Going Shopping? Hurry Before Everything Runs Out!

Once we have gobbled up all the Thanksgiving dinner, many of us have another alternative to burning off the calories. It is not by exercising on the treadmill. It is an exercising routine that is referred to as Black Friday.

By now, everyone knows that Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the United States. This is the official Christmas shopping season.

Retailers usually begin decorating for the Christmas season very early. I know from working in a retail store. Although Black Friday is not a legal holiday, many individuals treat it as legal. Many go as far as ditching the work day. I guess it is a good thing—at least from the retailers' perspective. This boosts the number of these holiday shoppers. As a potential Christmas shopper, I am not willing to risk my life just for a couple of items!

Many retailers open during the wee hours (approximately 5 am or even earlier) and give these great price deals just to recruit individuals to their stores. There are many people who have seen these early-bird shoppers line up much earlier than four o'clock in the morning. These lines are very long—almost two miles long. Lining up for a fifteen-dollar Barbie doll on Black Friday is not unusual. This is pretty typical on the day after Thanksgiving. These shoppers generally rush and grab as if the products were the last item standing on Earth! Come on, what is the big rush?

The most popular shopping items that are sold on Black Friday and afterwards are electronics and the most commercialized toys. Discounts are king during this day. A large number of people make the smart decision to remain at home. I do not blame them!

Besides the shoppers being the main attraction of Black Friday, who can forget about the news and other mass medias? The mass media are hungry to hear about it! Normally, the local news media will do a story on the biggest shopping day of the year. Sometimes the reporter may ask the shopper, “How long have you been standing here?” The shopper may reply, “Since two thirty this morning.” As a result of standing in line for a long period of time, the shopper walks out with their wanted items.

Black Friday does not only apply to the typical retail stores. The Internet is also cashing in on this shopping frenzy.

On various online shopping websites, there is information on Black Friday specials at least a month before this “holiday” arrives. These listings includes items and prices in addition to the pictures of the original advertisements. However, this information is often revealed by insiders or the heavyweight retailers may give away details in order for consumers to plan ahead for the Christmas holiday season. Recently, there have been some retailers that stated that the advanced Black Friday advertisements, which includes the prices are copyrighted.

In essence, many of the retailers have utilized the DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act, take down system for the purpose of removing the price listing for having violating information. According to some of these companies, this particular policy is the result that competitors may cut prices. This is a sign of fear. Also the shoppers may want to price shop. Others say that this claim that prices give some type of authorship is unclear as the price may not be looked at as a factor that would be the similar type of protection as the average work that has a copyright.

Although I am not a retailer, my suggestion is to do the Christmas shopping via the World Wide Web after Thanksgiving. This is beneficial for a couple of reasons: shoppers are getting really good deals online and avoiding that crazy shoppers traffic! Good luck with holiday shopping!


Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/Black_Friday_(shopping)