Let me explain Black Friday here~~I guess I never gave much thought about black friday. I thought everyone camped out a week before the sales, literally camped....with tents, generators, campfire stoves, for the sales on Friday. The stores are getting a bit "off" by opening at midnight, 3 am, 4 am, or 5 am...just to lure the customers in for sales. I have never camped out, lol, please God, don't let me do that! Cyber Monday, is of course, Monday following Black Friday. Cyber monday refers to the busiest shopping day online, of the year. I did go to wikipedia and found some more info for those of you not living here in the states:
Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day many U.S. retailers open very early, often at 5 a.m., and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season. Because Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, the day after occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November.
The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term began by 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the period during which retailers are turning a profit, or "in the black."
The news media frequently refers to it as the busiest retail shopping day of the year, but this is not always accurate. While it has been one of the busiest days in terms of pedestrian traffic at shopping centers, in terms of actual sales volume, from 1993 through 2001 Black Friday was the fifth to tenth busiest day.[1] In 2002 and 2004, however, it ranked second place,[2] and since 2005, it actually was the busiest retail day.[2]
In many cities it is not uncommon to see shoppers lined up for hours before stores with big sales open. Once inside the stores, shoppers often rush and grab, as many stores have only a few of the big-draw items. Injuries and even fatalities are reported. On Friday, November 28, 2008, Jdimytai Damour, a worker at a Walmart in Valley Stream, New York was trampled to death by shoppers who broke through the store's glass doors minutes before the store's scheduled opening at 5:00 a.m.;[3] a pregnant mother was hospitalized from injuries in the same human "stampede", though early reports of a resultant miscarriage were determined to be in error.[4] On that same day, two people in Palm Desert, California, were shot and killed in a Toys "R" Us store during an argument[5]
Many retailers close to Canada frequently attract cross-border traffic, so in 2009 several major Canadian retailers had their own version of the day by running promotions to discourage shoppers from leaving for the US.[6] Canada's Boxing Day has often been compared to Black Friday in terms of retailer impact and consumerism.
Yeah, I stay home. Conveinient for me, since I traditionally start my Christmas sewing that day, go figure, eh? If ya'll go out to shop, have a good time, I'll be here eating a turkey sandwich and drinking hot tea...
