Black Friday and other dark days
That's the philosophy of retailers at the holiday season, judging by the predictably exuberant quality of their ads. Doorbuster deals! Midnight madness! Gobblepalooza!</br></br>Such hyperventilation has become par for the course on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that traditionally kicks off the holiday shopping season. That one day accounted for nearly $11 billion in sales last year, according to research firm ShopperTrak.</br></br>But as the country stumbles toward economic recovery, one short day is apparently no longer enough to win the hearts and minds - and wallets - of American consumers, particularly when retailers rely on holiday shopping to ring up as much as half of their annual sales. In recent years, the industry has filled the calendar with a slew of new landmark shopping days to keep consumers fired up right through Christmas.</br></br>There is Small Business Saturday, started by American Express this year to send customers to those long-suffering mom-and-pop shops. Then comes Cyber Monday, created by a trade group, when we return to work after Thanksgiving and collectively slack off by shopping online. Free Shipping Day, the brainchild of a coupon site, comes next. And Super Saturday, a retail industry term, rounds out the season on the last weekend before Christmas.</br></br>As the calendar has become more crowded, retailers have resorted to increasingly far-fetched ideas to stand out. Infomercials tried to muscle into the game with a short-lived Info-Mania Sunday in 2007. That was the same year Wal-Mart called for Friday to be stretched over two days - a 48-hour Black Friday to accommodate its deals. This year, social coupon site Groupon wins "Most Creative" with the introduction of Grouponicus, a "holiday" when deals last longer than the usual one day.