Whether you’re hunting for tech, home goods, or holiday gifts, here’s what you need to know to navigate Black Friday 2024:

The supreme shopping weekend is almost here. A record 183.4 million people are planning to shop in stores and online between Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday in 2024, up from the previous record of 182 million in 2023,

Jie Zhang, a professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, points to a 1951 mention of “Black Friday” in a New-York based trade publication — which noted that many workers simply called in sick the day after Thanksgiving in hopes of having a long holiday weekend.