Having been in retail BEFORE we went to Thanksgiving openings, stores made oodles of money when it was just Black Friday. I experienced the first midnight opening of the store last year, and being open an extra 5 hours really didn't help the store all that much. The mobs that used to come early in the morning came in the middle of the night (and it was true mob mentality), and then things fizzled out during the day. I get that stores are in business to make money and not to accommodate families.
However, I will NEVER understand the mentality of shopping on a national holiday. At this point the stores have been forced to open in the middle of the night, because that's when shoppers are out. Why not open in the night between Black Friday and Saturday? Shoppers get their middle of the night fun(?) and associates get the holiday with their families. Makes a lot more sense.
And my explanation of Thanksgiving was a very general statement. Having grown up in NH, we've had that history hammered into our heads