The day after Thanksgiving in the United States is usually referred to as "Black Friday." It is on that day that many retailers pull out all stops and try to lure in holiday shoppers with rockbottom sales. Often the sales on this particular day are enough to determine whether or not a retailer will have a profitable holiday season.
This year Black Friday falls on Friday, November 23rd. That's a little over a week a way, and already rumors about retail deals are flying through the web, and even in the news, as some of the holiday deals have leaked out in advance of their official publication. You can read more about some of the leaked deals at CNNMoney.com. There is more about leaked deals at the Tim Worstall Tabloid Edition blog. I first started to read rumors and posts about the sales last week at Paula Neal Mooney's blog.
A retailer of particular interest in most of the stories I read about Black Friday is Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT). Everyone wants to know just how good the deals at Wal-Mart will be. 
While I don't claim to have any special inside information about Wal-Mart, I can say that they have an interest in making a profit on that day, just like other retailers. That means that the deals are likely to be competitive with, if not better than, those of other retailers.
Will the Black Friday lure you out? Personally I hate dealing with crowds and I figure that I work hard to save money the rest of the year so that I can relax on this one day. However, a few years ago a Black Friday special did send my husband to WalMart at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. The exceptional deal on a low-end, no-name DVD player ($20.00) was the lure. The DVD player lasted a few years, and then broke. It was our family's first DVD player, though.
Will we go shopping on Black Friday this year? I guess it just depends on how good the deals are.
Will you go shopping on Black Friday? Why, or why not?
Leave us a comment and let us know.
No, absolutely not. I never, ever, go shopping on Black Friday. First off, I loathe shopping at the best of times, and second, our little family will be out of town visiting my husband's extended family, who we usually only get to see over the holidays.
Besides, the Friday after Thanksgiving has always meant much more in my family than a day to bargain hunt. It's the day we'd pull down our Christmas decorations and spend all day together trimming the house, listening to carols, and watching the very first Christmas specials of the year. Those decorating "parties" are some of my favorite memories from childhood. Next to that, the idea of slogging through crowds of rabid shoppers and nightmarish traffic seems like the last thing I'd want to do.
Besides, the exact same deals tend to crop back up the second week in December anyway.
Posted by: Misses E. | November 13, 2007 7:55 PM | Permalink to Comment