Claim: The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year in America.
Status: False.

Origins: The day after Thanksgiving is the day millions of Americans, enjoying a rare Friday off (and a dearth of football games on television), head for the malls to inaugurate the Christmas shopping season. "Black Friday" (as it is known in the retail industry, supposedly because it's the day retailers turn the corner and see their balance sheets move out of the red and into the black) is regularly cited as "the busiest shopping day of the year," but although it may be the day the greatest number of Yuletide shoppers traipse through malls, it isn't the biggest day of the year in terms of dollars spent:

Popular belief has it that the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year.

These days many shoppers buy with the holidays in mind all year long. Decorations go up around Halloween, and some Santa Clauses arrive at malls before Thanksgiving. Some shoppers got an early start Thursday at a limited number of stores like Kmart and Wal-Mart Super Centers, which were open on the holiday. To be sure, there are still intense crowds on the day after Thanksgiving - led by the "doorbusters" who show up at dawn for early-bird sales.

Sales figures spike on the day after Thanksgiving, drop sharply, and then steadily increase throughout December. The result is that Black Friday generally ends up ranking as the fifth biggest sales day of the year at most (and sometimes less), behind the four days comprising the two weekends before Christmas. The day on which holiday sales peak varies depending upon which day of the week Christmas falls upon, but the highest sales day is usually either the last Saturday before Christmas or December 23.

According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, the top shopping days for each of the last ten years have been as follows:

· 2004: Saturday , Dec. 18 and Thursday, Dec.23
· 2003: Sunday, Dec. 21 and Tuesday, Dec. 23
· 2002: Saturday, Dec. 21, and Monday Dec. 23
· 2001: Saturday, Dec. 22, and Saturday, Dec. 15
· 2000: Saturday, Dec. 23, and Friday, Dec. 22
· 1999: Saturday, Dec. 18, and Thursday, Dec. 23
· 1998: Saturday, Dec. 19, and Wednesday, Dec. 23
· 1997: Saturday, Dec. 20, and Monday, Dec. 22
· 1996: Saturday, Dec. 21, and Monday, Dec. 23
· 1995: Saturday, Dec. 23, and Friday, Dec. 22