Black Friday is the biggest consumer event in the US calendar Millions of Americans are expected to head to the shops as Black Friday gets under way in the US.
Many stores opened their doors overnight, hoping to entice customers with cut-price bargains.
Black Friday – the day after the Thanksgiving public holiday – is traditionally the start of the Christmas shopping season.
Consumers are spending in an uncertain environment as fears about the health of the US economy persist.
Thousands of people queued late on Thursday evening in the hope of being the first to find a bargain.
Many shops are offering deep discounts on clothing, electronic goods and toys.
Several chains opened even earlier than the typical midnight start. Children’s retailer Toys R Us threw open its doors at 2200 on Thursday for the first time. Others stayed open after trading on Thanksgiving itself.
“Business has been getting progressively better”
Amy Avitabile Lord & Taylor, New York
Despite continued concerns over the US economy and a stubbornly high unemployment rate of 9.6%, analysts are predicting a better holiday season than last year.
The National Retail Federation says it expects sales to be 2.3% higher than 2009, totalling $447m (£285m). That could bode well for the US economy, with consumer spending making up about 70% of total economic output.
Amy Avitabile, from Lord & Taylor department store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, is hoping for an improvement.
“Customers pulled back on spending in 2008 and 2009, but business has been getting progressively better. I’m excited to see what this weekend and the season has in store for us,” she told the BBC.
Black Friday is so named because it is the day of the year when retailers traditionally hope to leave the “red” and enter the “black”, breaking even or making a profit.
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