Walmart, Target plan sales blitzes for evening of Thanksgiving Day

Walmart and Target each plan to kick off their in-store Black Friday sales at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, repeating their start-times from last year and throwing some cold water on the notion that Turkey Day deals blitzes may be falling out of style.

Earlier in the season, the Mall of America announced it would be shuttering its doors on the holiday after being open in previous years. Office Depot, too, made a similar reversal of course. But the plans from the big-box behemoths — as well as from Macy’s, Kohl’s and Toys R Us — suggest the Thanksgiving Day shopping tradition is going strong.

Walmart said it will be “dramatically increasing” the amount of inventory it has available for online deal hunters, offering some 50 percent more Black Friday merchandise this year on the Web than last year.

“We really pride ourselves on not being the retailer who advertises a great price but then only has a few available for the customers,” said Steve Bratspies, the chief merchandising officer at Walmart U.S., during a conference call with reporters.

Walmart said its offerings this year would include items such as a Samsung 50-inch 4K television for $398 and movies that cost $1.99.

Target, meanwhile, was touting deals such as an iPad Air 2 for $274 and 30 percent off apparel. Oh, and remember that giant $10 teddy bear that was all over social media last Black Friday? The retailer is bringing it back, and has bought 20 percent more inventory this time around.

Both chains will start their online Black Friday sales in the early morning hours on Thanksgiving. And both will be offering a steady trickle of discounts over the next two weeks to encourage customers to get in the holiday spirit.

In earlier announcements about their seasonal plans, Target and Walmart stressed they were trying to focus on making their promotions simple this time around. In the past, it seems, shoppers have been confused by a cavalcade of coupons or staggered sale starting times. At Target, that means returning to the “10 days of deals” program, something the retailer tried last year in which it touted a single big promotion each day starting the weekend before Thanksgiving. Walmart is also aiming for simple: Besides its limited-time Black Friday discounts, it plans to keep the rest of its price cuts in place for the duration of the November and December rush.

The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, forecasts that stores will ring up a healthy 3.6 percent increase in sales this holiday season. That would be an improvement from last year, when sales growth was up just 3 percent. We should soon get a clearer idea of what kind of momentum big retail has headed into this all-important time of year: Macy’s is set to report earnings Thursday morning, and Walmart, Target, Best Buy and others will do so in the following week.