In-store shopping offers instant gratification and sometimes exclusive deals not available online, but you risk dealing with crowds and low stock. Online shopping is convenient, but watch out for crashing websites and fake products.

Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. Our deals writers and editors rounded up the top products they waited all year to buy.

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.