Guest Post - Early Morning Black Friday Fever

It might almost feel like the glorious days of disco, when everyone spilled out of their houses to hit the dance floor and show off their latest moves. Except that today, with the increasing popularity of Black Friday, the moves that everyone is practicing consist of jostling for a free parking space at the mall, as well as struggling to get the attention of a salesperson at the cash register. The phenomenon that is Black Friday continues unabated, its popularity undiminished by the dark clouds of recession and high unemployment that hang over the US economy. If there is ever a time when the human race closely resembles a bunch of lemmings, it is during this crazy weekend after Thanksgiving. Throwing their own personal safety and caution to the wind, some desperate souls line up in front of stores at the crack of dawn, if they actually didn't already camp out the night before! They go through all this, just to save some money on a particular item that they desire, worrying that it might already be sold out, if they were to show up later during the day. If they were able to put a monetary value on their time, as if they were punching a clock at the factory, they might come to the conclusion that spending hours under the elements, possibly enduring rain showers, or freezing cold temperatures, is equal to or even greater than what their time is worth doing something else. But no matter, a large part of the population has now been irreversibly hit with black Friday fever, and hordes of people congregate on the local mall or major discount stores in a mad rush to buy everything they want, or at least what they think they really need. True, some people actually take the opportunity to do their Christmas shopping, and there is no shame in buying presents for others while saving money. But others are actually letting their base consumer desires get the better of them, and once in the store, load up their shopping baskets full of many things that they very well may discover later, to their chagrin, they don't really need.

Retailers Aren't Complaining

Retail stores certainly welcome the crowds, especially in our current economy, when consumers are not spending as much as they used to during the rest of the year. For this reason, many retailers open their doors many hours earlier than normal at the beginning of Black Friday, some of them even starting at midnight at the end of Thanksgiving, or even earlier. They make this extra effort because it's worth their while. With consumers all in a lather over shopping during this weekend, retailers are able to often recoup the lackluster sales they experienced the rest of the year, and clear out a lot of merchandise that was a drag on their balance sheets. In the end, both retailers and consumers wind up dancing in the aisles.

Elizabeth Kelley Harlepp is a US-based writer covering the latest trends in modern society. She writes on a freelance basis for many of the major blogs.

***Please note this a sponsored post.***