Holiday shopping marathon continues into Black Friday

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Holiday shopping this year is a marathon, not a sprint.

More than a dozen major retailers from Target to Toys R Us opened on Thanksgiving Day and planned to stay open through Black Friday, the traditional start to the holiday shopping season. As a result, crowds formed early and often throughout the two days.

A Kmart store in midtown Manhattan in New York City was packed with people shopping for clothing and holiday decor items on Thanksgiving night. Long checkout lines formed at a Target in Colma, Calif., on Black Friday morning. And hundreds waited outside a Kohl's in American Park, Utah

Meanwhile, at North Point Mall's food court in Alpharetta, Ga., Jessica Astalos, 20, had already been shopping for six hours as another wave of shoppers made their way into the mall around 5:30 a.m. Friday. "I like being around crowds of people all doing the same thing," said Dalton Mason, 22, of Stockbridge, Ga.

The holiday shopping season is transforming right before shoppers' eyes. For nearly a decade, Black Friday had been the official start to the busy buying binge sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was named Black Friday because that was traditionally when retailers turned a profit, or moved out of the red and into the black.

But in the past few years, retailers have pushed opening times into Thanksgiving night. Some like Macy's and J.C. Penney opened on Thanksgiving for the first time this year. Others like Gap Inc., which owns Banana Republic, Gap and Old Navy, opened some stores earlier on Thanksgiving than the year before. And many pushed up the discounting that used to be reserved for Black Friday into early November.

The earlier openings and sales were met with some resistance. Some workers' rights groups had planned protests on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday because they opposed having retail employees miss family meals at home. And some shoppers had said they would not venture out on Thanksgiving because they believe it's a sacred holiday meant to spend with family and friends.

Curtis Akins, 51, was one shopper who was dismayed by the early openings. By 5 a.m. Friday, he was sitting on a bench - looking slightly exhausted -- inside a mall in Atlanta's northern suburbs as his wife shopped for deals. "I think it's going to end because it's taking away from the traditional Thanksgiving," he said of the Black Friday tradition.

But that sentiment didn't stop others from taking advantage of the earlier openings and sales. "We like to shop this time of night ... We're having a ball," said Rosanne Scrom as she left the Target store in Clifton Park, N.Y., at 5 a.m. Friday with her sister and their daughters.

The mostly positive reception to the double-day holiday shopping start has led some retail experts to question how much further Black Friday will creep into Thanksgiving. Some now even refer to the holiday as Black Thanksgiving or Gray Thursday. "Black Friday is now Gray Friday," said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consultancy.

It's unclear whether or not the early openings will lead shoppers to spend more over the two days or simply spread sales between the two days. Last year, the Thanksgiving openings took a bite out of Black Friday sales last year: Sales on turkey day were $810 million last year, an increase of 55 percent from the previous year as more stores opened on the holiday, according to Chicago research firm ShopperTrak. But sales dropped 1.8 percent to $11.2 billion on Black Friday, though it still was the biggest shopping day last year.

Sales figures for this year's Thanksgiving and Black Friday will trickle out in the next couple days, but some big chains already proclaiming early Friday morning that the start to the holiday shopping season had gotten off to a successful start.

Most Wal-Mart stores are open 24 hours, but the world's largest retailer started its holiday shopping sales events at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, two hours earlier than last year. Wal-Mart said that customers bought 2.8 million towels, two million TVs, 1.4 million tablets, 300,000 bicycles and 1.9 million dolls.

Wal-Mart also noted that one million customers took advantage of its one-hour guarantee program, which allows shoppers who are inside a Wal-Mart store within one hour of a doorbuster sales event to buy that product and either take it home that day or by Christmas.

Rival Target, which opened at an hour earlier this year at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, also said that traffic starting in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving on Target.com and at its stores later in the day was "strong."

At a Target in Brooklyn in New York City, about 25 people waited in line at about 5 hours ahead of the 8 p.m. opening on Thanksgiving. Theresa Alcantaro, 35, a crossing guard, was waiting with her 12-year-old son to buy an Xbox One video game system. She was missing a gathering of 40 family members but said she would meet up after shopping.

"Honestly if I can get a good deal I do not mind," she said about shopping on Thanksgiving. "I see my family every day, they understand."