We focus on a place of much wailing and gnashing of teeth: U.S. shopping malls on Black Friday. What was once just another holiday sale has become a celebration of acquisition. And Canadians are now being swept up in the chaos. We'll see how retailers and consumers try to outflank one another on this Special Day.

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Part Two of The Current - Physiology of Black Friday

The claws of consumerism really scratch on the Friday following the American Thanksgiving.  Scenes of fist-fights and tugs of war clutter the six o'clock news and Youtube. The scramble for bargains has even caused death.  Still, the siren call is tempting for many Canadians.  And that's why a number of Canadian retailers have mounted their own Black Friday sales to keep shoppers here.

But that's not going to deter Sandi Gruger, a keen cross border shopper from New Westminister, B.C. This will be the first year she's crossed over for the Black Friday deals. A friend  gave her some advice... so she has a battle plan.

To help us understand why Black Friday has become such a major event down south we were joined by three guests. Charles Duhigg is an investigative reporter with the New York Times and author of the bestselling book, The Power of Habit. Jane Thomas is a professor of marketing at Winthrop University and she is in Charlotte, North Carolina. And Diana Lucaci is the founder and CEO of True Impact Marketing, a Mississauga, Ontario-based neuromarketing company.  And she is in Toronto.

Other segment from today's show:

Calgary Centre by-election heats up

The legacy of Bal Thackeray and the future of Shiv Sena