You might want to go bed early tonight if you plan to go to grandma’s house Thursday, eat yourself into a food coma and then line up for Black Friday deals.

Many local stores will open at midnight – or even earlier – Thanksgiving night for their big sales of the season. Numerous stores, including Target, Macy’s, Best Buy and Kohl’s, will open for the first time at midnight, while Walmart will go even further, offering deals at 10 p.m. Thursday. Toys“R”Us is opening at 9 p.m. Thursday with its specials.

Kmart has been open on Thanksgiving Day for more than a decade and is continuing that tradition.

Store manager Chris Vinson said he thinks other retailers have seen the success of Kmart’s Thanksgiving shopping, which is why they have scooted their Black Friday sales to the end of Thanksgiving Day.

“But we think we have more convenient hours,” Vinson said. “We don’t want to compete with Walmart, Target, Kohl’s or Toys‘R’Us. You can shop with us and have fresh door busters at a more convenient hour.”

Kmart is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day and will close for several hours to reopen at 5 a.m. Friday.

“We’re going to have door buster specials Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” Vinson said.

Walmart is advertising that its stores are open 24 hours, meaning customers won’t have to wait outside for the specials to begin.

Sandra Bollenbecker of Russellville is a veteran Black Friday shopper and plans to be out at midnight. Bollenbecker said she will not only be purchasing gifts for her six children and extended family, but also some needed household items.

To get ready for the day, her husband, Tim, is doing research online and the two of them will scour all the advertisements.

Such research might take a little time. Today’s Daily News weighs about 3 1/2 pounds with all the sales circulars included in the issue. Many people use those circulars as road maps of places to go and timing for when they need to be at each store for certain specials.

Bollenbecker said she knows, for instance, that she needs to be at J.C. Penney at 4 a.m. to get the deal she wants on a certain skillet. She’s not sure if anyone in her family will be camping out in line anywhere.

“My children have camped out at Best Buy before … normally we just don’t go to bed,” she said.

Jo Gleaves of Bowling Green at first wasn’t sure if she would wait until her usual morning time to go shopping, but after mulling it over, decided she would head out at midnight with some girlfriends. Gleaves, in addition to gifts, will be looking for home furnishings for herself.

Shopping after Thanksgiving, she said, is a tradition.

Target manager Jim Sauerheber anticipates that people will start lining up about 8 p.m. Thursday for the midnight opening and deals. The Target circular in today’s paper might confuse some people about store hours. The circular was designed to go out in Thursday morning papers. The store will open at midnight Thanksgiving.

“We are really going to focus on crowd control and making sure that our customers in line are taken care of,” Sauerheber said. “We have 18 people assigned to crowd control.”

People in line will get energy bars, maps of where the deals in the store are and information about how they can be sure to get what they want.

“We have some really good deals on televisions … and other electronics and on toys, too,” he said.

All store employees will be working sometime during the Black Friday madness.

“We are expecting it to be about like last year,” he said. “It’s totally insane.”

Carolyn Hansen of Red Boiling Springs, Tenn., hopes to have all her shopping done before Thanksgiving. Hansen recently picked up the last of the stocking stuffers she needed while on a shopping trip to Bowling Green.

Hansen said she frequently shops in Bowling Green.

“I much prefer shopping here,” she said.

Even if she weren’t done shopping, Hansen said she wouldn’t interrupt her time with family to do so. She feels for store employees who have to cut their holiday short for work.

“I don’t think that’s fair,” she said.

While retailers extend their hours to grab a little more cash, Hansen said she’s not sure if opening any earlier will really make much of a difference.

The National Retail Federation is anticipating a 2.8 percent rise in holiday sales.

Here is a partial listing of some other retail opening hours that are different than usual:

• Old Navy is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and reopens at midnight

• Radio Shack opens at 5:30 a.m. Friday

• Ashley Furniture opens at 6 a.m. Friday

• Ace Hardware opens at 7 a.m. Friday

• LifeWay Christian Stores opens at 7 a.m. Friday

• Lowe’s opens at 5 a.m. Friday

• Big Lots is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, at 6 a.m. Friday and at 7 a.m. Saturday

• Shoe Carnival opens at 5 a.m. Friday

• Home Depot opens at 5 a.m. Friday

• Office Depot opens at 7 a.m. Friday

• Staples opens at 6 a.m. Friday

• Walgreens is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday

• Sears opens at 4 a.m. Friday

• Fred’s opens at 5 a.m. Friday

• Rite Aid is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The pharmacy closes at 3 p.m.

• Gander Mountain is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, opens at 6 a.m. Friday, 8 a.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday

• Best Buy opens at midnight Thursday

• Dunham’s Sports opens at 5 a.m. Friday

• Sam’s Club opens at 5 a.m. Friday

• hhgregg opens at midnight Thursday

• Kroger closes at 5 p.m. Thursday

• Houchens is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday