Black Friday

An article in the Nov. 21st Chicago Tribune "Black Friday turning pale" by Sandra M. Jones

Black Friday is typically the busiest shopping day of the year. This year, foot traffic is expected to be 2.5% less than last year. Plus, retail sales for the past two months are disappointing.

Economic pressures like surging gas prices, higher prices in the grocery stores, the fall of home equity will be keeping a lot of people out of the stores.

Stores themselves are not doing themselves a favor as far as Black Friday is concerned. Many have been offering Black Friday promotions for weeks. You can also go online, order, and pick up your purchases. Two stores around here, northeast Illinois, K-Mart and Meijer's were open yesterday. Plus, Value City opened at midnight. Kohl's and JC Penney's had 4 AM openings this morning.

The first time I heard the term Black Friday, I thought it was a term connoting something bad, you know, the stock market fall, or something like that. I didn't know that it marks the day when retailers go from losing money to making a profit.

Let's Hope It's a Good Day for Retailers. --RoadDog

Perhaps the retailers are overdoing it a bit.