Cyber Monday is an interesting American phenomena. Building on from the Black Friday of shopping madness the Americans indulge in the day after Thanksgiving, the following Monday has now been dubbed Black Monday or Cyber Monday. On the Monday following Thanksgiving on-line stores offer substantial discounts for shoppers to encourage them into the pre-Christmas spending frame of mind! Shops open very early in the morning so that shopping can be done on the way too work. However Cyber Monday takes it one step further and means that you can shop while AT work! Cyber Monday originated in 2005, and was picked up by the American mainstream media who dubbed it as the biggest on-line shopping day. In fact it was originally true that many workers would shop on-line from work on that Monday, but with the general availability of fast connections at home this is probably not so true any more. Regardless of reality though the marketing push remains!

Its interesting the way different terms mean different things in different cultures. In most of the non-American English speaking world, black Friday is Friday with the date of the 13th - a combination of bad luck items apparently! The term black Monday therefore had me totally confused! The term apparently was originally coined from the line-up of black cabs in front of the large department stores who started off the sales promotion!

Naturally too the natural opposite has also been created - "Buy Nothing Day" coinciding with Black Friday! This was started in Canada in the early 90's by activists wanting to protest the western world's increasingly consumer-driven society.

However the good news is that even if you have never heard of Cyber Monday, Monday (or Tuesday depending on your timezone) may be a great day to grab a bargain at an American on-line retailer!