Retailers gear up for early holiday shoppers – TGT, SHLD, GPS, WMT

Thanksgiving Day is two days away and this time the holiday season is starting right after Thanksgiving.

Probably with the intention of infusing some holiday cheer into consumers, the start of the holiday or shopping season has been moved up instead of traditionally waiting till after Black Friday.

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Analysts said that people were no longer willing to just sit down watching television after Thanksgiving dinner. They were more likely to want to get out and do something else. That something else could be shopping as well.

Retailers like Target Corporation(NYSE:TGT), Sears Holdings Corporation(NASDAQ:SHLD) and Toys R Us Inc have joined Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.(NYSE:WMT) and The Gap Inc.(NYSE:GPS) in staying open on what is a national holiday. Traditionally, stores had waited until Black Friday to make their big push.

Wall Street is also putting pressure on retailers to extract as much of shopping hours and minutes as they can. After all every item sold means that many extra dollars in the revenue kitty.

There are some who do not want Thanksgiving to be `spoilt' by what they see as the encroachment of the shopping culture and there are petitions out like the on asking Target to `save Thanksgiving' by staying shut that day.

While Thanksgiving is traditionally seen as a day where families spend their day together, it has been found that many people actually like to spend their time shopping rather than staying put at home.

Those retailers who insist on remaining shut on that risk losing out to competition, in getting consumer dollars.

With the exception of Wal-Mart, most other retailers have been feeling the pinch of lower consumer spending and they would not like to pass up a chance like this.