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"The largest U.S. retailers have thrown down the gauntlet this year and announced deeper Black Friday weekend discounts than ever over a longer period, as they are desperate not to lose a single penny to the competition during the holiday shopping wars.\nWal-Mart Stores \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWMT\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t, which recently lowered its sales forecast for the year, stirring fears about its holiday prospects, has announced an aggressive program of deals for what is now a full-on Black Friday week. The plan includes bigger deals than last year on items such as TVs on Thanksgiving itself, week-long price cuts on 3,700 more items than in 2013, and a 24-hour pre-Black Friday sale today on its website.\nWal-Mart&amp;#8217;s go-for-the-throat strategy comes as the retailer tries to return to U.S. comparable sales growth after six quarters. Black Friday, which now is the anchor to what has become a week-long kick-off to the holiday shopping season, isn&amp;#8217;t always a firm indicator of how the holiday season will shape up for retailers. But no store can afford to do poorly that weekend, which sets the tone for a season that generates 30% of annual sales on average.\nTarget \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTGT\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\u2014also in need of a successful holiday season after a Grinch called &amp;#8220;Databreach&amp;#8221; stole Christmas last year\u2014has similarly been aggressive, holding a pre-Black Friday online sale this week and has removed all shipping costs since Oct. 22 through Dec. 20.\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\u201CYou\u2019ve seen a number of retailers pull forward their events throughout the weekend, and you\u2019re seeing a lot of activity, which tells me it\u2019s going to be very competitive,\u201D Duncan MacNaughton, Walmart U.S.&amp;#8217;s chief merchandising officer, told reporters during a media briefing.\nWal-Mart will kick off its Black Friday festivities with an online sale at midnight on Thanksgiving, continue with its first full-on in-store Black Friday (note to the retail industry\u2014we need a new name for this\u2014since the sales now start on Thursday) event at 6 p.m. that day, including nine items which Walmart guarantees that customers can buy between 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. get regardless of whether the store runs out of inventory. A second sale focused on electronics will start at 8 p.m., and a third sale will start at 6 a.m. on Friday the 28th. (Walmart stores have been open on Thanksgiving since 1988.)\nAnd gross margins be damned, Wal-Mart&amp;#8217;s prices appear to be lower than last year&amp;#8217;s when Walmart sold a Vizio 60\u201D Smart TV sold for $688 on Black Friday\u2014this year a 65\u201D Vizio Smart TV goes for $648. Wal-Mart is leaving nothing to chance\u2014for the first time it is offering maps for each of its 4,000 or so stores so shoppers don&amp;#8217;t get lost looking for that flatscreen being stocked in the frozen food section on this one occasion.\nTarget is also going all-in with more deals this year. The discount chain, which already held a pre-sale this week, will offer Black Friday deals starting on the preceding Sunday that will last for a week. And it will offer a few items on sale early on the Wednesday before the holiday. Meanwhile, Best Buy \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBBY\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t, to get a leg up on its rivals on a shopping day that is heavy on electronics, will open its stores at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving with Black Friday deals. Its stores will remain open until 1 a.m., then re-open at 8 a.m. It will also hold an online-only &amp;#8220;doorbuster&amp;#8221; sale on Thanksgiving.\nThe onslaught of promotion is a tacit acknowledgement by retailers of how tough the season is going to be.\n&amp;#8220;Overall, just because you&amp;#8217;ve moved the sales up, or extended them, or expanded Thanksgiving, that doesn\u2019t increase the amount of money people will spend for the season,&amp;#8221; said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, which has forecast a &amp;#8220;sluggish&amp;#8221; holiday season.\nWal-Mart appears to be dialing it up a notch this year\u2014despite its big efforts in 2013, and Target&amp;#8217;s abysmal holiday, Walmart was unable to pull off a holiday quarter with positive comparable sales growth in the holiday quarter last year.\nIt&amp;#8217;s become a truism that Black Friday has been diluted by earlier and earlier sales in November, and the likes of mainstream stores like Macy&amp;#8217;s \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tM\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t and J.C. Penney \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJCP\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t opening on Thanksgiving. But the fact remains, Black Friday is still a big deal: ShopperTrak, a data firm, expects Black Friday to remain the second biggest sales day of the season, after the final Saturday before Christmas.\n&amp;nbsp;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://fortune.com/2014/11/12/wal-mart-target-black-friday/>