Even the Grinch could not have engineered a more dismal set of circumstances for the start of America's holiday shopping season: entire industries are on the brink of collapse, the gyrations of the stockmarket have driven investors to despair, the days of easy credit are a distant memory and retailers are going bust. Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday that is considered to mark the start of the Christmas shopping season, is supposedly so named because sales over the three-day weekend can bring in enough customers to lift many retailers out of the red and into the black for the year. As they try to lure customers through their doors, desperate shopkeepers are offering huge discounts.rnThis year it is not just the scale of the discounts that is notable, but also howrnearly the price-cutting began. Many shops started their holiday sales in October. Some think this boosted sales, but others worry that it encouraged people to delay purchases and hold out for even bigger reductions.
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