What happened is that Black Friday opening time crept earlier and earlier. From 9AM to 6AM, Then 3AM. Then Midnight. Then into Thanksgiving.
Finally stores are deciding "screw that" and having their Black Friday specials starting the weekend before Thanksgiving, and not doing ridiculous things just to attract crowds.
What was also happening was the crowds had an uncomfortable percentage of "gibsmedats" (hoping to score on the specials, and then re-sell), which was turning off the regular customers.
Good points.
Correct. Although it was painful to watch stores screw their employees by opening on Thanksgiving, once they broke that milestone, there was no reason to start their sales a day earlier but can instead start them on November 1st. The dotcom business were doing it already.