Will Shoppers Chafe as Black Friday Pushes into Thanksgiving?

As area malls open at midnight Friday, many retail workers will be forced to leave their tables early on the holiday—but do bargain hunters care?

According to the National Retail Federation, “Black Friday weekend”—a phrase that has come to encapsulate the growing expansion of the fourth quarter of the commercial year into the federal holiday of Thanksgiving—saw a record 226 million shoppers in 2011. And in fact, 29 million shoppers are expected to head out on “Thanksgiving night,” said Lisa Wolstromer, senior marketing director for the Cherry Hill andMoorestown malls, which are opening extra-early this year. That’s shortening the holiday by a few meaningful hours, not only for shoppers and their families, but for hourly retail workers who must shake off thetryptophan-and-wine haze and man their posts. Suddenly, the fourth Thursday in November isn’t just a regular workday for the …

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