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This is off-topic politically, but much of the current political concerns relate to the economy, so I'm calling it a weak link to topic.
Friday is Black Friday. So called because, historically, that was the day that stores went from operating in the red, to operating in the black. Back when "Christmas Shopping" was relegated to one month a year. When I was very little, my grandmother used to take me to Fifth Avenue on Black Friday, which late on Thanksgiving Day was metamorphosed into a wonderland of lights, and window displays, and music.
This year, thanks to the new Fed money release, if what you wanted to buy on Friday was a house, a car, or a college education for your kids, there are more funds available, and rates are below what they were a few days ago.
But probably, if you're going out, you'll pass a store or two with a "Going Out of Business" sign in the window. Caveat Emptor.
Often the prices at the going out of business sales are HIGHER than at stores in the same chain which are not going out of business, and higher than they were before the liquidation.
This is because stores don't liquidate themselves, professional liquidators do. And the first thing THEY do is to raise all prices to MSRP, and take discounts off of that. So, if you're going, check prices on-line first, to find out what the actual value of an item is at other places.
Are you going shopping on Friday? Doing your bit for the economy which is 70% driven by consumer spending? Note that you can make two selections in today's poll, so you can say if you'll be shopping, and how much you'll spend.
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Peter Zenger 62p · 853 weeks ago
Dan 36p · 853 weeks ago
According to Wikipedia, you've fallen for the pro-business interpretation of the term. That august site says that the term actually originated with the Philadelphia Police Department in the '60s, referring to the difficulties that they encountered due to the vast amounts of traffic and stress of the shoppers.
But businesses didn't like that, especially the implied connection to Black Tuesday, so they cooked up the "going from the red to the black" explanation (since the term itself wasn't just gonna vanish). Nice explanation, except most retailers earn profits year-round. True, Q4 is typically the largest, but they're certainly not in the red for the first 10 1/2 months of the year!
suzihussein22 · 852 weeks ago