Wal-Mart's Black Friday Moves Deeper Into Thanksgiving

Wal-Mart unveiled its first plans for the holiday shopping season, which including their Black Firday shopping deals earlier into Thanksgiving Thursday then they've ever been before. Stores will open at 8 p.m. on Thursday this year, two hours earlier than last year, whihc firmly embeds the annual holiday shopping ritual into the actual holiday. 

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The store is actually planning three waves of super sales, with a round of deals at 8:00, and second electronics-only sale at 10:00 p.m., and then a final barrage of sales the next morning at 5:00 a.m. Despite the intrusion into the family holiday, the staggered stars may actually alleviate some crowds... or force some people spend the whole night at Wal-Mart to get all the deals they're looking for. Since Black Friday as becoming a brutal war of escalation among major retailers, you expect other stores to follow the lead of the industry giant. Many have already announced some of their own plans, but possibly move their sales to 8:00 p.m. or earlier to combat Wal-Mart's aggressive move.

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The move might also be a pre-emptive action against Wal-Mart's workers, who have quietly organzing walk-outs in some stores over the past few months, and may even attempt a strike on Black Friday. Wal-Mart employees are not unionized, but have reportedly been trying to organize strategic actions via social media.

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This year, Thanksgiving falls on November 22, the earliest date possible, which means there will be a full 32 shopping days between then and Christmas.