Tent outside Short Pump Best Buy around 3 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22.
SHORT PUMP, Va. (WTVR) — It is an annual harbinger of the holiday shopping season: folks pitching tents outside stores in anticipation of Black Friday deals.
A CBS 6 Facebook friend alerted WTVR Friday afternoon that a tent had been spotted outside the Short Pump Best Buy.
“Tell me what kind of deal Best Buy is offering for Black Friday to have these people camping out 6 days early?” wrote Linda Gettings.
The big box retailer has a number of specials on smart TVs, Play Station and Xboxes, as well as smartphones, tablets, laptops and cameras.
CBS 6 talked to a Best Buy worker that said two tents had been pitched outside the store, but that she had no idea how many people were already waiting for the store to open up at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
The worker, who said she could not guess about what product the early birds were camping out for, said she heard some people camped out at the store two weeks before Black Friday.
However, those lining up for deals will not have to wait so long this year. In fact, a number of retailers are opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day:
- 6 a.m. Kmart
- 5 p.m. Toy’s R Us
- 6 p.m. Walmartand Best Buy
- 8 p.m. Kohl’s, JCPenney, Macy’s, Sears andTarget
On the other hand, a number of other stores are bucking the trend and refusing to open on Thanksgiving. They include Costco, Dillards, The Home Depot, Nordstrom/Nordstrom Rack, Burlington Coat Factory, TJ Maxx/Marshall’s and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
When Kmart announced plans tostay open for 41 hours straight on Thanksgiving Day, the struggling retailer faced a backlash from customers. In fact, some customers even threatened on social media to boycott the store so that the chain’s employees could spend Thanksgiving with their families.
Along those lines, an Ohio lawmaker has drafted a proposal that, if passed, would require stores to pay employees three times their hourly rate — or allow them to take the day off without penalty on the holiday, according to WJW.
