So who started that Black Friday shopping craziness anyway?

It had long been a day for holiday sales, but the custom we know today as doorbuster sales with early shopping hours on the day after Thanksgiving got its jump start in 1981 in Detroit.

The Detroit News has the story today – Credit Hudson’s with Black Friday.

A snippet:

Hudson’s kept the promotion a well-guarded secret, waiting until Thanksgiving Day to unleash a blitz of television spots and newspaper ads. The full-page ad in The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press on that day, Nov. 26, 1981, featured an alarm clock alerting shoppers to the early opening.

“It didn’t get any art award, but you couldn’t miss it,” former Hudson’s employee Fred Marx said. “It was very clear. Customers got it.”

The following year, “all patent rights were off,” he said. “K-Mart, Crowley’s, J.C. Penney’s — everybody had their version of it.”

The day after Thanksgiving is expected to be the busiest shopping day of the 2008 holiday season, according to a list of dates in as a sidebar.

Now, when can you go shopping? I compiled a list last week of opening hours for the Monroe-area stores and regional malls, and some of them were printed in the holiday hours story in Tuesday’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News.

I have since tracked down a few more opening hours for Friday, so here is the current version (and there may be a few more additions after I see the sales fliers this afternoon). A few stores also are open Thursday, check their web sites or sales fliers for details.:

Monroe-area stores

• Frenchtown Square mall – opens 6 a.m. except where otherwise noted.
• Elder-Beerman – opens 4 a.m.
• Sears – opens 5 a.m.
• Target – opens 6 a.m.
• Wal-Mart- opens 5 a.m.
• Kohl’s – opens 4 a.m.
• Kmart – opens 6 a.m.
• Tractor Supply – opens 6 a.m.
• ACO Hardware – opens 8 a.m.
• Ace Hardware – opens 7 a.m.
• Cabela’s in Dundee – opens 6 a.m.
• (update!) Best Buy – opens 5 a.m.
• (update!) Lowe’s – opens 6 a.m.
• (update!) Big Lots – opens 6 a.m.
• (update!) Meijer – open 24 hours but doorbusters start at 5 a.m.
• (update!) RexTV – opens 6 a.m.
• (update!) Walgreens – opens 7 a.m.
• (update!) Dick’s Sporting Goods – opens 5 a.m.
• (update!) Dunham’s Sports – opens 5 a.m.
• (update!) Staples – opens 6 a.m.

Regional shopping mall hours:

• Westfield Shoppingtown Franklin Park in Toledo – opens 7 a.m.
• Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi – opens 7 a.m.
• Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor – opens 5 a.m.
• All Toys R Us stores – open 5 a.m.
• JCPenney stores in our region – open 4 a.m.
• (update!) KB Toys in Taylor – open 5 a.m.
• (update!) Menards – opens 6 a.m.
• (update!) Michaels – opens 6 a.m.
• (update!) Old Navy – opens 5 a.m.
• (update!) Home Depot – opens 6 a.m.

It’s 6:30 a.m. as I write this. I’m finishing off my coffee and heading into the newspaper office so we can get today’s edition of The Monroe Evening News off the press early. There is no Thanksgiving day edition of my newspaper, so the holiday ads will be in today’s edition.

And it’s going to take a lot of time for the distribution crew to stuff all the sales fliers into your newspapers before they are dropped into a vending box, land on your porch or get placed in your delivery tube this afternoon. Some employees from other departments have also been called to duty!