Dive Brief:

• A great majority (79%) of holiday shoppers don't enjoy Black Friday shopping and 63% don’t even believe that day offers the deepest discounts, according to a holiday shopping survey from Black Friday deal site BestBlackFriday.com. Shoppers find the day stressful and even dangerous, according to the site.

• Early, that is, pre-Thanksgiving sales, Thanksgiving Day itself, and Cyber Monday are leaving consumers confused and a bit leery of when the best deals are available, the survey found. But, according to PwC's holiday survey, just 26% of consumers expect to do most of their holiday shopping Black Friday week, compared to 29% who will shop earlier, and 45% who will shop later.

• While 47% of those surveyed said stores should absolutely be closed on Thanksgiving and 34% said they should open (with 19% unsure), just 33% of shoppers said they plan to shop on Thanksgiving, either in-stores or online. 64% say they definitely won’t be shopping on Thanksgiving, most likely because they do not want to interrupt family time. Meanwhile PwC's holiday survey found that 41% of shoppers do plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day, but most plan to do so online.

Dive Insight:

Retailers seem to have gotten themselves into something of a pickle when it comes to Black Friday weekend. By extending deals before and beyond Thanksgiving Day weekend, they’ve confused many consumers about when to find the deepest discounts.

And while many retailers do attract shoppers on Thanksgiving Day, the bad optics around being open on the holiday doesn’t seem to have much of a payoff, with shoppers spreading out their spending rather than increasing it when they shop on the holiday.