Black Friday: Best Buy joins in on ‘Black Midnight’

Best Buy chief executive Brian Dunn didn’t want to do it, but he had to. Caving to pressure from competitors, Best Buy will join the crowd and open its stores at midnight on Black Friday to accommodate eager deal hunters.

The Wall Street Journal reported that it was a very difficult decision for Dunn to make.

“I feel terrible,” Dunn told attendees at a conference in San Francisco. “It will change some Thanksgiving plans for our employees. It certainly changes mine.”

Dunn said that stores had planned to open at a “much more civilized hour” — such as 3 or 4 a.m. -- but the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that the CEO felt pressure to compete with Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s and other retailers that announced they will start holiday savings just hours after Thanksgiving turkeys come out of the oven.

Black Friday hype has started even earlier than normal, with Amazon.com launching its special deals section on the first day of Halloween and Walmart also releasing its Black Friday deals.

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