The day after Thanksgiving is one of the year‘s busiest shopping days

1. Early uses of “Black Friday” were negative, referring in the United States, for example, to a stock market crisis that occurred on Sept. 24, 1869.

2. References to the day after Thanksgiving as “Black Friday” date at least as far back as a 1951 Factory Management and Maintenance article on the topic of worker absences.

3. the term has come to describe the transition of stores from having negative returns (”in the red”) to making a profit (”in the black”).

4. Though it is not a federal holiday, Black Friday gained popularity for shopping since many employers give their workers the day off.

5. the Monday after Thanksgiving was termed “Cyber Monday” in 2005 after retailers noticed a spike in online sales that day.

6. Stampeding customers at the 5 a.m. opening of a Valley Stream, N.Y., Wal-Mart on Black Friday 2008 trampled a store employee to death. As part of a deal the company made with local prosecutors to avoid criminal charges, all 92 Wal-Marts in New York State are required to implement crowd-management plans this year.

7. In 2008, more than 172 million shoppers visited retail stores during Black Friday weekend, spending an average of $372.57 each.

8. Last year, the three most popular items purchased online on Black Friday were the Nintendo Wii console, the Ugg Australia “Classic Short” boot, and the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc player.

9. In 2008, in-store sales of electronics fell for the first time in Black Friday history.

10. Ninety percent of malls say that this year, their special holiday hours start on Black Friday.

• Associated Content
• Consumer Reports
• History.com
• International Council of Shopping Centers
• National Retail Foundation
• New York Daily News
• Pricegrabber.com
• Forbes.com
• LinguistList.org, University of Eastern Michigan

While Black Friday deals on laptops and HDTVs helped to lure shoppers to stores and online sites over the weekend, it’s still unclear whether sales of consumer electronics products really brought retailers much holiday cheer.

Across all product categories, including electronics, spending at stores and Web sites from Nov. 26 to no. 29 rose a scant 0.5 percent to $41.2 billion from the year before, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).

The biggest sales gains seem to have sprung up online, particularly for consumer electronics products.

Shoppers lined up for hours in the wee hours of Friday morning at Wal-Mart stores in hopes of scoring a $198 e-Machine or $298 HP laptop before supplies ran out.

Meanwhile, though, Internet sales shot up 11 percent from a year ago to $595 million, according to Comscore. A total of five sites attracted for than four million visitors each, including tech-specific Best buy Sites and Apple.com Worldwide Sites along with Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Target.

At BestBuy’s brick-and-mortar stores, early morning shopping crowds were bigger this year than last year, said CEO Brian Dunn, in a Bloomberg TV interview.

But a check of Apple Stores suggested that Black Friday sales of Macs could actually show a year-over-year decline, according to Apple Insider.

With prices down on products ranging from flat panel TVs to clothing and toys, average spending per consumer — across both brick-and-mortar and online stores — dropped to $343.31 from a total of $372.57 a year ago, the NRF said.

Sales on one of America’s busiest shopping days, Black Friday, were marginally ahead of 2008, but shoppers steered clear of higher priced items to hunt out bargains.

US shoppers moved away from full price merchandise and luxury items on Friday, which fell the day after the Thanksgiving and is the day consumers traditionally storm the shops. 195m shoppers visited stores and went online, up from 172m in 2008.

The average spend, at $343.31 per person for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, was substantially down from last year’s $372.57, indicating a desire for discounted and cut-price stock, according to analysts.

Total spend over the weekend was 0.5% higher than last year, at $41.2bn.

Hardest hit by price-conscious shoppers were the luxury retailers, which failed to capitalise on the increased footfall, according to industry observers.

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the pajamas and sleepwear store, SleepyHeads.com (sleepyheads.com), has just announced a 40% discount on all SleepyHeads and Frankie and Johnny products on Black Friday. the Black Friday offer will be running only on November 27, 2009. Using the promo code, ‘FJ40 or SH40′. Sleepyheads.com is also offering a 30% store wide discount applicable only on Black Friday with the promotion code ‘BLACKFRIDAY’. only one coupon may be used per order.

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The special Black Friday 40% off discount on Frankie and Johnny and SleepyHeads pajamas can be availed only on Black Friday, November 27, 2009.

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although the recession may be over, Santa could still have a light load to carry this Christmas.

Black Friday has come and gone, and U.S. consumers spent significantly less per person this year.

According to the National Retail Federation, Black Friday weekend spending was down 8 percent per person.

While the NRF reports that spending for Black Friday weekend rose 0.5 percent to $41.2 billion, it estimates that the 2009 overall holiday sales will be down 1 percent this year, making an assumed $437.60 billion. last year’s amounted to $441.97 billion.

Local stores, like Family Video on Lincoln Avenue, did not see much of a difference in sales this weekend.

“We were really busy, but we didn’t notice any difference from last year,” said Brook Sloat, the assistant manager at Family Video.

Drawing the 195 million shoppers to stores and Web sites was the bargains.

Electronics and apparel would have the greatest bargains this year, according to CNNMoney.com.

Area retailers found this to be true in their most-sold items over the weekend.

A representative from the Wal-Mart on Lincoln Avenue said the most popular item on Friday was the 32-inch Emerson LCD HDTV.

An employee at the RadioShack in the Cross County Mall in Mattoon said its biggest sellers this weekend were GPS units and laptops.

Sarah Jean Bresnahan can be reached at 581-7942 or dencampusdesk@gmail.com.

Black Friday saw a frenzied crowd of deal hungry shoppers thronging the World’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) to get best deals.

In a marked departure from tradition, the Bentonville, Arkansas based retailer offered extended hours at most of its non-24 hour stores this year to cater to the heavy rush and especially house post-Thanksgiving shoppers.

Once bitten twice shy
On Black Friday last year, Wal-Mart had witnessed a tragedy when a worker was trampled by a couple of thousand strong shoppers rushed through the doors at opening time. the incident took place at one of the stores in Nassau district.

The company, in collaboration with the Nassau district attorney’s office, put up a safety plan for better crowd management this time around.

Nassau police, along with contracted security agents and seasonal store workers flocked the main doors of the Wal-Mart store and kept the shoppers informed about the availability of items that were most likely to be picked up.

The road outside the entry and exit points was barricaded. Shoppers waiting outside were let in only after people inside the store left.

“At this time we are not aware of any injuries or property damage related to Wal-Mart’s execution of its crowd management plan for Black Friday,” said Eric F. Phillips, the communications director for the district attorney of Nassau County, new York.

Complaints galore
At many of the Wal-Mart stores, shoppers struggled to find parking spots. not being able to find shopping carts was also a common complaint.

The biggest pain for shoppers was the huge serpentine lines at the checkout counters. Patience was the biggest virtue for these shoppers.

One of the stores in Upland, California had to down shutters as the irate customers got a bit too raucous. “We’ve heard of a few scuffles among customers, but overall it has been a very safe event,” claimed a Wal-Mart spokesman.

The biggest attraction at Wal-Mart was the $298 Hewlett-Packard laptop computers that went on sale as early as 5 a.m.

While the holiday season which kicks off with Black Friday may have a reason to cheer for the retailer, Wal-Mart, like most other players in the industry, has been reeling under a severe crisis in the wake of economic recession.

The company has, in the most recent quarter, reported a slump in sales at its stores open at least a year. the retailer had also warned of slower sales during the vitally significant holiday shopping season.

Just when you think the furious pace of Black Friday is over and you can rest, letting the holidays go by with little more shopping, think again.

Last week I described how to save money during the mad rush in stores the day after Thanksgiving. but online retailers are just getting started. Throughout December, there will be additional ways to save money.

Interestingly, most of these days are Mondays, each with a marketing name to help keep them straight. Why Monday? It’s the first day back in the office, or the kids are back in school, so more focused bargain hunting takes place.

The first Monday after Thanksgiving has become known as Cyber Monday, and it’s the official kickoff to the online holiday shopping season. Cyber Monday usually carries forward the frenzy of Black Friday because retailers and consumers are still geared up from those great deals and are fully in shopping mode.

What’s a little different about Cyber Monday is that it is more about shopping than buying. with less than a month until Christmas, ideas for gifts and personal wants abound while people make their lists and check them twice.

This year, I challenge people to act sooner than usual. Why? the deals are not going to be bigger later in the season as in previous years. Retailers have lower inventory levels than last year, and they will take advantage of lower supply and relatively greater demand.

Once Cyber Monday passes, it’s two weeks until Green Monday. My speculation is that the term comes from the fact retailers see lots of “green,” or money, on that day, two Mondays before Christmas. with less than two weeks until the holiday, more people make online purchases on that Monday than at any other time during the holiday season. as a result, retailers tend to push a few more promotions and try to get people to buy.

Finally, the newest labeled Monday I have heard about in the online retail world is Brown Monday — a reference to shipping items to arrive before Christmas. My guess is that “brown” is based on UPS as a go-to shipper of items purchased online. Typically the regular shipping cut-off for Christmas is approximately three days before the 25th, so the Monday before might be a safe date (it’s still possible to do overnight delivery at a heavy price).

Either way, shoppers should be looking for free shipping offers or taking advantage of either shipping to the store or picking up at a store to save more time and money.

Monday usually isn’t my favorite time of the week, but during the holiday season, it is the day when you will see more promotions, discounts and deals. but this is a year when buying earlier is a smarter approach, because discounts won’t be deeper at the end of the season and items may already be gone.

As soon as an item meets your deal requirements, buy it. as a bargain hunter, you will have to dig a little more, but it will pay off.

“King of Koupons” Kevin Strawbridge is president of DealTaker.com, an online shopping Web site owned by Media General that collects and shares online coupons and deals. E-mail or follow @dealtaker on Twitter.

All the hope and hype that went into Black Friday preparations this year didn’t give us much. Year-over-year, retail sales grew only 0.5%, from $10.61 billion to $10.66 billion, according to ShopperTrak. this follows a 3% gain last year, when the world was gripped by the panic triggered by the global financial crisis. in 2007, the situation was much better, with Black Friday sales leaping 8.3%.

The slight gain this year came even with the extra efforts retailers made, which included, in some cases, opening on Thanksgiving Day and making an extra push via social media. these measures effectively helped retailers tread water.

Worries about the momentum from Black Friday fading through the holiday season are even tougher, now that we know there isn’t much momentum on which to rely. Shopper traffic was heavy this year, according to ShopperTrak, which led to much of the early optimism. But, the lookers weren’t converting at the rates retailers had hoped.

The action came online this year, even ahead of Cyber Monday. Internet shopping increased 35%, with the average order reaching $170.19, according to online retail analytics company Coremetrics.

Despite the difficult results last week, ShopperTrak is maintaining its holiday season growth estimate of 1.6%, with co-founder bill Martin saying in a company statement that the forecast “remains intact.”

@theMarket: Black Friday In More Ways Than OneBy bill SchmickiBerkshires Columnist01:33PM / Saturday, November 28, 2009While Americans were home celebrating Thanksgiving, the rest of the world had little to celebrate. Over the last two days, some Asian markets fell as much as 5 percent, emerging markets overall declined by 2.7 percent while Europe experienced similar declines. Commodities also tumbled and the U.S. dollar suddenly became the currency of choice. It all started when one of the tiny oil-rich countries of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, admitted to some financial difficulties.

Most of the big companies in this Persian Gulf nation, the second largest of the UAE, are state-owned. just before the credit crisis, Dubai went on a spending spree. It expanded its presence in banking, real estate and transportation to the tune of $80 billion in new debt. In a surprise announcement Wednesday evening (EST), the government admitted it needed to delay payments on this debt. It led investors to worry that there may be other sovereign nations that might be experiencing financial difficulties as well.

In this new crisis, it appears the U.K.-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland has the most at stake ($2.3 billion) while HSBC Holdings, Europe’s largest financial institution, has the largest absolute exposure with $17 billion in loans outstanding.

On the surface, why should global markets respond to a mere $80 billion in problem loans with such fear and trepidation? after all, the world has navigated far worse over the last 18 months or so, and come out on top. The simple answer is that after nine months of stupendous gains worldwide, markets are priced for perfection. any bad news, no matter how marginal, is going to tip us over into the red.

Some emerging markets, for example, like China and Brazil, are up over 100 percent from their lows. At the same time, the recent run-up in gold and many other commodities, as a result of a relentless decline in the U.S. dollar, has raked in stupendous gains for investors (and hopefully some of our readers). last week, I wrote that taking profits is a personal choice and invited readers to call or e-mail me with their questions.

“What if I’ve made back a lot of my losses from last year,” wrote one reader, “but I’m still underwater overall. should I sell?”

After discussing his financial goals and objectives, we decided that he should take a little off the table, especially in his gold and silver investments. we got lucky, since gold is down over $23 an ounce from that call.

That’s not to say that precious metals won’t go higher. Remember, I’m on record with a price target between $1,200 and $1,300 an ounce. yet at the beginning of the week, gold was almost at the lower end of my range. we took some profits, because buying and selling should be a process. Rarely can we buy at the lowest price of the year or sell at the highest, which means we sell a little as markets move higher and buy a bit when markets move lower.

To put Friday’s sell-off in context, I don’t think the Dubai debt problem is going to sink the world’s financial system. It could provide an excuse for another dip in the markets, especially if Dubai’s troubled loans outstanding total more than the publically-stated amount. a sell-off would relieve a lot of the overbought extremes that I’m seeing in markets, especially among emerging countries.

Remember, too, that volume is exceptionally low the day after Thanksgiving and the markets only open half the day. Monday’s markets could open with a solution to Dubai’s problems and a rush back into stocks. Europe is already recovering some of their losses as we write this. To me, however, it is a wake-up call on just how fragile further gains in the stock market could be.

Bill Schmick is registered as an investment adviser representative and portfolio manager with Berkshire Money Management (BMM), managing more than $200 million for investors in the Berkshires. Bill’s forecasts and opinions are purely his own and do not necessarily represent the views of BMM. none of his commentary is or should be considered investment advice. Direct your inquiries to bill at 1-888-232-6072 (toll free) or e-mail him at wschmick@fairpoint.net Visit afewdollarsmore.com for more of Bill’s insights.

You can also tune in to Bill’s “@theMarket” show on Vox radio every Friday morning at 8:35, 9:35 and 11:05 or on WBRK at 4:05 every weekday afternoon.

Anyone seeking individualized investment advice should contact a qualified investment adviser. none of the information presented in this article is intended to be and should not be construed as an endorsement of BMM or a solicitation to become a client of BMM. The reader should not assume that any strategies, or specific investments discussed are employed, bought, sold or held by BMM.

Black Friday, Dubai, jobs top busy Street agenda next week

Last Update: 6:54 AM ET Nov 28, 2009

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Early results from the U.S. holiday shopping season and the fate of a debt-strapped Middle Eastern conglomerate will likely vie for stock traders’ attention in the upcoming week, capped by the monthly jobs report.

Credit, and trouble paying it off, dominated trading Friday and is likely to spill over into early next week as the bulk of investors return from their extended Thanksgiving holiday.

Global stocks, commodities and currencies from commodities-rich countries — all investments that have risen together this year on the belief the worst of the credit and economic crisis has ended — all sold off late last week.

The trigger was news a sprawling real-estate conglomerate controlled by the city-state of Dubai was having trouble making debt repayments.

Dubai World owes roughly $60 billion and has payments of billions of dollars due in coming weeks. Instead, Dubai announced a six-month “standstill” on repayments. Read about Dubai World’s potential default.

This type of debt extension is considered a default by some bond investors, and brought back memories of the spiraling losses that followed the collapse of Lehman Bros. in September 2008. Bank and insurance shares, down Friday, could be in for more pain Monday as investors sift for details about which banks have lent Dubai World money. Read more on bank exposure to Dubai World.

“With the competitiveness and interconnectedness of the global financial markets, we could still see some major tremors in the markets,” said Dan Cook, senior analyst at IG Markets inc., in emailed comments.

The concerns over lurking losses at global financial institutions overshadowed early, positive anecdotes from Black Friday, the traditional start of the U.S. Christmas shopping season.

Deep discounts, such as a $197 Hewlett-Packard laptop at best buy BBY, seemed to have drawn out shoppers, retailers and analysts said. Read more on Black Friday results.

A broader count of sales receipts will become public over the next week.

With personal consumption accounting for about 70% of the U.S. economy, a recovery in consumer spending is seen as necessary to keep driving stocks higher, particularly for investors suspicious the 8-month rally has gone too far. Read more on U.S. stocks and Black Friday.

“Black Friday is going to speak to the income that consumers are willing to give up for discretionary items,” said Brett Hyrb, a senior equities portfolio manager at MFC Global Investment Management, who helps manage $2.8 billion in assets.

“It’s going to be a critical step in terms of what direction the markets take for the rest of the year.

The market’s daily assessment of whether the economy is still on the road to recovery, or has just shifted into reverse, will find plenty to work with next week.

The Institute of Supply Management will release its November survey of manufacturing and service industries; car makers will release monthly auto sales; and three reports ending with the Labor Department’s nonfarm payrolls survey will give an update on whether it’s becoming easier to get a job. See Economic Calendar.

Staples, inc. SPLS, big Lots inc. BIG and Toll Brothers TOL will report quarterly earnings.

And the Senate will hold a hearing on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s nomination to a second term.

So far, even with some disappointments in economic data, U.S. stocks have continued to rise, bringing the S&P 500 $SPX up more than 60% from its March lows.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average $INDU, which entered Friday’s session at a 13-month high, ended the week down 0.1%, snapping a three-week winning streak. the S&P 500 fell 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP lost 0.4% for the week. still, the major indexes have gained well over 4% this month.

“This is the bull market that everyone hates,” said Richard Campagna, chief investment officer at 300 North Capital, who helps oversee $5 billion in assets.

“It feels like an inch below the surface there is absolute disbelief and fear, and yet we don’t have a correction. We still have people waiting to get in.”

Plus other financial indicators, including the options market and Treasury bills, show very bearish sentiment on the outlook for the economy and equities, Campagna said.

In the forefront of concern: jobs.

“We’re going through a traditionally strong period in the market, from November to January, but with the move so far, we expect gains to be somewhat muted unless we get confirmation from the employment data” that job losses are declining, said Hyrb.

On Friday, the Labor Department is expected to say the U.S. economy lost about 125,000 jobs in November, according to the median estimate of analysts surveyed by MarketWatch. while still negative, it would be an improvement from the 190,000 lost in October.

Economists get a first taste of that report Wednesday, when payroll provider ADP releases its estimate of jobs.

Then on Thursday, investors will watch the weekly jobless claims report for numbers below levels considered to signal a turn in the monthly payrolls number, from negative to positive.

Politics may get into the mix as well, with some Democrats on Capitol Hill pushing for a jobs stimulus package and the White House hosting a jobs summit.