Black Friday Is Nigh

That's not a dire prophesy, though ? it's a cheery alert. "Black Friday" is the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, which in the consumerist culture of the US is the official start of the holiday shopping season. It's "black" because, historically, it's when merchants' balance sheets turn from red to black.

Stores traditionally kick off the holiday rush with big sales, and shoppers are accustomed to queuing up on Black Friday morning to grab the deals. Retailers publish their sales in the Thanksgiving newspapers, and jealously guard the secrecy of their sale circulars till then.

In the Internet age, however, nothing stays secret for long. Web sites dedicated to revealing the Black Friday buys at major retailers spring up in November like mushrooms after a rain. They don't reveal how they get their information, and naturally, they duplicate each other a lot.

If you want a sneak preview of the bargains awaiting you Friday morning ? or to get a head start preparing your on-line shopping forays ? here are some popular Black Friday sales sites to visit:

Deals Plus Black Friday
Black Friday Ads
Black Friday 2007
Black Friday@GottaDeal
TGI BlackFriday
Black Friday
Deal News

May all your buys be bargains, and may all your loved ones be delighted with their gifts!

Jonathan Plutchok, at various times a lawyer, financial columnist, marketing communicator, and technical writer, recommends the best utility software and Web sites at Jonathan?s Tool Bar & Grill.

Would you like to be a Community Voices blogger? If so, please send a letter of interest and a sample blog entry (what you would post here if you were already a blogger for us) to forums@pcworld.com. We'd love to hear your perspective.