Black Friday - Better This Year?

Black Friday is the day immediately after Thanksgiving in the United States. The day after Thanksgiving is expected to be the day when consumers are least likely to require any groceries. But Black Friday is traditionally named as such because it is the day of the year when retailers hope to exit the "red" and enter the "black", meaning breaking even or making a profit.

Black Friday is a crucial event for US retailers and analysts use it as an indicator since it is traditionally the start of the Christmas shopping season.

Millions of Americans are expected to hit the shops where many are opened overnight with bargains being offered.

Economists are hoping that consumers will spend even in the uncertain environment facing them. Despite a high unemployment rate of 9.6% currently, analysts are predicting a better holiday season than last year.

Some have even resorted to looking at how many cars are parked outside shopping malls as a proxy to measure how well the economy might fare. But of course, more customers does not necessarily translate to higher sales for retailers.

Nevertheless, sales figures are expected to be higher and this would bode well for the US economy as consumer spending accounts for about 70% of total economic output.