Black Friday started as early as Wednesday this year. Many stores had major pre-sales, deals and online deals for many shoppers to part take in before Friday.

“I buy all my presents for the year, like birthday presents, during Black Friday,” said Brittany Rhodes, sophomore mass media major.

On Thanksgiving, Wal-Mart was open all day unlike previous years. Best Buy opened at 6 p.m. and Target opened at 8 p.m., along with Kohl’s and J.C. Penney.

The term Black Friday originally started in Philadelphia, Pa., in the ‘60s and ‘70s as the day after Thanksgiving when store owners realized how much traffic and purchases that consumers made each year. During November and the winter months businesses would be “in the red” because they would not make money. Black Friday referred to when store owners and businesses would be in the black for sells, which is why the Friday after Thanksgiving became known as Black Friday. Now Black Friday means the beginning of Christmas shopping.

Stores are continuing to open earlier each year from the pressure of making money and competition from other stores. A Pizza Hut manager was fired for refusing to keep his store opened during Thanksgiving. Pizza Hut is usually closed only two days a year and including Thanksgiving and Christmas. Pizza Hut reoffered the manager’s job back after receiving national attention about the reasons why they fired the manager.

In Topeka, the were a few problems with the Black Friday sales that began on Thanksgiving. There were several crowds of people at each of the stores that were open. Wal-Mart had a one hour guarantee policy for some of the specials deals it was selling. Costumers that were waiting in line asked for several of the items at a time. The store ran out well before the hour was up because employees did not give out each item one at a time.

“I thought it went pretty smooth,” said Nancy Lohse, Topeka resident and Black Friday shopper. “People were nicer in the evening compared to how people have been in the past (those that were up all night.)”