• Listen to this segment

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving is when retailers advertise so-called door-busting deals and special promotions to consumers to kick-off the Holiday shopping season. Black Friday as a retailing term goes back to at least 1966 when the Philadelphia Police Department used it to describe shoppers the day after Thanksgiving flooding into the Center City area of downtown. More recently, Black Friday is known for its massive traffic jams, crowded sidewalks, in-store fights, and trampling deaths. Last year at a Long Island, NY Wal-Mart, one stock-clerk died and a woman miscarried when hundreds of Wal-Mart shoppers smashed through the doors of the store. But, there is an antidote to the dangerous super-shopping melee. Global Giving- an internet based philanthropy organization is hosting the 2nd Annual “Great American Sleep-In” this Friday. They encourage people to sleep in, spend time with loved ones and family, and do something that truly represents the spirit of the Holidays on Black Friday by not shopping. Instead interested non-shoppers can go to globalgiving.org and make a donation to a vetted organization that is doing good in the world. Since its launch in 2002, Global Giving has helped thousands of donors give more than $22 million to over 1,400 projects.

GUEST: Joan Ochi, Director of Marketing and Communications for GlobalGiving.org.

For more information, visit www.globalgiving.org.