Are you going to one among millions who is getting ready to beat the crowd and crab whatever you want on the Black Friday sale?

Or many who are planning to wait out and avoid the blackfriday sale this year?

Either way, you are thinking about Blackfriday sales like me, a 10 year veteran Blackfriday shopper. Black Friday is just less than a week away.

It is the biggest shopping event of the year happens next day after Thanksgiving. Like Thanksgiving, Blackfriday shopping has became a tradition to many Americans and American families. It actually kick starts the Christmas shopping season for many and serves has a good marketing platform for retailers and manufacturers to introduce new products, get rid off old ones through rebates and special deals so they can write it off from their balance sheet.

This year, it is going to be yet another different but dull year compared to past.

Blackfriday 2008 - A look back

Last year, the recession just started and credit crunch was hitting the market as many big banks were going solvent. A quite lot of mergers were happening in all industries including many bankruptcies. Circuit city, one of the big electronic retailers filed bankruptcy and went away from the scene.

Many manufacturers and retailers faced a challenging shopping season as the economy was heading to wards worst recession. They don't know what is in the stake for next year, so they slashed prices to get rid of their stock levels and reduced their inventory. It triggered more sales even after the Blackfriday event than usual. Also there were not many attractive products in the market as manufacturers were cost cutting and waiting for the direction in the market. They just wanted to sell their old products with some improvements to retain their market cap.

From the consumers front, it was very cautious effort as many concerned about jobs and lot worried about the investments since the stock market was heading to wards downtrend starting to see the fall like deck of cards. All played it safe but still many consumers continued their shopping spree with their stashed away cash taking the rare opportunity and got things on heavy discount.


Blackfriday 2009 - Dull and Different

It is going to be totally a different year than past years and more importantly than last year. It is the first Black Friday after a long recession. The nations unemployment rate is in the record high of 10.2% and economy is still dragging its feet waiting to make a turn towards an uptrend.

At this time, shoppers are thinking about breaking their tradition by avoiding the Black friday sale altogether. The reason, they don't want to go through the hassle of getting up early, standing in big line for hours or camp out if the same product will Be sold much cheaper after black friday like last year. In many blackfriday forums, they were discussions about missing this year's fun sale event. This change in mind set is happening with many Americans especially because of last year experience.

However, many veteran Blackfriday shoppers were saying, this year is different for many reasons and won't be same as last year. Because of slow economy and less production which means less supply of products. Manufacturers don't want to over produce and take the chance at this tough times. Also many consumers are in the saving mode after a long time. Americas saving rate has gone up in the past few months. Basicaly less supply and less demand so products might be limited on the stores shelf. It is better to hurry up and get things instead of waiting because of the uncertainty. Check out this video from news channel which talks about this year scenario.

It is better sometimes to wait out for the right time and right price but it depends on the importance of your need. If you really need the item and been waiting for this sale event, you better plan to buy after researching the sale price.

Ask yourself which camp you wannabe this year. Are you going to be in the blackfriday line or just going sleep in?

On the other hand, if you are among many millions who don't bother to even blink for the blackfriday, I would recommend to at least try out once for the sake of experience and fun.

Go ahead and share your Blackfriday experience. How long you been doing the Blackfriday shopping? Also come and check out tomorrow, I will be posting more tips, tricks, hot sale items, good websites and more things to do just before, after and on the day of Blackfriday.