A little history. Black Friday is the day after thanksgiving, and considered the kick off to the Christmas shopping season. Thansgiving is always Thursday, and most people have a four day weekend for the holiday. It is called Black Friday, because it is the one day of the year that all retailers can count on being in the black. As in the accounting term, black in is profit, red in is loss.
During the 5–6 weeks before Christmas retailers do a significant portions of the year long business. Customers like Black Friday because it is a long weekend, they just spent all day Thursday inside eating with family, Friday is a good day to get out of the house and see all the decorations, grab some sales, and start feeling the Christmas spirit. Shopping on that day for many is a tradition.
The retailers have now turned it into a ridiculous competition to get customers into their store first that day, so many use door buster limited quantity items to draw people in at o’dark hundred wee hours of the morning. I hate it.
The higher end stores don’t do this. They sometimes have some specials, but they usually open only 1–2 hours before normal hours, and stay open sometimes 1 hour later. So, the wealthy sometimes do parttake in Black Friday, but it is not the hurried, uncivilized mess you sometimes find in the less expensive more moderate stores. If there is a particular item they want, they can call ahead and have it rung up before they ever even get to the store. I certainly knew people with a lot of money who still came out for the hectic crazy shopping and sales, it’s not like they all avoid it altogether, and they don’t buy everything at Neiman Marcus. They shop all over also. I think people very attracted to sales and filling Christmas lists come from all income levels.