For many people, Black Friday marks the start of the holiday shopping season. Customers see it as a fun and exhilarating experience but, more importantly, as a great opportunity to save hundreds of dollars. Businesses see the day as an opportunity to finally make a profit for the year and attract lots of customers to their doors. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To support the expected influx of Black Friday customers this year, many businesses have extended their opening hours even earlier than before. Stores like Target and Wal-Mart plan to have discounts of 30% or more on the most popular items. The most expensive products are expected to be discounted by several hundred dollars. Customers can save by shopping on Black Friday. Black Friday offers many good deals on electronics like HDTVs, laptops, and cameras that aren't available at other times of the year. However, customers should weary themselves of purchasing other season-specific goods such as winter clothing and Christmas decorations, as it tends to be more expensive at this time of year. As long as customers continue to purchase non-seasonal items on Black Friday, they can receive the best deals. Black Friday comes at a cost to both the customer's shopping and the businesses they operate. Almost all companies have some type of sale on Black Friday and sometimes even before Black Friday, on Thanksgiving Day. Customers wanting the best deals often have to wait in line for hours outside various businesses and then, once inside, have to wait in long checkout lines. By waiting in these lines, customers are missing out on other deals they might have found in the cacophony of other businesses. Businesses need to have more workers on hand to accommodate the increased number of customers in the store. This leads to them having to pay their employees more money than they could have spent on other areas of their business. Black Friday offers many incentives. Customers go out to different stores in the middle of the night because of the amazing deals they are offered. If stores only had normal sales, or not-so-discounted sales, there would be no reason for customers to flock to their stores, leaving the stores without the ability to earn as much money. For American businesses, the holidays are seen as a great opportunity to make money. Every year, Christmas commercials are introduced earlier and earlier so that companies can entice their customers to start purchasing them early. Black Friday is just part of this great project aimed at increasing companies' profits. As more emphasis is placed on the holiday season, additional incentives will be introduced to encourage customers to shop. Businesses are able to create wealth through voluntary trade. On Black Friday, all open stores compete with other open stores for customers. This leads to businesses trying to outdo the competition by extending opening hours and even creating deeper discounts than the stores around them. These companies are giving up money they could be making on discounted items in the hopes that their sales will be more appealing to customers so they can sell more and make a bigger profit. The consequences of Black Friday lie in the future. As competition for customers on Black Friday becomes fiercer among businesses, most likely.