Black Friday Sale Events

With family usually visiting my house on Thanksgiving and the following weekend after, I have never taken advantage of "Black Friday" sales or events. This year will be the first year that I will be traveling the day of Thanksgiving and will be home the day after and I am jumping at the opportunity to venture out into the craziness and lose my "Black Friday" virginity. I cant not wait!

I researched "online Black Friday events" and the first one that caught my eye was Apple. The Apple Online Store is having a "special one-day only shopping event" which promises "lots of great iPod, iPhone and Mac gift ideas — all with free shipping.” Apple products are usually more expensive gifts and if I was in the market for anything Apple, I would definitely take advantage of this event.

Another "online Black Friday event" I came across was Walmart.com's online Black Friday sales. What was interesting to me about Walmart's savings event was that the sale would be in-stores on Friday with a online deals starting now but the big day for the online savings was the Monday after Thanksgiving, also known as Cyber Monday. This is the big online holiday shopping day, people getting their gift shopping done while at work. A few of the deals Walmart has previewed are a TV, a Wii Bundle and a laptop, more expensive things that someone would definitely wait shopping for until Cyber Monday.

Another company using the same approach as Walmart and having Black Friday deals available online now is Best Buy. Best Buy is already offering great deals on TVs and other electronics. At this time in the economy, everyone is looking to save where they can, as soon as they can.

Black Friday originated in Philadelphia when the traffic was so bad from all of the post-Thanksgiving holiday shoppers that they called it Black Friday. The media has come to change the meaning behind the name to the period when retailers sales go from 'being in the red' to 'being in the black' (making a profit).

Black Friday is not an official holiday but many employees have the day off. Many of the businesses participating in Black Friday sales open extremely early, around 5 am, sometimes earlier. The stores off door buster sales and huge discounts on a lot of their items, if not a store wide sale. The shoulder-to-shoulder crowd and hectic, busy day must be something one is prepared for before going out to take advantage of the Black Friday deals.

In my next post, I will take a stand on Online shopping vs. In-store shopping.