It makes you wonder why they still call it “Black Friday”.

Stores are opening earlier than ever this year for Black Friday shopping, as retailers try to lure customers amid economic uncertainty and stay ahead of the competition.

For shoppers, it means the chance to get steeply discounted items, such as a 32-inch LCD television for $147 at Target or a Nook Simple Touch e-reader for $39.99 at Sears, without getting up at 3 a.m.  For thousands of retail workers around Charlotte, that means more hours of work and less time with families on Thanksgiving.

Target will kick off its door-buster deals at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, three hours earlier than last year, when the stores opened at midnight – itself a record early opening at the time.  Wal-Mart will offer its first deals at 8 p.m., with later waves of sales on different items into the next day.  The retailer started sales at 10 p.m. last year.