Black Friday

 The day after Thanksgiving has been regarded as the beginning of the United States Christmas shopping season since 1952.

For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6 a.m., but in the late 2000s many opened at 4 a.m.–5 a.m. 

In 2015, Amazon.com was the first to offer "Black Friday in July" deals on what they called "Prime Day", promising better deals than on Black Friday. Amazon repeated the practice in 2016 and 2017, and other companies began offering similar deals.

In the United Kingdom, the term "Black Friday" originated within the Police and NHS to refer to the Friday before Christmas. It is the day when emergency services activate contingency plans to cope with the increase in workload due to many people going out drinking on the last Friday before Christmas. 

In Australia the term is controversial, in Australia Black Friday refers not to shopping at all but to the devastating Black Friday bushfires which occurred in Victoria 1938–39.

In 2008, a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 05:00 opening of the local Walmart. As opening time approached, the crowd grew anxious and when the doors were opened, the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, and 34-year-old employee Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death. The shoppers did not appear concerned with the victim's fate, expressing refusal to halt their stampede when other employees attempted to intervene and help the injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and were not willing to wait any longer. Shoppers had begun assembling as early as 21:00 the evening before. 

During Black Friday 2010, a Madison, Wisconsin woman was arrested outside of a Toys 'R' Us store after cutting in line, and threatening to shoot other shoppers who tried to object.

On Black Friday 2011, a woman at a Porter Ranch, California Walmart used pepper spray on fellow shoppers, causing minor injuries to a reported 20 people who had been waiting hours for the store to open. The incident started as people waited in line for the newly discounted Xbox 360. A witness said a woman with two children in tow became upset with the way people were pushing in line. 

Is it all worth it?

Video: Shopping gone mad