Black Friday is continuing its creep earlier into Thanksgiving Day, with Macy's opening its doors at prime turkey-coma time. Macy's plans to open at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving, two hours earlier than last year, “in response to the significant, sustained customer interest in last year's opening on Thanksgiving, both at Macy's and other retailers,” the department store chain said in a statement Tuesday. For the first time, The Walnut Room inside Macy’s State Street also will open to the Thanksgiving Day crowds, inviting families to have Thanksgiving dinner there starting at 6 p.m., a spokesperson said. The Walnut Room, a rather grand restaurant that dates back to 1907, is a chief draw during the holidays as the home of the store’s 45-foot Great Tree. Macy's, which has 840 stores, had resisted following the trend of opening on Thanksgiving Day until last year, when it opened at 8 p.m. In 2012, it opened at midnight. Store traffic on Thanksgiving Day grew 27 percent last year to 45 million people, or 31.8 percent of holiday shoppers, up from 35 million in 2012, according to a survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation over Black Friday weekend. Black Friday is still the most popular shopping day, with 92 million people, or 65.2 percent of holiday shoppers, according to the National Retail Federation.
Chicago Tribune
