Black Friday may not be so dark this year by Corina Ciubotaru

Christmas is coming, the weather gets colder and shoppers begin their yearly frenzy, waking up in the middle of the night to make sure they are the first through the doors at Wal-Mart or Target. It is expected to be a very slow holiday season when it comes to sales, primarily because of the recent scandals involving lead-tainted toys from China, which led to massive recalls and damage to the image of companies like Mattel, Hasbro and Toys 'R' Us. This forces toy companies to resort to huge discounts and offers, while consumers seem to focus more on other types of entertainment tools, like game consoles and video cameras. There is no new item from Apple, like the iPod was a few years ago, but Nintendo's Wii is probably going to be a big success during this holiday season. This period is said to be a good indicator of how much people will buy in the following year from a given store. The first Friday after Thanksgiving is known as "Black Friday" and for some, doing their holiday shopping during these days is a part of the holidays. It is a time when shops run out of stock and people run out of money after queuing since the wee hours of the morning. Some may wait to see just how big the price cuts are before rushing to stores, but according to a recent survey for the NRF, 77.8 million said they may shop before Sunday, compared to 55.1 million who said they will surely shop.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071123/ap_on_bi_ge/holiday_shopping;_ylt=Aql3GLNiDVsr723cu_hhJtGs0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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