US gears up for 'Black Friday'

"Black Friday", the day that falls on the fourth Friday of November, marks the beginning of Christmas shopping in the United States. 

It comes after the Thanksgiving Day in the US. 

It has been observed as the beginning of Christmas shopping season in the US since 1952. 

During this time most retail stores remain open from early morning till late at night and offer promotional sales to attract potential buyers. 

Retail stores offer most discounts on electronics. 

While the retail stores are open and provide sales schemes, schools and non-retail employees have both Thanksgiving and the succeeding Friday as an "off day". 

This again adds to the number of buyers on "Black Friday''. The day has been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005. 

Several weeks before ''Black Friday'', e-commerce giant Amazon opened its ''Black Friday'' store officially on November 1. The retail store encourages shoppers to sign up for ''Amazon Prime'' with additional benefits during this high voltage shopping extravaganza.

Competing with Amazon, Walmart offers their ''Pickup'' discount program. During this time shoppers can avail discounts on their online products if they ship their product to a Walmart store for a free pick up.