Possibly the most anticipated shopping day of the entire year is Black Friday. Some Black Friday Blowout sales include 60% off jumbo T.V.s and 75% of PS3s. For the entire Thanksgiving week, people are commonly camping out in front of brand name stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart to ensure that they get all of the good deals.

Often seen as the beginning of the Christmas season, Black Friday Sales beat out Back To School Sales and Christmas Eve Sales. Black Friday has been the busiest shopping day since 2005. “Black Friday is probably my third favorite day of the year because last year my dad bought me a brand new X-Box and a 50” TV”, says sophomore Kyle Mashy. Sophomore Mckenna Aglipay said, “when Black Friday rolls around I buy an entire new wardrobe. I get LuLus for like $20 each instead of $90 and a bunch of new cute shirts from Victoria Secret and Forever 21.” Clothes and household appliances are probably the most commonly purchased items on Black Friday, but student athletes like sophomore Shane Sharp see it as an opportunity to buy new sports equipment. Shane said, “complete lacrosse sticks on average are around $250 and gloves are around $100 but when the Black Friday Sale is on I can get brand new sticks for as low as $100 and gloves for like $25.” Other students like freshman Will Coale buy some rather unusual items on Black Friday. “I buy food and stuff because it’s insanely cheap. Wonder Bread is like 10¢.”

The Black Friday savings are very apparent but some people want to know why stores participate when their prices are halved off of all products. In the late 19th century, mainstream stores like Macy’s would throw Santa Parades on Thanksgiving, which would get people in the mind set of Christmas being just around the corner. Retail stores would then begin to get their customers in the shopping mode by having huge sales. This unofficially began the holiday shopping season.

To accommodate their customers’ shopping itch, stores open earlier. Wal-Mart and Best Buy started this trend by opening up at midnight in 2010 instead of their usual time at 10:00 A.M on Black Friday. This year however, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Macy’s have announced that they are opening up at 8:00 P.M. on Thanksgiving Day. People on Black Friday always camp out in front of their favorite retail stores. Sophomore, August Kensik’s father starts camping out on Tuesday; on Thanksgiving day, he hires his nephew to camp in his tent on Thursday for the afternoon so he can spend the day with his family. Kensik’s father said jokingly, “I look forward to Black Friday because I get to camp in a tent with no wife and kids. Just me and Sports Center for days. Doesn’t get much better than that.” Unlike Mr.Kensik, Sea Kings Tyler Colon, senior, and his brother Myles Colon, Junior, wait in front of their favorite retail store for only a couple of hours. “I’m not like bringing my six children in a shopping cart and sitting in front of Wal-Mart for days but I have maybe for like an hour or two in front of Sports Authority. I try to have a life.”