Color Black Friday a lighter shade of gray

Color Black Friday
a lighter shade of gray

Maybe it was the traders who saw lines of eager shoppers outside big box stores while they were making their way to Wall Street on Friday or maybe it was the Canadian shoppers who gave interviews saying they were coming to the United States to spend their high-value Canadian dollars, but retail stocks rose Friday, giving the market a welcome boost.

Black Friday 2007 was certainly nothing like Black Thursday 1929. Of course, Black Friday doesn’t take its tone from any somber connotations of its color; the hue is actually a reference to the expectation that shopping traffic on the day will be strong enough to put retailers into the black column of the ledger for the rest of the year.

And there are some early indicators that the day may have done its job. New York City wasn’t the only place with early morning lines outside the store.

Coast to coast

Those lines were everywhere — and right here in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, hundreds of bargain shoppers were outside malls and stores that opened as early as 4 a.m. Hundreds of cars were working their way toward the Prime Outlets in Grove City, Pa., for their opening at midnight. (It was there that some early birds from the north could be found, eager to spend their Canadian dollars on U.S. bargains.)

Friday was just another example of how the U.S. economy is defying its own numbers. Despite the mortgage crisis, skyrocketing energy costs, a sinking dollar and a national debt that represents more than $30,000 for every man woman and child in the nation, shoppers were out in droves, from coast to coast Friday.

While we have expressed concerns in the past about the economic policies of Washington, we certainly can’t find fault with people spending money on the first official day of the Christmas shopping season. For one thing, we’re becoming a service economy, and if people suddenly stopped going to stores big and little and taking their breaks in restaurants and coffee shops, the economy would be in big trouble. Shoppers can’t go cold turkey the day after Turkey Day. It would be unAmerican.

And besides, most of the shoppers who were out Friday were buying not only for themselves, but for others. And they were having fun picking, choosing and celebrating bargains. Who can argue with saving money while shopping for others?