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Claim: The day after Thanksgiving is the
biggest shopping day Origins: The
day after Thanksgiving is the day millions of Americans, enjoying
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.
"People
just want to get out and do something on that day," said
Jay McIntosh, director of U.S. Retail and Consumer Products for
accounting giant Ernst & Young. "They do because of
all of the incentives to shop, but many aren't buying."2 According to
the International Council of Shopping Centers, the top shopping
days for each of the last twelve years have been as follows: |
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 income statements 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 holiday shoppers traipse through malls,
it isn't the biggest day of the year in terms of dollars spent:
"It's
one of the busiest days in terms of traffic but not in sales,"
said Pam Rucker, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation.
"But the mystique is still there."1 