walmart shopping

Walmart shoppers searching for sales. Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty Images

If you live near a Walmart you have a new Thanksgiving night option: you can go shopping all night long! Yes, on Thanksgiving!

You know that bored feeling you get after dinner, when you've eaten as much pie as possible, napped twice and the dishes are all done? When there's nothing to do but watch old movies and recheck your shopping list for Black Friday?

Now, thanks to Walmart, you can get up off the couch and be ready for Christmas before Thanksgiving is even officially over. In a move to avert the unruly crush of shoppers that marred past Black Fridays, the retail giant is keeping their doors open around the clock at most of their stores from November 26 to November 27.

Traditionally on Black Friday, shoppers will line up hours in advance of early morning store openings, often creating a mob scene when the doors finally allow them inside. Each year seems to bring new stories of crowd mayhem, including a Walmart worker who was trampled by shoppers last Christmas.

This year, with the tough economy and tight budgets, analysts are expecting even bigger crowds searching for holiday sales and deep discounts. Walmart, taking a pragmatic approach, is simply letting bargain hunters come in and start shopping as early as they want. Another step they're taking to manage the anticipated crowd is to spread deals all over the store.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is this: Even though you can enter the store and line up for big-ticket items early, the actual sales don't begin until 5 a.m. Friday. So, if you're going Thursday night and plan to hang around for the sales, you might want to pack yourself a turkey sandwich!

Are you going to be a 3 a.m. Walmart shopper? Or will you stick with the DVD and third slice of pie plan?