Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and is considered the beginning of the holiday shopping season (despite the fact it really starts the day after Halloween) and is the day everything retailers sell for the rest of the year is profit. It takes most retailers almost eleven months of the year to cover all their expenses for the year but starting Black Friday, with all of their expenses paid for, whatever they make is profit. Most people know retailers do their accounting quarterly so the sales made after Black Friday are not pure profit for the retailers but it gives retailers a good reason to have big sales to start the holiday season. Many times the retailers will have many loss leaders (products sold below cost or in the case of Black Friday significantly below cost) to get people into their stores and do their holiday shopping with them. Some of the sales can cause people to wait outside stores for hours to get an opportunity to buy the sales items. If a store opens at 6am then people will start waiting in line at 12am to among the first in line.

What makes people stand in line for hours to save a few dollars; is their time not worth much? For many of the people Black Friday is not really about saving money (although it is part of it) but rather for entertainment and the excitement that they have a chance to get something for less than what it would normally cost. Most of the people participating in Black Friday have the day off work anyway they are not loosing money for participating in Black Friday rather than going to work. So this upcoming Black Friday have fun, get good deals but make sure to stay out of my way.