Walmart’s Black Friday 2014 ads have officially come out and now the Walmart company has officially declared that the holiday shopping frenzy has been extended to five days, going beyond even Thanksgiving Day.
In a related report by the Inquisitr , when Black Friday 2014 deals began invading Thanksgiving Day a short list of companies responded by saying they would never open their doors on Thanksgiving since that would be taking family time away from their employees. But there’s also a long list of companies opening their doors on what they now call Grey Thursday.
But Walmart’s Black Friday 2014 plans have the company saying it’s not about Thanksgiving Day, it’s really about not having to sacrifice convenience. The main change from last year is that biggest Black Friday deals will be split up into multiple events in order to prevent American shoppers from rushing the doors all at the same time frame.
“Black Friday is no longer about waking up at the crack of dawn to stand in long lines and hope for the best,” says Duncan Mac Naughton, Walmart’s chief merchandising officer.
Unfortunately, while there will be a good number of sales at 6 a.m. on Friday, many of Walmart’s Black Friday 2014 deals for video games, HDTVs, computers, and electronics start during events that begin on Thanksgiving day, at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. As usual, most of the Black Friday Walmart deals are listed as “while supplies last” but this time around the company is giving a one hour guarantee on some of the items listed for event one, which takes place between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday.
If those select products sell out within the first hour of the sale Walmart has already promised it will offer customers a chance to order the item on Thursday night and then have it shipped to your store before Christmas. This special guarantee does not extend to any of Walmart’s Black Friday 2014 deals being offered for the later events or any of the online-only deals. Walmart’s online deals have already started as part of the so-called Black November, but the company also plans on offering other unannounced special deals through December.
According to ABC , the company has admitted that a main reason they are extending Walmart’s Black Friday 2014 deals to multiple days is because shoppers are starting to use smartphones to compare prices.
“It’s more prevalent among consumer electronics,” says Sheri Petras CEO of CSI Group, a customer research firm. “It’s easier to compare versus fashion where you try it on and you are not exactly sure if the dress that’s over here might not be the dress that’s over there.”