BU Professor: Is Thanksgiving the New Black Friday?
This week, Boston University’s Professor Voices blog interviewed Barbara Bickart, an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Graduate School of Management, about some retailers’ decision to begin their “Black Friday” deals on Thanksgiving. The decision by WalMart, Macy’s, and KMart, among others, to open on Thanksgiving has prompted an online backlash by consumers, and other stores have announced they will remain closed on Thanksgiving. It has also prompted the question of whether stores will only open for Thanksgiving this year, or whether “Black Thursday” will replace Black Friday. Professor Voices asked Barbara Bickart to address the question: “Is Thursday really the new (Black) Friday or is it just a marketing gimmick?”
Bickart says that because Black Friday weekend is a crucial period for retailers, “the competition for consumers is so fierce that retailers are willing to do whatever is necessary to gain market share and sales.” The retailers don’t want a competitor to offer a better deal earlier, because they could lose customers. She believes that competition between retailers is driving the Black Friday opening times earlier and earlier.
Signs indicate that the deals offered on Thanksgiving may be better than the deals offered on Black Friday, according to Bickart. She believes that consumers will need some incentive to accept Thanksgiving as a shopping day, and that better deals will be required to pull them away from the holiday table. She expects that deals will continue to be better on Thanksgiving than Black Friday until Thanksgiving is accepted as a shopping day.
Bickart also believes that the Black Thursday backlash will have a limited impact on consumer behavior. She observes that consumers look forward to Black Friday deals, and that some consumers actually enjoy the Black Friday shopping ritual and would like it to be longer. Also, it is unlikely that people would admit to wanting to shop on Thanksgiving online in the face of the backlash, but those consumers may not allow online disapproval to prevent them from shopping on Thanksgiving.
You can read the entire interview with Bickart here.
