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Black Friday


Black Friday

Black Friday is the first Friday after Thanksgiving. It marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Many stores open at 5 a.m. or earlier and offer special door buster deals to get people in the doors. Black Friday means the day retailers start turning a profit, going from in the red, to in the black.

BLACK FRIDAY 2010 STORE HOURS

Store Hours for Black Friday

BLACK FRIDAY DEALS 2010

About Black Friday

The news frequently alludes to Black Friday being the busiest shopping day of the year, but that has only really happened in the past few years. Since the early 1900's, it has been one of the busiest in terms of pedestrian traffic. The busiest shopping day in terms of sales is usually the Saturday before Christmas.

It is common to find people lined up for hours before the doors open on Black Friday. In 2008, shoppers broke through the glass windows at the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY, trampled, and killed an employee. Paramedics trying to save the stampede victim were also injured. The stampede also resulted in a pregnant woman’s hospitalization. Now Wal-Mart calls Black Friday The Event, to avoid association with the tragedy.

Intended for people to get discounts on items for Christmas, now some people use Black Friday to buy items at a huge discount and resell them online. Due to massive crowds and urban legends of brawls over popular toys, many people choose to stay home and watch local media cover the hectic shopping. National Buy Nothing Day also falls on Black Friday, to draw attention to the negatives of a consumerist lifestyle.

The response from the retail world to folks simply avoiding the crowds and not attempting to make a social statement is Cyber Monday, a day to find bargains online.

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