This year, many stores opened at 6pm on Thanksgiving day including stores at Coralridge mall in Coralville, Iowa. Rob H from Target explains why they opened so much earlier this year.

“Businesses have been opening up earlier and earlier. Last year we opened at 9pm on Thanksgiving and this year we opened at 6pm. We did this purely for competition because many other businesses also opened at 6pm yesterday.” Says Rob. This lead to less lines in the mall on Black Friday, although, many people were in line for the launch of Jordan’s at Scheels.

“I’ve been here since 11pm last night to get my Jordan’s.” said IceJay. IceJay was the first in line of about 30 people. Besides the Jordan launch, Coralridge mall was fairly empty according to Ashley Waters, a cosmetic worker at Younkers.

“I left early for work today because I though it was gonna be crazy to find a parking spot, but barely anyone was here. Most people did their Black Friday shopping yesterday evening. Also, a lot of people are shopping online for the holidays. They are also waiting for Cyber Monday.” said Waters. The mall did pick up at about 10:00am with a wave of costumers.

“I’ve been here since about 6pm yesterday [12 hours total] and I’m exahusted.” said Sally Martin, “But, I’ve finished all my Christmas shopping, so it was worth it.”