Since 1932,
it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S., and most major retailers open
very early (and more recently during overnight hours) and offer promotional
sales. Black Friday is not an official holiday, it is,however, the busiest
shopping day of the year.
For many years, it was common for retailers to
open at 6:00 a.m., but in the late 2000s many had crept to 5:00 or 4:00.
This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl's, Macy's, Best Buy, and Bealls[11]) opened at midnight for the first time.