Black Friday slips into 'Grey Thursday' as retail giants face staff backlash

Answer 1

Thanksgiving night shopping ("Grey Thursday") has increased in the past 3 years with the highest customer traffic being at 10pm on Thursday. Retailers such as Wal-mart, Sears, Toys R Us, Kmart and Gap plan to open their stores, on Grey Thursday, as early as 8pm. If this proves to be a success, experts predict more stores will follow the trend and open earlier next year.

The CEO of Dealnews, a shopping deals tracking service, said that last year, stores that did not participate in Grey Thursday have suffered, however Dealnews's research shows that 70% of the deals are available online.

In order to get the best deals, shoppers would have to camp outside earlier, causing similar line ups as in Black Friday, which negates the point to the consumers.

Some Walmart workers plan to strike over the Thanksgiving holiday and a petition on Change.org has over 200,000 signatures. Despite this, a company spokesman said only "a very small number of associates" were raising concerns. A Target employee said that management's attitude always seemed flexible but on this issue they seem to imply termination if workers do not show up.