticipated holiday shopping day of the year, some have slowly begun to trickle out some information about their hours and sales-and so far, there have been several announcement which have indicated that stores are beginning to abandon the practice of opening on Thanksgiving Night, following protests from both consumers and retail employees over the years who have grown frustrated over sales creeping earlier and earlier into Thanksgiving Day, with some even beginning during dinner.  

Stores that have already announced their hours as being Black Friday only include Half-Price Books, which is scheduled to open that morning, Staples, and Gamestop. Of the three, both Staples and Gamestop are backpedaling on their previous years opening times.  

The First Ad Of The Season Has Leaked

Gamestop has kept their doors closed on Thanksgiving Day each year so far, choosing to open their doors at 12 a.m. on Black Friday. However, the company has announced plans this year to open at 5 a.m. Black Friday instead, citing a decision to let employees and their families spend their Thanksgiving holidays together, uninterrupted.  

Staples has also announced they won't be opening on Thanksgiving Day this year, after opening on Thanksgiving Night at both 8 p.m. in 2013, and 6 p.m. in 2014. The company has announced they will not open until 6 a.m. this year.  

In 2014, a seemingly record number of retailers opened their doors on Thanksgiving Night by 8 p.m., with a large number beginning sales at 6 p.m. Big box stores which opened on Thanksgiving Day included Kmart at 6 a.m., Old Navy at 4 p.m., Best Buy, JC Penney and Toys R Us at 5 p.m., and Wal-Mart, Target, Kohl's and Macy's at 6 p.m. Other smaller retailers also opened early.  

However, while some big name stores have been announcing plans to open solely on Black Friday this year, it is unlikely the biggest stores that often see the largest crowd turnouts will follow suit and abandon plans to open on Thanksgiving all together. However, if the trend is to make hours less strenuous on employees and less consuming when it comes to customer's dinners, more may choose to open for a limited number of hours Thanksgiving night and then close with plans to reopen on Friday, or could push their hours back again for the first time in years.  

Tags: Black Friday 2015