It is that time if year again. TV and radio adds proudly proclaim that this coming Friday is IT, the biggest shopping day of the year. However, my BS detect-o-meter is flashing pretty brightly. I never go shopping on that day, neither does anyone else I know (not that that means anything). A lot people don’t even have the day off of work. Experience and common sense tells me that the busiest shopping days of the year are the days closer to Christmas. What is the Straight Dope? Have they made up another crock of lies and deceipt for us to feast on?
Step into a mall and report back…if you make it back.
Snopes.com says it’s big, but not the biggest: http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/shopping.htm
The last two weekends before Christmas are busier. I’d suggest so-called “Black Friday” seems busier because the crowds are more concentrated, with many people coming first thing in the morning for special sales (“Door Busters”, “Early Bird Specials”, and such). Also, it’s the first really busy day - just like that first cold day each winter feels VERY cold, the first busy shopping day before Christmas seems VERY busy.
Thanksgiving is a big sale day too. Of the two, I’m not sure which is going to be bigger this year. Black Friday, the day after, comes from Blackie the Cheap or so I read. I’m already getting email ads from major stores of sales they are having on Thursday, not friday.
Ask any major retailer what day of the year posted the highest sales volume. It will always be the day after Thanksgiving. It’s not B.S. it’s just how Americans follow trends like sheep.
The week before Xmas accumulates more sales than the day after Thanksgiving but for single day volume it’s Black Friday.
‘Busiest’ ifeeling day is xmas eve in that the reduced hours cause the greatest concentration of shoppers in a given time frame across the widest variety of stores, including produce and grocery, along with all the malls, department stores, etc.
But what Snopes says is pretty much true about sales(sales meaning stuff sold, not ‘discounts’), etc.
Busiest, most revenue, etc: Definitely not Black Friday. Black Friday is the day retailers start heading into the Black (profit) for the year. You can take that to mean they go into the black on that Friday, or they beging their journey into the black on that Friday thru the end of the year.