This Is Why You Stayed Home On Black Friday

It's the day after Thanksgiving, which means Americans who are not relishing in their turkey comas have been out filling their shopping carts with plasma TVs, digital cameras, and more toasters than a kitchen could possibly handle. Yes, it's Black Friday, America's biggest shopping day of the year that actually now begins on Thanksgiving. Numerous U.S. retailer chains, such as Target, Walmart and Best Buy, extended their Black Friday hours to Thursday evening, to the chagrin of labor and workers' rights groups. While retailers are still unsure how well they'll perform this year, one thing's for certain: These Black Friday photos will make you glad that you skipped the stampedes of people for a kinda-sorta good deal on a Dustbuster.

According to CNBC, financial analysts are predicting that retailers will not fare so well this Black Friday — their in-store sales, at least. However, Cyber Monday is expected to bring in the money, and online stores and marketplaces, such as Amazon, are expected to do way better than their in-store counterparts.

Yet judging from the scenes at Targets, Walmarts and big-box shopping malls nationwide, it seems hard to believe that retailers are worried about Black Friday sales. Of course, one look at these photos is also enough to trigger an anxiety attack in any savvy online-only shopper.

Of course, it wouldn't be Black Friday without the melee. According to the New York Daily News, Black Friday brawls at shopping malls nationwide already surfaced online Friday morning. One brawl at a mall in Louisville, Kentucky, attracted dozens of people before eventually being broken up by police.