J.C. Penney starts Black Friday 5 p.m. Thanksgiving Day

Plano, Texas -- The J.C. Penney Co. Inc. will open stores and begin its Black Friday sale activities at 5 p.m. local time on Thanksgiving Day. The company announced its plans via a tweet on the official JCPenney news account.



This start time is an hour earlier than the 6 p.m. Thanksgiving opening time of competing department stores Macy’s and Sears, and three hours earlier than the 8 p.m. opening time Penney used for Thanksgiving 2013.



Rival Kmart will open its doors for 42 hours straight, from 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving to midnight on Black Friday. In addition, retailers including Sears and Amazon.com are offering Black Friday deals well before Thanksgiving.