Do you think Black Friday crazy sales benefit retailers?

The people who go to these sales (wait in line at crazy hours of the day) aren't there to buy anything other than the loss-leading advertised specials.

So, the retailers lose money on Black Friday, how is that good for them.

The theory I've heard is that a 'successful' Black Friday promotion cements the idea that Retailer X has the best deals and customers buy more from them for the rest of the holiday season. That doesn't sound right to me.

What are your thoughts?
Mitch | Homepage | 11.16.07 - 11:16 am | #

I've found a TON of great Black Friday information over at DealTaker.com.
Dylan | Homepage | 11.16.07 - 11:24 am | #

I love that black friday site you listed, BFAds.net It is great. The site has the stores I am interested in for my black friday shopping. I also like their actual store ad scans. The other thing about this site is almost no ads or hiden popup windows. A nice clean safe site.

I also check out dealtaker.com. This site while surfing is filled with hidden spam, pop up windows and a ton of third party ads. While viewing, it froze up my machine forcing me to reboot. I'm sticking with BFAds.net
John | 11.16.07 - 12:12 pm | #

Loser! The source for your info about opening @midnight is last year's.
MSNBC News Services
updated 5:13 p.m. ET, Tues., Nov. 21, 2006
spike | 11.16.07 - 4:37 pm | #

Thanks for the link note. I'll fix it to this year's. Funny point -- now, people are going to open at 12:01 on Thanksgiving Day, not Black Friday!

Carl
Carl | 11.17.07 - 11:23 am | #