By: Meher Ahmad <[email protected]> and Michelle Hu <[email protected]>

Every year on Thanksgiving night, thousands of Americans pitch their tents outside of stores around the nation. Through bitter cold and snow, the shoppers wait for hours in front of the store doors. Senior James Ma has been one of them for the past five years and said he plans to do the same this Thanksgiving.

But why would anyone do that? The answer: Black Friday. No, it’s not a new death-metal band or a Catholic holiday. Black Friday is the start of the Christmas shopping rush, aptly named because of the shift from the “red” zone into the “black” zone for most businesses, when stores begin making profits from sales.

With extremely low prices on consumer products ranging from frying pans to flat screen TVs, throngs of people scramble to malls to get in on the action.

Junior Jamie Walker was one of the diehard shoppers last year. “I spent about $310 on all the things I bought,” Walker said. “80 percent of (the things I purchased) were Christmas presents.”

Walker was not the only one buying Christmas presents that day. According to a recent news release from the Purdue Retail Institute, Black Friday accounts for 8.5 percent of all holiday shopping. Other than the shopping rush in December, the third Friday in November is the busiest holiday shopping day.

Ma said that he arrived at Best Buy around 8 p.m. last year. “The reason I lined up at 8 p.m. was because there were already people lined up,” he said. “Black Friday has increasingly become crazier each subsequent year because people go earlier and earlier. I originally planned on going at, like, midnight last year but my mom came home at 7:50 or something and told me that there was already a line of about 15 people in front of Best Buy.”

Ma said that the reason why he stayed out all night in line at Best Buy was due to the low price of a monitor he wished to purchase. According to him, on Thanksgiving, it cost $499, but the price on Black Friday was a mere $200. “I spent 10 hours in line to save $300,” he said. He also said that would be the equivalent of earning $30 an hour, which most high school students do not earn from part-time jobs.

Topher Morris, Best Buy store manager, said that Best Buy receives a floor price for all of the products. Certain “door buster” products, or items advertised with much lower prices than usual, attract shoppers into the store. The shoppers then buy other products which may not be as cheap, but being in the store in that atmosphere compels them to buy it.

“It’s a fun day; there’s a lot of excitement,” Morris said. Contrary to the popular image of Black Friday, with violent and semi-crazy shoppers, the Black Friday Morris describes is almost like a party.

“We bring hot chocolate to the people outside and talk to the people; we hand out maps so they can prepare their route. It’s just a really fun day,” he said.

Ma’s experience was similar to Morris’ description. “I think I got there at 8 (at night) the day before. I played football for a while with some of the guys there. I played cards, I think.” He said that he and his friends also watched a movie while in line.

Though it was a chilly night last year, Ma said that the products he bought from Best Buy were worth the wait.

“I guess it wasn’t like I was losing anything,” he said. “I wasn’t going to do a lot in that kind of time frame anyway. It’s not like a lot of people hang out the night after Thanksgiving. It’s at night, so it’s not like I could be doing anything else.”