Black Friday: Now on Thursday

Some big box stores are hoping Americans will be hungry for a heaping helping of shopping with their turkey and cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally when gift givers start bargain hunting, but over the years, stores have been competing with each other to stoke excitement and pack in customers earlier and earlier. Now many big box retailers, like Walmart, Kmart, Macy's and Toys R Us, start Black Friday on Thursday--some as early as 6 a.m.

Bryce Covert is the economic policy editor for Think Progress. She says stores are opening early out of a desire to boost slow holiday sales, but that may backfire.

"Unfortunately for them," she told WNYC. "What it looked like happened is that the people who came in on Thanksgiving and bought stuff just ended up eating into their Black Friday sales."