There is one day this fall season many are looking forward to and it’s not necessarily the day served up with mounds of turkey, pumpkin pie, and hours of rest and relaxation. If anything, rest and relaxation are probably last on this wish list. It is the shopping frenzy that consumes shoppers and stores across the United States. The Black Friday plague strikes again.

Black Friday is a shopping holiday that occurs the day after Thanksgiving. It marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Leading retailers mark the hottest items of the holiday season with discounted prices that may not be found during any other part of the year.

Shoppers rush to their favorite stores hours before they open, forming long lines in hopes that they will be the first ones to bank on the bargain prices.

The term Black Friday was coined as early as 1965. It was said to refer to the heavy traffic that flooded the busy streets of Philadelphia. By 1975 Black Friday gained greater exposure as cited in an Associated Press newspaper article that ran in the Titusville Herald on Nov. 29, 1975, titled “Folks on Buying Spree Despite Down Economy.” We may see similar headlines 33 years later.

“It was the first day of the Christmas shopping season and despite the economy, folks here went on a buying spree…‘That’s why the bus drivers and cab drivers call today ‘Black Friday,’ a sales manager at Gimbels said as she watched a traffic cop trying to control a crowd of jaywalkers. ‘They think in terms of headaches it gives them.’”

The negative connotation of Black Friday as a hectic headache began to diminish in the 1980s with a theory that retailers operated at a financial loss from January to November with profits usually picking up during the holiday season starting the day after Thanksgiving.

Retailer accountants would use red ink to show negative profit margins and black ink to point out positive profit margins. The black ink theory indicated the period where retailers no longer suffered losses (the red) but basked in the year’s profits (the black)—yet another theory for the Black Friday moniker.

If shoppers are in dire need to know where the best deals can be found; websites such as: BlackFriday.info, bfads.net, and blackfriday.gottadeal.com feature Black Friday ads from top retailers across the U.S.

John Vincent, founder of BlackFriday.info said in a FoxNews.com business article that he receives copies of ads from newspaper distributing facilities. Employees take pictures of the ads and send them to the site. Vincent does not verify information with retailers, but does make sure the pictures look legitimate with reasonable prices before posting them.

“People are really interested to find out what’s on sale on Black Friday,” Vincent said. “If they know a plasma TV is going to be on sale for $500 off, they’re not going to buy it now, they’ll just wait until Black Friday and then they’ll buy it then.”

According to bfads.net shoppers can expect a lot from leading U.S. retailer Wal-Mart with pre-Black Friday sales consisting of $298 15.4” Compaq laptop computers, Sanyo 46” HDTV’s for $798, and Sony Playstation 3’s including a $100 Wal-Mart gift card for only $399.

Rick, a member of management at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Christiansburg, who asked only to be identified by his first name, has been a part of the Black Friday craze for 10 years. He said there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes before the 5 a.m. sale begins.

Corporate selects the merchandise and Wal-Mart stores order it weeks in advance. Staffing is double checked to make sure it is correct and associates work overnight laying out the merchandise.

Rick says that if Wal-Mart does not have the lowest price they will match the price of their competitors with their “mad match policy.”

Rick has known shoppers to arrive as early as midnight to survey the store’s merchandise before the 5 a.m. rush. Many Black Friday consumers put their game faces on and strategically plan their shopping route.

Sheree Spencer can attest to this. She said she has arrived at Wal-Mart as early as 3 a.m. to scout out the best bargains. Spencer claims to be a hardcore Black Friday shopper.

“You’ve got to know your main objective, what you want, and plan your route according to what time each store opens,” Spencer said.

This year Spencer has a whole new objective, not laptops but flat screen TV’s.

Rick said his Wal-Mart Supercenter location in the past has had a steady 5,000 to 7,000 shoppers. Although the economy is in a state of recession, Rick still expects the numbers to be high.

Rick is thrilled about the sales and what it does for the store. Wal-Mart usually experiences a triple in sales on that day with an expected revenue of approximately $1 million. Rick says anything that benefits the associates is rewarding. Although there is a level of enthusiasm and dread when it comes to Black Friday, Rick said the excitement of it all gives him an adrenaline rush.

Unfortunately for some the feeling is more like a pain in the neck. Fairlawn Wal-Mart Supercenter associate Kalil Martin hates “Black Friday” and thinks it is the worst day of the year next to Christmas Eve.

“It’s just a madhouse of people who don’t have any sense,” Martin said. “Couple that with getting up early in the morning and you’ve got a headache.”

Karaneese Payne is a media studies student at Radford University.