I've already read a number of news stories downplaying Black Friday sales expectations......

[marmar]

...... all the commercial hype in the world won't help when people's incomes aren't increasing, n'est-ce pas?

[Warpy]

1. I had to pick up a scrip this afternoon

and there was very little traffic out there, although Dollar Store lots were packed.

Not lookin' good here in the desert.

[Agschmid]

2. My personal experience was positive today.

But to think its a mixed bag across all types of retail.

[GP6971]

3. Drove by our local

Walmart on the way home from work.......lot was more full than usual, but still plenty of parking spaces. I expected it to be packed.

[HubertHeaver]

4. I was out around 2:30 am

The Wal-mart was open, not a lot of cars in the lot. I don't know how the rest of the day went.

[socialist_n_TN]

8. Obviously only a "recovery" for the 1%....

It's been 30+ years and it hasn't trickled down yet. I guess they haven't got around to that part. I'm sure it's coming any day now.

[RichGirl]

6. Being greedy must make you stupid.

The 1% seem to have forgotten that the most important part of a business is CUSTOMERS! You can't keep taking from the 99% and expect them to buy your crap! I guess they think the constant annoying ads that interrupt everything you do on the internet are going to tempt us into buying stuff we can't afford. Now when I see an ad it does the opposite of what they want it too.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. Most expect to make their profits on overseas sales....

It's a world market now don'tchaknow?

[SheilaT]

9. It seems to me that a fixed percentage of people

always go out shopping the day after Thanksgiving, or more recently, Thanksgiving day itself. I won't even begin to guess what percentage of the general population that is, but I'm guessing that it doesn't vary a lot from year to year.

It is also true, and has been true forever, that the day after Thanksgiving is NOT the actual busiest shopping day of the season. That's somewhat later, usually the Saturday before Christmas itself, but depends somewhat on what day of the week Christmas falls on.

Also, since many stores advertize specific, limited items at a very great bargain, the dedicated shoppers show up very early to get those things, and the big rush is probably over by noon in most places.

Back in 1980 I worked for a local department store, and as I recall we opened early, like 7am one day of the season. I don't think it was the day after T-Day, but it's so long ago I can't recall exactly. Anyway, we employees grumbled a lot, and it was actually 9am, our usual opening time, before the first customer walked into the store. Of course, much has changed then, and now people are lined up outside the doors for early opening.

I'm recently retired, and I sort of thought about getting a holiday retail job, and then decided not to because I didn't want to work the day after Thanksgiving, or worse yet Thanksgiving day itself. I may, somewhere down the road, do retail work but deliberately quite the job in the middle of October. Since I'm only wanting temp work in the first place, it might work.

[B Calm]

10. The stores in my area were packed. Finding a place to park was difficult.

[Beausoir]

11. Ferguson protests are working.

[joeglow3]

12. They were expecting decreasing gas prices to help increase spending