Holiday Shopping 2013: Black Friday Comes Early

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and crazy holiday deals all coming early this year. We’ll look at the evolution of American retailing in the 2013 holiday season.

Ready or not, tis the season for holiday shopping! Retailers are gearing up early this year, to win your business. It’s not Black Friday anymore, it’s Black November. Thanksgivukkah .  Big name stores like Macy's, JC Penney and Kmart are crossing the turkey barrier and opening doors on Thanksgiving Day. Online retailers have got mega-deals too. Mom and pop shops are trying to figure out how to compete.  But who’s buying-- and what?  Up next, On Point: the holiday shopping creep and  unwrapping what’s ahead for 2013.

Susan Berfield, Associate editor at Bloomberg Businessweek. (@SusanBerfield)

Wendy Liebmann, CEO and Chief Shopper at WSL Strategic Retail. (@WendyLiebmann)

Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president and principal analyst serving e-business and channel strategy professionals at Forrester Research. (@SMulpuru)

Forbes: Holiday 2013: Five Trends To Watch — "Fueled by savvy shoppers being better planners and retailers engineering the season to begin ever earlier, this trend is here to say. When the NRF asked shoppers why they shop early for holiday items, most said it was to better spread out their gift budget or take advantage of prices and promotions too good to pass up."

CBS News: Is Black Friday turning into Black November? — "The holiday shopping season is starting early this year — very early. Retailers are already starting to roll out their so-called 'door-buster' deals, typically reserved for the day after Thanksgiving and beyond. Wal-mart introduced some early holiday deals online on November first — the day after Halloween, offering deep discounts on LCD TVs and tablet computers.'The early-bird shopper, the ones that are coming now — they can find equally good deals in November as they can in December,' said Joel Anderson, president and CEO of Walmart.com."

Los Angeles Times: Wal-Mart kicks off Christmas way early, helping to kill Black Friday — "Wal-Mart is worried about lousy holiday shopping, so the retail giant is pulling out its Christmas deals one whole month early — hoping, perhaps, that the longer you are faced with a bargain, the more likely you will be to crumble. This move comes as Black Friday -- that holiday shopping landmark — is rapidly morphing into Black Thursday. Some retailers aren't waiting for the crack of dawn on the Friday after Thanksgiving or even midnight. J.C. Penney and Macy's will both open at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day for a 25-hour overnight shopping extravaganza, the Associated Press has reported. That's 8 p.m. Thursday to 9 p.m. Friday."