What happened to leaving in the middle of the night to shop? Because of the constant competition between stores, they open earlier and earlier every year. This year, stores are opening as early as 5:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving night.

The terrible thing that has become Black Friday is changing Thanksgiving meals all around the country. For some, they are even skipping dinner to shop. In my opinion, stores should not be open during Thanksgiving at all. Thanksgiving is meant to eat lots of food and be around your family. By shopping all night, you miss out on all of that.

Plus, there's almost no competition between shoppers because if one store runs out, the next store is sure to have the exact same items. Some stores like, Kohls, Target, Macy's, American Eagle and Best Buy will have different times for each sale item. To me, this makes sense in terms of attracting more shoppers, but why do you have to start at 5:00? Would each store really not sell out of the hottest items on sale if they opened up later than their competitors? Each store is bound to sell out of their items at some point, which makes shoppers go to a different store anyway.

All of these changes to Black Friday seem to be ruining the holiday. Those people who are crazy enough to leave their families on Thanksgiving just to go out and buy something are out of their minds. There aren't many times a year that can be dedicated simply for eating food and spending time with each other? What harm could there possibly be to go out shopping a few hours later? I bet you'd still get the same items you would if you left at 5:00 p.m.