As for Black Friday being a "trick", I had a long explanation planned but it's been a long day. I'll just say that people go shopping the day after Thanksgiving, anyway. The Black Friday sales are just a store's way of getting people to come to their store to spend some of that money. It's the day that they try to get back into the 'black' after being in the 'red' all year long.
Stores give massive discounts on some items, even to the point of taking a loss. They hope that people will be in the buying mood and buy some things that aren't on sale, too. This year, some price cuts were so big that many retailers may still be in bad shape or make minimal profits.
I didn't go this year but last year, every store I went to had everything clearly marked--even going as far as to set the Black Friday items in bins and stacks in the aisles with the price written on them.
