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J.C. Penney To Open On Thanksgiving Night

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Want some Christmas shopping with your Thanksgiving turkey? J.C. Penney is opening early to compete with other retailers.

Black Friday not good enough for you?

How about shopping on Thanksgiving?

J.C. Penney is opening its doors on Thanksgiving evening to kick off the holiday shopping season. The beleaguered Plano-based retailer hopes to get back in the game for the crucial selling period.

Penney will open most of its 1,100 stores at 8 p.m., the same as rival Macy's. So instead of getting up super early on Black Friday, you can feast on turkey, take a long nap and head to the mall and wait in line before the sun goes down. 

The Thanksgiving evening opening is much earlier than last year, when Penney didn't open until 6 a.m. Friday. That made the retailer one of the laggards for the unofficial kickoff to the season.

J.C. Penney also is bringing back its tradition of giving away nearly 2 million holiday snow globes starting at 4 a.m. on the Friday after the turkey feast.

Stores are ushering the holiday season in earlier every year, creeping into Thanksgiving. Macy's 8 p.m. opening on Thanksgiving compares with its midnight Friday opening in 2012.

Eric Aasen is KERA’s managing editor. He helps lead the station's news department, including radio and digital reporters, producers and newscasters. He also oversees keranews.org, the station’s news website, and manages the station's digital news projects. He reports and writes stories for the website and contributes pieces to KERA radio. He's discussed breaking news live on various public radio programs, including The Takeaway, Here & Now and Texas Standard, as well as radio and TV programs in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.