On Friday, you can shop 'til you drop - or not

Before the sun comes up Friday morning, the shopping faithful will gather in the frosty air outside one retail mecca or another, oblivious to wind, snow, sleet or the possible sheer insanity of it all.

They will wait, poised and ready for the doors to open.

Many local retailers are planning bleary-eyed 6 a.m. openings. Some doors will open even earlier, at 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., although some stores have the audacity to keep their doors closed until the late hour of 8 a.m.

Even the Salvation Army Thrift Store is getting in on the frenzy, offering discounts on its discount items.

There will be sales, deals, loss-leaders, discounts and incentives galore, all designed to entice shoppers on what is repeatedly called "the biggest shopping day of the year."

Except that it isn't.

Despite the hype, data compiled since 1993 show the four busiest shopping days are the two final weekends before Christmas, with post-Turkey Day at best coming in fifth place, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

And Friday doesn't have to be dedicated to consumerism. It's also the 13th annual Buy Nothing Day, dedicated to the idea that people already spend too much money and consume too much stuff.

For those who disagree, there will be plenty of stuff on display Friday, and retailers are counting on shoppers to come through.

The day's nickname - "Black Friday," so designated because it's reportedly the day retailers' ledgers edge out of the red and into the black - is accurate, said Shawn Campbell, store team leader at Target in Kalispell.

"It really is. It's substantially larger than the average day," he said. While it's true that it's not the biggest sales day of the year, "it's very close in terms of overall dollars. It compares."

Herberger's store manager Gary Evans said he sees shoppers doing more than buying, however - he sees neighbors and friends socializing, families spending time together.

"It's almost a social event at some point, a tradition," he said.

Campbell agreed: "It becomes a ritual. You see groups come in - they did the Thanksgiving thing yesterday, and this is their annual shopping trip."

Buy Nothing Day, meanwhile, started as a movement against the ritual. A group of filmmakers and environmental activists held the first one in the Seattle/Vancouver area, and it's grown every year since, especially once the idea hit the Internet in 1994, said Tim Walker, campaigns manager for the Adbusters Media Foundation.

The number of participants is in the millions, he said, although the decentralized structure of his organization makes counting them impossible.

"In some ways, we like that," he said. "The purpose of the day is not to produce some measurable effect right away - we don't want to stop the GDP. It's an idea.

"So much of the American dream has been tied to consumerism. It's almost been diluted to that. Would we trade all these other freedoms for this ability to consume blindly … to buy plastic at Christmas? I think people are beginning to question that seriously."

Reporter Alan Choate may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at achoate@dailyinterlake.com