Today's NOT the biggest shopping day of the year

[Bill McBlueState]

This is a great example of how news -- especially local TV news -- unimaginatively parrots the same crap over and over again regardless of its truth. Every news broadcast in the country today will run a story about how it's the biggest shopping day of the year, blah, blah, blah. But it's not.

From snopes.com:

...

Popular belief has it that the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year.

...

"It's one of the busiest days in terms of traffic but not in sales," said Pam Rucker, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation. "But the mystique is still there."

"People just want to get out and do something on that day," said Jay McIntosh, director of U.S. Retail and Consumer Products for accounting giant Ernst & Young. "They do because of all of the incentives to shop, but many aren't buying."

Sales figures spike on the day after Thanksgiving, drop sharply, then steadily increase throughout December. The result is that Black Friday generally ends up ranking as the fifth biggest sales day of the year at most (and sometimes less), behind the four days comprising the two weekends before Christmas. The day on which holiday sales peak varies depending upon which day of the week Christmas falls upon, but the highest sales day is usually either the last Saturday before Christmas or December 23.

...

[Dudley_DUright]

1. Let's here it for us shopping procrastinators!

:applause::woohoo:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. I get really bored with the same old stories every

year, like they are reading from a script they wrote over the summer. And it makes me feel kind of a disconnect from "the world" because I realize that there must be folks out there who actually care about this who will actually be in those lines.

[Demit]

3. LOL! It's like the Wow, there are so many people traveling! stories, the

day before Thanksgiving. Quel surprise! This is news? I make the bold prediction that, Sunday evening, all newscasts will cover the Wow, there are so many people traveling back! stories, in their annual breathless manner.

[RB TexLa]

4. This one of the best days to be childfree

I love watching the local morning news, we just laughed and laughed at those people at the malls and stores.

[Imagine My Surprise]

5. I always heard that December 26 was the biggest shopping day...

mega-returns, major price slashing.