Holiday Shopping Season | featured news

Put down that turkey leg. It's time to shop. No, really. Stores typically open in the wee hours of the morning on the day after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday, named for the period when stores traditionally turn a profit for the year.

This holiday season, Burger King won't be the only place where you can have it your way. It used to be enough for stores to promise discounts of up to 70 percent off to lure shoppers during the busy holiday shopping season. But the ease of ordering online and the sluggish economy has created more demanding U.S. consumers who aren't impressed by discounts alone. They want their shopping just like their fast food: not only cheap, but convenient too.

An estimated 147 million Americans plan to go shopping sometime this weekend, according the National Retail Federation. But who are these people, what's the psychology driving them to rise before dawn in pursuit of a deal -- and have they really never heard of online shopping?

Some day in the future, anthropologists may be able to explain the bizarre shopping rituals of the 21st Century American consumer during the holiday season: Why, for example, so many people look for bargains on one day – Black Friday – when with a little work bargains can be found on the other 364. Or why they stand in midnight lines in bleak winter weather only to risk stampedes and fight each other for cheap gifts.

From Los Angeles to Tampa, shoppers are already camping out in front of big-box retailers, determined to be among the first in line for door-buster deals. In Los Angeles, some hardcore consumers have been in line since last Monday, even taking vacation from work in order to save big money. An estimated 147 million Americans will take advantage of Black Friday sales, 4 percent more than last year.

Black Friday Shoppers Black Friday is just a few days away, and with consumer confidence creeping back to levels not seen in some time, I think consumers are ready to open their wallets again after 5 years of economic uncertainty.

Retail employees launch Change.org petitions against Black Friday sales starting on Thanksgiving, saying it cuts into family celebrations.

It used to be just called Thanksgiving. Now the day is increasingly called Black Friday Eve or Black Thursday, as retailers double down on ever-earlier opening hours for the kickoff of the holiday shopping season.

Amazon launched its Black Friday deals store, joining its rivals who are looking to get an early start on attracting holiday shoppers.

Investors are sending Apple's stock below $600 for the first time in three months, after the consumer electronics behemoth reported earnings for its latest quarter that missed expectations and warned that profits in the holiday quarter would fall from last year....