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Walmart is getting an early start to Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. The discount retail giant released its Black Friday ad聽Thursday, announcing that this year the store鈥檚 doors will open at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving night for discounts on home items, clothing, and toys.聽 Electronics will go on sale two hours later, at midnight.

Among the items you can grab at 10 p.m. after your feast: a $67 ping pong table, a slew of DVDs for $1.96 apiece, and a 4-quart Crock-Pot for under $10 (regular price is closer to $25).

Perhaps as surprising as the deals is the timing of the ad for Walmart Black Friday 2011. Last year, Walmart didn鈥檛 announce its Black Friday deals until Nov. 22, meaning this year鈥檚 revelations are coming a full 12 days earlier than before. But the early Walmart announcement is just the latest in a trend of stores getting an earlier and earlier start to the Black Friday rush: For the first time, Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic are opening their stores at midnight on Black Friday, joining Macy's, Kohl's, and Target, which have done it before.

鈥淭hanksgiving night openings are much more common now,鈥� says Dan de Grandpre, CEO of dealnews.com, a website that tracks sales at large retailers across the country. 鈥淒eals are going to be much better at that time. But you have to get up earlier and earlier, or those stores will be picked over.鈥�

The hubbub over the early Walmart announcement comes in the wake of projections for a fairly average holiday shopping season. Erik Johnson, an economist with IHS Global Insight, is predicting a 4.2 percent growth in overall holiday sales over last year. 鈥淭o put this in perspective, 2010 holiday sales were up 5.2 percent and 2009 sales were down 0.4 percent,鈥� Mr. Johnson says in e-mail.

Some are predicting more shoppers, however. According to Business News Daily, a recent consumer survey from the digital technology advertising company SocialVibe is projecting a 52 percent increase in the number of Black Friday shoppers from last year.聽 That means longer lines and much bigger crowds, which may be part of the impetus for retailers to extend their hours. [Editor's note: An earlier version misspelled SocialVibe. It's one word.]

But Mr. de Grandpre insists that bigger crowds don鈥檛 necessarily mean more buying. 鈥淭here will be a lot of window shopping,鈥� he said 鈥淧articipation in Black Friday will go up, but there will be more of a shift from in-store shopping into online shopping.聽 The growth of online shopping has been many times higher than in-store shopping.

Johnson agrees. 鈥淓-commerce as a percentage of overall retail sales hit an all-time high in the second quarter of 2011, at 4.6 percent,鈥� he says.

Online retailers, too, are getting in on the Black Friday earlier than ever: Amazon.com has already launched a 鈥淐ountdown to Black Friday鈥� section of its site, with early discounts on a wide array of products including cameras, TVs, DVDs, and toys.

According to de Grandpre, however, the pre-sales usually can鈥檛 hold a candle to the real thing.聽 鈥淪tores use terms like Black Friday and Cyber Monday to draw in shoppers, but that doesn鈥檛 always mean good deals,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檇 be skeptical of discounts that sound modest, or that have a range.鈥�

He uses terms like 鈥渦p to 30 percent off鈥� as an example.聽

鈥淛ust because a store has a big sale doesn鈥檛 mean the specific items are all that cheap. Macy鈥檚 has a 20 percent off sale basically every Friday. It鈥檚 better to look at specific items for big discounts.鈥澛�

Still, if you wanted to get a jump on the holiday rush this Veteran鈥檚 Day weekend, for instance, there are certain benefits. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a contrast of convenience and savings鈥� versus the Black Friday rush, de Grandpre says. 鈥淏lack Friday is not a fun day to shop. The sales reps are always frazzled, and people are aggressive. Of course, online sales sort of take away those convenience concerns, and a lot of online sales these days are identical to what鈥檚 in the store.鈥�

And there are some decent deals to be found over the coming weekend.聽 Home improvement retailer Lowe鈥檚 is offering deep discounts on major home appliances ($1,100 off a Wirlpool washer/dryer pair, for example), and competitor Home Depot is releasing its actual Black Friday prices this week.

You can also find bargains on clothing, at retailers like Kohl鈥檚 and JC Penney, which is offering a wide variety of discounts this weekend, most notably 50-60 percent discounts on diamond jewelry.

鈥淕iven the hassle, it's not really worth getting up at 3 a.m. on Black Friday for a sweater,鈥� de Grandpre says. 鈥淵ou want to go for a big ticket item, like a TV or a laptop.鈥�