Events

Bentonville, Ark. -- As holiday shoppers prepared to battle crowds on Thanksgiving weekend, Wal-Mart workers and supports geared up to protest at stores nationwide, openly criticizing the retailers’ wages, benefits and treatment of employees.

Nine people were arrested in Paramount, Calif., including three Walmart employees, for blocking a busy street. About 1,000 people protested there.

Protests by organized labor failed to materialize in a meaningful way at Walmart stores over the weekend and the retailer went on to achieve record results.

New York -- Sixty percent of Americans plan to shop in stores or online over the Thanksgiving weekend – up from 51% in 2011, according to Deloitte’s pre-Thanksgiving survey.

Among these weekend shoppers, 63% plan to shop in stores on Black Friday and 23% plan to shop in stores on Thanksgiving day (up from 17% in last year’s survey). Shoppers expect spend an average of $286 over the holiday weekend – up 28% from the 2011 survey

The survey also indicates:

Dollar General’s 10,000 plus locations will be open Thanksgiving Day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., but it’s not taking the heat for doing so like rivals Walmart and Target.

Dollar General on Monday announced a series of online and in-store promotions, including special opening hours, designed to establish it as a holiday destination for gift givers as opposed to a convenient located stores that sell consumables.

Forty participants in the annual OfficeMax ElfYourself campaign are due to join in next week’s McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago.

The elves will escort a candy train float along the parade route expected to be attended by 500,000 people and millions of television viewers. While on the parade route, the elves will distribute winter survival kits featuring cold-weather essentials such as lip balm, hand warmers and hot chocolate mix, and also invite spectators to enjoy OfficeMax's online and in-store deals this holiday season.

Meijer has made it so shoppers don’t have to pore through circulars on Thanksgiving Day and then wake at 3 a.m. to wait in line and jostle with other customers on Black Friday.

Meijer said it is making holiday shopping easier for customers this year by offering aggressive Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday doorbuster deals on popular brands all day long while supplies last.

Whiting, Ind. -- Survey results released Wednesday by CouponCabin found that nearly a third (31%) of U.S. consumers feel that holiday shopping is starting too soon, with many stores opening their doors to shoppers Thursday, and in some cases, even Wednesday, night.

Stress is a factor, as many respondents reported that a variety of factors make Black Friday a nerve-wracking holiday. When asked which of the following stressed them out about Black Friday, U.S. adults said the following:

Los Angeles -- Survey results released Tuesday by PriceGrabber found that 71% of consumers believe that retailers offer better deals during Thanksgiving weekend than they do during the rest of the winter holiday shopping season, up from 58% in 2011.

When consumers who indicated that the best deals can be found over the Thanksgiving weekend were asked which days retailers offer the best prices, 71% said Black Friday (Nov. 23), down from 80% in 2011 and 86% in 2010, and 41% said Cyber Monday (Nov. 26), up from 37% last year and 33% in 2010.