San Diego State marketing professor Miro Copic says shoppers are confused about Black Friday.
"They are actually forcing consumers to change their behavior," Copic said.
After years of starting the Christmas shopping season early Friday morning the day after Thanksgiving, retailers have started to open their doors on Thanksgiving night. Now, department stores like Wal-Mart and Target are moving up their hours to the time some families are still eating dinner.
Copic says that could eventually hurt the busiest shopping day of the year, as it takes away the focus of the shopping season.
"You're going to get lackluster traffic on Thanksgiving Day," Copic said. "And you're not going to get the intensity that you've had in the past on Black Friday."
Why are stores opening early? This will be a very short shopping season, six days shorter than last year. Since Thanksgiving is late in November, there are only 26 days until Christmas. Some store owners are worried that a shorter shopping season could mean less money in the cash register.
But Copic says earlier sales may not mean more money.
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"The total number of shoppers over that big Thanksgiving weekend is about 135 million the last couple of years. This won't increase that but just spread out the days which they're going shopping," he said.
