In the course of a post detailing how Kmart will be open for 42 hours straight, beginning Thanksgiving morning, the Consumerist wrote:
Maybe if they keep the doors open for that long, someone will wander in.
While Kmart's early opening hours elicited complaints in 2013, the company is apparently making money by doing it:
Officials decided to open the stores earlier this year after customer feedback indicated shoppers wanted more flexible shopping hours during the holiday, Kmart spokeswoman Shanelle Armstrong wrote in an email to The Huffington Post.
But, according to Forbes, MasterCard has identified another reason for the earlier and earlier shopping hours.
A Black Friday spending analysis from the credit card giant shows a whopping 70% of consumer spending happens at the first two stores a shopper visits.
Every big box chain is therefore competing to be the first port of call for shoppers as they battle long lines, cold, fatigue, and sharp elbows — not to mention dwindling funds.
So even if few people are truly going to Kmart these days, think how many wouldn't show up if Kmart opened Friday, and the customers had already gone to Walmart on Thursday evening.
(Oh, as an aside for MY previously announced Thanksgiving plans - it's still uncertain whether I'll be able to run the post or not. I may be "holding for effect" a little while longer.)
