美国人推迟了感恩节火鸡大餐，蜂拥来到各大商场，吸引他们的是半价折扣和电视机特价100美元的承诺。

这个一年一度的"黑色星期五"仪式一直留存，有时还违背了逻辑，也不符合日历。购物者周四就出动为排队而战，大肆采购——虽然店铺从万 节开始就一直在推出假日优惠，虽然大多数商品都可以在网上买到，虽然很多折扣是对原本就廉价的商品进行的"虚幻打折"。

European Pressphoto Agency

感恩节当天，位于弗吉尼亚州亚历山德里亚的一家沃尔玛，消费者在促销活动中争相抢购打折平板电脑。

在玩具反斗城(Toys "R" Us Inc.)位于纽约时报广场的旗舰店，人们在路障后面排起了蜿蜒两个街区的长队，等着在下午5点店铺开门时进店。店方向等候的购物者赠送了 诞帽。

来自布鲁克林Bay Ridge 的45岁妇女纳卡里(Julie Naccari)说，我们过去三年都是这么做的，因为孩子们获得了很大的优惠，也买到了他们想要的 诞礼物，明年之前我都不用再来了。她排在队伍的前面，从周四下午两点30分就开始等，并打算稍晚一点再吃感恩节大餐。

店铺开门时，人们发出了欢呼，并且喜笑颜开。旁边有警察阻止人们插队。

一位店铺雇员说，大家不用着急。慢慢走。

下午6点（比去年早了两个小时），人们携家带口地在沃尔玛(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)和百思买(Best Buy Inc.)的门店外排起长队，领取这些大卖场零售商向购物者发放的腕带或购物券，凭此可预订Beats头戴式耳机和惠普(Hewlett-Packard Co.)笔记本电脑等高人气产品。J.C. Penney Co.和梅西百货(Macy's Inc.)等百货公司首次在感恩节开门营业，希望抓住销售机会，不要让顾客在别家花钱。但它们直到晚上8点才开始营业。

西尔斯控股(Sears Holding Corp.)旗下Sears and Kmart门店以及Penney都承诺将彻夜运营，Penney向睡眼惺松的购物者赠送雪花水晶球。这些购物者为获得免费赠品而坚持到凌晨四点，或是早早起床前来抢购。

零售商在假日购物季竭尽所能地让顾客掏腰包，在这期间连锁店可能实现逾五分之一的年度销售额。

尽管门店的购物者很踊跃，但已经有初步的证据显示，很多人在家中通过网络购物。跟踪800家美国零售网站交易情况的IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark的数据显示，截至周四下午6点，今年的感恩节在线销售额同比增加了10%。

据全美零售商联合会(National Retail Federation)的数据，预计这个假日周末约有1.4亿人将购物，较去年计划购物的1.47亿人有所下降。这个行业组织说，其调查的人当中将近四分之一计划在感恩节当天购物。该组织数据显示，去年"黑色星期五"周末期间，购物者花费了约600亿美元，其中40%以上是在网上购物的开支。

今年，很多零售商也在网上提供同样的促销优惠。在沃尔玛和西尔斯等门店，电视机、平板电脑、视频游戏等商品在网上和店内都有促销，不过这些连锁店说，供应量有限。

事实上，周四刚到下午，百思买网站就宣布其部分"黑色星期五"特价促销产品已经在网上断货，比如各个品牌的平板电脑。

很多购物者说，黑色星期五购物是种传统。

Americans pushed back from their Thanksgiving turkey and rolled into shopping malls, drawn by the promise of half-off discounts and $100 television sets.

The annualritual that is 'Black Friday' persists, in some cases defying logic as well as the calendar. Shoppers ventured out Thursday to fight the lines and load up on gear -- even though stores have been trotting out holiday deals since Halloween, most of the offerings are available online and many of the discounts are illusory bargains on goods designed to be cheap.

At the flagship Toys 'R' Us Inc. store in New York's Times Square, people were lined up for two blocks behind barricades, waiting to get into the store at the 5 p.m. opening. The store passed out Santa hats to waiting shoppers.

'We've been doing this the last three years because the kids get a great deal and get what they want for Christmas, and I don't have to come back until next year,' said Julie Naccari, 45 years old, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. She was at the front of the line, having waited since 2:30 p.m. Thursday and was planning to have Thanksgiving dinner later in the evening.

There was cheering and broad smiles when the doors opened. Police officers prevented people from cutting in the line.

'People, no running,' a store employee said. 'Everybody, just walk.'

At 6 p.m. -- two hours earlier than last year -- families queued up at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Best Buy Inc. stores to get wristbands or tickets the big-box retailers were handing out to shoppers to reserve popular items like Beats headphones and Hewlett-Packard Co. laptops. Department stores J.C. Penney Co. and Macy's Inc. were opening their doors on Thanksgiving for the first time, hoping to capture sales before customers spend their dollars elsewhere. But they held off until 8 p.m.

Sears Holding Corp.'s Sears and Kmart stores, as well as Penney, had pledged to keep their doors open all night, with Penney offering snow globes to bleary-eyed shoppers who were still awake at 4 a.m. or woke up early to snag free swag.

Retailers are trying to squeeze out as many dollars as they can from customers during the holiday season, when store chains can rack up more than a fifth of yearly sales.

Despite the activity at stores, there was early evidence that many stayed home to shop deals online. By 6 p.m. Thursday, Thanksgiving online sales were up 10% this year over the same period last year, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracks transactions at 800 U.S. retail sites.

About 140 million people are expected to shop over this holiday weekend, a decline from the 147 million who planned to do so last year, according to the National Retail Federation. The trade group said that nearly a quarter of the people it surveyed plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day. Shoppers spent about $60 billion during the Black Friday weekend last year and more than 40% of that spending occurred online, according to the federation.

This year, many retailers are offering the same set of door-buster deals online. Most prices on items like TV sets, tablets, and videogames at stores including Wal-Mart and Sears will be offered online as well as in stores, though the chains say availability is limited.

Indeed, early on Thursday afternoon Best Buy's website said it was sold out online for some of its Black Friday door-buster specials, such as those on various brands of tablets.

Many shoppers say Black Friday shopping is tradition.

• turkey [´tə:ki]   n.火鸡   (初中英语单词)
• annual [´ænjuəl]   a.每年的 n.年刊   (初中英语单词)
• holiday [´hɔlidi]   n.假日，假期，节日   (初中英语单词)
• available [ə´veiləbəl]   a.可用的；有效的   (初中英语单词)
• waiting [´weitiŋ]   n.等候；伺候   (初中英语单词)
• opening [´əupəniŋ]   n.开放；开端 a.开始的   (初中英语单词)
• capture [´kæptʃə]   vt.&n.捕获；俘获；夺取   (初中英语单词)
• elsewhere [,elsweə]   ad.在别处；向别处   (初中英语单词)
• despite [di´spait]   prep.尽管   (初中英语单词)
• tradition [trə´diʃən]   n.传统；惯例；传说   (初中英语单词)
• thanksgiving [´θæŋks,giviŋ]   感恩节   (高中英语单词)
• calendar [´kælində]   n.日历；月历；历法   (高中英语单词)
• offering [´ɔfəriŋ]   n.提供；礼物；捐献   (高中英语单词)
• squeeze [skwi:z]   v.&n.压榨，榨取   (高中英语单词)
• federation [,fedə´reiʃən]   n.联邦，联盟，同盟   (高中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən]   num.万亿   (高中英语单词)
• limited [´limitid]   a.有限(制)的   (高中英语单词)
• retail [´ri:teil, ri´teil]   n.&a.&v.零售(商品的)   (英语四级单词)
• trying [´traiiŋ]   a.难堪的；费劲的   (英语四级单词)
• yearly [´jiəli]   a.每年的；一年间的   (英语四级单词)
• weekend [´wi:kend, ,wi:k´end]   n.周末休假   (英语四级单词)
• holding [´həuldiŋ]   n.保持，固定，存储   (英语六级单词)
• ritual [´ritʃuəl]   n.典礼；礼节 a.典礼的   (英语六级单词)