The traditional Black Friday usually begins the day after Thanksgiving and continues through the winter holidays.
That word from LSU retail expert Dan Rice.
"He says, "That's when a lot or retailers see a large uptick in the amount of sales that they get and kind of buoys them through the year with hopefully good results through that period."
Rice says it’s kind of an "open question" as to the damage pre-Black Friday sales causes to the original one.
He says, "What retailers are trying to do is to give you more opportunities to shop earlier for a couple of reasons."
Rice says one, "If it doesn't affect the Black Friday and it's just another bump in sales for them at an artificially created point during the year. The other thing it can help to do is kind of smooth out the sales so they're maybe not quite as dependent on the sales coming in during the traditional holiday periods.
He says one thing to look out for is that you are getting the best price for the item you want to buy and that the sale price is not misleading and lower prices will actually be available.
Rice says retailers can hold sales at just about any time during the year, but bottom line he says, "It's really the value you get that compared to what you're willing to pay for it and what the normal selling price is."
He says a lot of people are holding off making their purchases until they absolutely have to due to economic conditions and they don't have a lot of extra cash.