The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

26 November 2004

When Black Friday comes

Conventional wisdom holds that today is the worst, the most hectic, the scariest shopping day of the year.

Which, of course, is wrong. CardWeb reports on MasterCard's research:

The busiest day of the year most likely will occur on Dec. 23 and the busiest hour most likely will be from 2 to 3 p.m. CDT on Christmas Eve. MasterCard also noted that the two Saturdays before Christmas tend to produce more volume than "Black Friday." MasterCard says it processed nearly 33 million transactions on each of the two Saturdays before Christmas — almost a million more than on the day after Thanksgiving.

Maybe I will go to the mall.

(Update, 2:55 pm: If I do, I'd better walk. A spot-check reveals that it's possible to park at Penn Square, if you're willing to wait for someone to leave.)

Posted at 12:22 PM to Dyssynergy


Busiest shopping day, not the busiest buying day. You get a lot of people just out 'getting ideas'.

Posted by: Kathy K at 8:46 PM on 26 November 2004

Then again, some of the wire stories seem to be claiming that this is make-or-break day for retail, which seems unlikely.

Either way, there's nothing happening on Friday that can't wait until Saturday, or maybe later.

Posted by: CGHill at 10:01 PM on 26 November 2004

Did you hear Target was offering customers "wake-up calls" so they could get to the stores before 6:00 am?

I'm proud to be an American.

Posted by: Vickie at 6:05 AM on 27 November 2004

That's not all Target's offering. Shameless self-referential link.

Posted by: McGehee at 9:30 AM on 27 November 2004