Prices Offer Sales Day Stores Holiday Promotions Low

Stores in the United States often offer "sales" to attract customers. Sales are short periods of time when the prices of certain of products are reduced or lowered. There are many different types of sales.

Some sales offer low prices for specific categories of products. For example, a "white sale" offers lower prices for "household goods" such as towels, dishes, sheets, blankets, and small kitchen electronics, such as a coffee maker. "Back-to-school sales" happen in late August, before the academic year begins in September. During a back-to-school sale, school supplies (such as paper, notebooks, pens, and pencils), children's clothing, and backpacks cost less than usual.

Other sales, such as Memorial Day sales and Labor Day sales, are related to specific U.S. holidays. The most famous of these sales is the "day-after-Thanksgiving sale," which happens in late November on Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday. This day is also called "Black Friday," because the phrase "in the black" means to make money ("in the red" means to lose money). This is the biggest shopping day of the year and many people stand in lines in front of stores for hours so that they can be the first ones to enter the store when it opens. Prices on certain items are extremely low, and some stores offer free gifts to the first 100 customers who enter the store that day.

An "early-bird sale" offers low prices to shoppers who arrive at the store early in the morning, sometimes as early as 6:00 a.m. Recently some businesses, especially "car dealerships" (stores selling cars), offer "employee-pricing sales." These sales offer the general public the same "discounted" (lower) prices that are normally offered only to the store's employees.