Apple Australia is expecting big queues at their company owned stores today after the US company launched its own Black Friday promotion by slashing the cost of Apple notebooks, iPods and accessories.

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Black Friday is a tradition in the USA that draws out the shoppers when retailers and vendors offer massive discounts on goods. It’s estimated that over 125 million people will go shopping today in the USA.  

The most significant shopping day in the US retail calendar, this year’s Black Friday is supposed to be the day that retailers start to go into the black for the year.
While 31% of all US households plan to shop today compared with 26% last year, retailers are concerned that shoppers have become inured to Black Friday deals, which sometimes surface as early as mid-summer.

The UK Guardian reported “The word ‘sale’ is pretty much meaningless today,” said Tod Marks, a Consumer Reports senior editor. “That doesn’t get people to raise their eyebrows. Retailers need to up the ante to get people to take a second look.”

Taking advantage of shoppers’ desire for deals and willingness to camp out all night to get a discount flat-panel TV, some retailers now open on Thanksgiving itself, a move akin to doing business on Christmas Day.

Analysts say the growing popularity of online shopping has contributed to the acceptance of shopping on a day traditionally reserved for eating. Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, now opens at midnight. But the so-called “doorbusters” – heavily discounted electronics goods that typically draw consumers prepared to queue up – will not go on sale until 5am because of a stampede for TVs at a Long Island branch two years ago that resulted in a security guard being trampled to death.