Walmart is defending its decision to start this year's Black Friday way before it was actually Friday.

This year, Walmart began its Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Thursday at 6 p.m. This is two hours earlier than it opened its doors last year.

Walmart began its shopping frenzy at what is primetime Turkey time for many American families. So is Walmart trying to outshine the tradition of a family meal on Thanksgiving?

"Our job is to try to anticipate what the customer wants... Having families out, children in the building... gives it a different feel, and it's one that's in line with who we are at WalMart," Bill Simon, Walmart CEO, told CNN. "It feels a lot better in the evening than it did when it was early in the morning [on Black Friday]."

Simon insists that Walmart never wanted to start Black Friday earlier this year, but the company had no choice.

"We had planned not to move [the opening time] this year, but the market moved... I have a hard time imagining it could be 4:00," Simon said. "Let's hope that it doesn't move."

Although Simon and Walmart have "hope" that Black Friday does not start earlier next year, Simon fell short of making any true commitment to that plan.

"We've seen about as early as it can go," Simon said when asked if he would ever "draw a line." "It's hard to imagine that it can move much more."

Walmart did its best to keep its employees happy despite having them work on a holiday.

Simon said he himself worked for most of the night with the assistance of a Monster energy drink and coffee. Meanwhile, the other 900,000 employees that spent Thanksgiving with Walmart were rewarded with a bonus, a 25 percent corporate discount to use in-stores and a hot meal.