Black Friday Shopping Starts Early This Year in White Lake

It will be a little harder to tell where Thanksgiving ends and Black Friday begins this year as several big box stores will open their doors at midnight Thursday in preparation for the biggest shopping day of the year.

Macy's, , , and Best Buy will open earlier than ever before. Last year, the stores opened at 4 a.m.

Walmart will open at 10 p.m. Thursday, while will stay open until midnight Thursday and reopen at 4 a.m. Friday.

Kristy Welker, a spokesperson for Target, said the store is changing its hours this year for customer convenience.

"Every holiday at Target is different," Welker said. "We work hard to ensure the entire experience delivers on what our guests want and need. We have heard from our guests that they want Target to be their first stop for their Black Friday shopping. By opening at midnight, we are making it easier than ever for our guests to shop the great assortment we offer, when they want to shop."

Target.com will feature holiday-geared "Daily Deals" that will offer exclusive one-day savings of up to 50 percent off Target’s regular prices. Mega Merry Mondays will kick off each week with deals on 17 hot items, and Total Toy Tuesdays will offer deep discounts on five toy favorites.

In addition, Target will offer free shipping when customers purchase $50 or more online through Dec. 11.

While all Best Buy stores will open at midnight Thursday for Black Friday, select stores will kick off the holiday shopping season Thursday night with an outdoor screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. The movie will start around 9 p.m., with giveaways and refreshments preceding it at 8 p.m.

Participating Best Buy locations are stores in Auburn Hills, Novi, West Oaks, Roseville and Westland.

Ricky Martin, Brighton Best Buy assistant manager, said tablets such as iPads and e-readers will be a hot item this season.

"Kindle put out three new e-readers just for the holiday season," Martin said. "We have two of them, the third hasn't been released yet. One's just called the Kindle, and it's a black-and-white standard e-reader. The Kindle Fire came out today (Tuesday), and it's full color. It's almost borderline tablet — you can check your Facebook and email on it, but it doesn't have full Internet browsing capability. So it's not quite to the tablet extent, but it's still an awesome little e-reader."

Best Buy is offering free shipping and in-store pickup on all orders now through Dec. 27, with no miniumum purchase required.

Reaction on White Lake Patch's Facebook page to the earlier shopping times was mostly negative.

"Why do they have to open so early or late on Thanksgiving day?" Angela Rais said. "They can't offer the same deal at 10:00 am on on Friday?"

Sandie Mersman-Weinrauch said, "I was a store manager years ago. After working on Black Friday for several years, I vowed to never step foot in a store on that day again!"