As one of America's anticipated holidays is fast approaching, several giant retail stores have recently announced their holiday sales starting on Thanksgiving, a day before the Black Friday commemoration. These have brought conflicting opinions as to what the holiday is truly about.

Holidays are always anticipated so families can spend time together, whether outdoors or at the mall. However, during Thanksgiving, much attention has been brought to retail stores planning their holiday sales on the eve of Black Friday. USA Today reports that Target and Macy's have both announced that they will open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day including Toys R Us, which will open earlier at 5 p.m.

The announcement comes after speculations rose claiming that retail stores are taking the holidays away from the families and urging them to shop instead of spending quality time with each other. In line with this, some brands like REI recently announced that it will be closed for the holidays to let families celebrate the essence of Thanksgiving.

"We think that Black Friday has gotten out of hand," REI's CEO, Jerry Stritzke said as quoted by Time.

However, according to Stritzke, REI's move is a marketing strategy, saying, "[W]e can do something like close our doors on Black Friday, and we'll have the membership that'll think that's cool."

Bill Martin, founder and senior vice president of analytics company ShopperTrak speculates that it is a market-driven move for the retail stores. "It's all driven by whether (they're) making money or not," he said as quoted by USA Today. "I think the creep has not shown that it's advantageous to open up at 4 or 5 (on Thanksgiving). And they're getting the same number of sales as when they opened at midnight."

Meanwhile, Tina Tyler, chief stores officer for Target, insists that they are not taking away the essence of the holiday. "I don't think we'd say we're shifting away" from Black Friday, Tyler said as quoted by Mercury News.

"We're adding to. It's about getting more trips from the guests. We're really looking at how do we fill more needs of the guests versus trying to put them all into one spot," Tyler added.

Indeed, it has been reported that there is a greater demand for retail stores to open since Black Friday had been the top day for sales and the busiest day of customer traffic all season, USA Today reports.