"Black Friday Deals" pretty much the same every year...

By flipping through old Black Friday sale circulars from Target, Walmart and Best Buy dating back to 2008, The Wall Street Journal discovered that most of the items (and even the prices) don’t change very much from year to year.

A Target spokesperson pointed out the obvious thing: the items appear year after year because people want to buy them year after year. “Our Black Friday ads are intended to showcase the products our guests want,” he told the paper, and the items that they want during the holiday season are toys and small appliances.

That’s why 80% of the items on the front covers of circulars are the same from year to year. Sure, there’s the occasional fad like netbooks or hoverboards, but most of the same items appear at the same prices for years in a row. So compare this pic of last year's Target circular with this year's (due any day now) and see if you can spy any real differences.