system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How are stores able to make a profit on Black Friday if they mark everything down so much?

It seems like they must sell most sale items at or below cost and most people seem to only buy sale items. Do they use lower-quality products specifically for the sales? Are the stores actually in the red before these sales, relying on them to get into the black?
gpt
Most people *don't* just buy the big sale items. Yes, they have deeply discounted items to bring people into the store, but that's the point -- to get them in the store, where most of them will also buy other things at a higher margin.