Local businesses prepare for Black Friday (Marietta Daily Journal) »

Ross Williams

Gathering around the table with your loved ones to dine on roast turkey with all the fixings. Topping off a wonderful meal with grandma’s famous pumpkin pie. Recalling old times while the football game plays in the background.

Every Thanksgiving, Americans come together to participate in time-honored traditions. In the world of retail, a new Thanksgiving tradition has emerged in recent years: opening your doors to throngs of people seeking deals on flat-screen TVs and laptops.

Black Friday has officially traveled back in time and now occupies a significant portion of Thanksgiving, and Cobb’s stores are no exception.

Town Center Mall will open Thanksgiving from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., then reopen its doors on Black Friday at 6 a.m.

Cumberland Mall has not yet announced its Black Friday hours for this year, but last year, doors opened at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, closed at midnight, then reopened at 6 a.m. on Black Friday.

An important note: just because the mall is open does not mean all its stores are. To avoid disappointment, call ahead to make sure the store you want to visit is participating.

Walmart’s Black Friday deals go into effect at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

Over at Target, they’ll open the doors at 6 p.m. on Thursday, close at midnight, and reopen at 6 a.m. sharp on Black Friday.

Best Buy and Kohl’s will both open at 5 p.m. on Thursday.

For those who refuse on principal to shop on the national day of giving thanks, and for those who will be too busy consuming turkey to be effective consumers of material goods, helpful corporations have established two new traditions to help you spend money.

Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday

Small Business Saturday, a registered trademark of the American Express Corporation, is the day after Black Friday. On that day, small businesses offer discounted prices for holiday shoppers.

Small business data analytics company Womply found in an analysis of 2,800 local retailers in Georgia that Black Friday is a better sales day by far for small businesses than Small Business Saturday.

On Black Friday and Dec. 23, the retailers saw an average of 182 percent and 146 percent of normal daily revenue, respectively. For comparison, small retailers pulled in 128 percent of average daily revenue on Small Business Saturday, Womply found.

Cyber Monday is the Monday following Thanksgiving. It is a day when online retailers offer special discounts on merchandise.

Analysts say Cyber Monday is growing in popularity. Last year, online purchases reached an all-time high for the seventh year in a row, according to small business consulting firm The Ridgefield Group.

Last year’s Cyber Monday saw the market’s first-ever $1 billion shopping day from mobile devices alone, and desktop sales added another $2.7 billion, Ridgefield found.

Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday combined saw retailers gobble up $8.3 billion in online sales last year, and they are hoping for even bigger numbers this year.