For many years, retailers typically began the holiday shopping season by opening their doors early on the day after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday, after closing the entire day of Thanksgiving. In 2011, the early openings were taken to a new extreme, when Target, Kohl’s and several other retailers opened at midnight on Friday for the first time.
But in 2012, Walmart and a few other retailers broke tradition by opening at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, and this year, at least a dozen major retailers are also opening their stores at that time, in what some critics have dubbed “Black Thursday.” And instead of waiting until Cyber Monday – the Monday after Thanksgiving, which has been one of the largest days for online shopping — retailers are starting online discounts before Thanksgiving.
The following University of North Texas faculty members are available to comment on Black Thursday, Black Friday and the changes to the traditional holiday shopping season:
Richard Last, senior lecturer in merchandising and digital retailing in UNT’s College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism, will discuss online sales and some retailers offering online-only specials in advance of Cyber Monday.
Last directs the digital retail degree program in the college and is also the senior director of UNT’s Global Digital Retailing Research Center, which is located in the college. He is a past member of the board of directors of the National Retail Federation and a past chairman of the board of Shop.org. He is the founder of JCPenney's catalog website, jcp.com; former president of JCP Ecommerce L.P., and former director of digital ventures for J.C. Penney Co. Inc.
Office phone number: 940-565-2433
Cell phone number: 214-244-1595
Email: rich.last@unt.edu
Sanjukta Pookulangara, assistant professor of merchandising and digital retailing in UNT’s College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism, will also discuss the impact of online sales and online discounts on stores.
Pookulangara researches multi-channel shoppers — shoppers who regularly use more than one method of shopping. Her research has been recognized at the international conference on Recent Advances in Retailing and Services Science, sponsored by the European Institute of Retailing and Services. Using an online survey to determine why customers would use one method of shopping over others, she discovered that multi-channel shoppers did not switch to Internet shopping to save time or money, but to gather product information through blogs and customer-generated reviews.
Office phone number: 940-565-2439
E-mail: sanjukta.pookulangara@unt.edu
David Strutton, professor of marketing in UNT’s College of Business, researches marketing strategy, creativity, and new product development and has published more than 150 academic journal articles and papers in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research and others.
Strutton describes “modern U.S. consumer behavior” as often operating on “Pavlovian-like instincts,” which has led retailers to open their doors on Thanksgiving.
“Sadly enough, too many U.S. shoppers respond mindlessly to our acquisition and consumption culture that teaches the surest way to enhance our happiness and self-worth and secure love for ourselves is through the objects that we purchase for ourselves or give to each other,” he says. “In a society in which almost everyone’s basic needs are met, many rich and middle-class consumers obviously must be kept feeling perpetually deprived to keep this Pavlovian response going.”
Retailers’ decisions to launch the Christmas shopping season before official Thanksgiving celebrations actually end “are both symptom and consequence of this modern consumer malaise,” Stutton says, with the result being a small amount of sales being pushed forward one day in the sales cycle.
“As always, the practice of marketing is simultaneously shaping and reflecting American culture and society,” he says.
Office phone number: 940-565-3123
E-mail: david.strutton@unt.edu