Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving, and it’s one of the major shopping days of the year for the people of the United States -falling anywhere between November 23 and 29. While it’s actually not recognised as an official American holiday, many people enjoy a day off -except those working in retail.
So where did this tradition come from, and is Black Friday really that big a deal?
The origins
Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving an official national holiday during the Civil War, establishing it as the final Thursday in November – a designation that lasted for 70 years. But in 1939, for the second time in six years, the last Thursday in November fell on the 30th. Distraught over a shorter Christmas shopping season, retailers approached President Franklin D. Roosevelt and asked him to change the date.
The term “Black Friday” was coined in the 1960’s to mark the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. There are many different beliefs about how the name actually came about
A popular idea is that “Black” refers to stores moving from the “red” to the “black,” back when accounting records were kept by hand, and red ink indicated a loss, and black a profit. Ever since the start of the modern Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the Friday after Thanksgiving has been known as the unofficial start to a bustling Christmas shopping season.
In a non-retail sense, it also describes a financial crisis of 1869: a stock market disaster, set off by gold spectators who tried and failed to corner the gold market, causing the market to collapse and stocks to plummet.
Huge discounts on the biggest shopping day
As retailers began to realise they could draw big crowds by discounting prices, Black Friday became the day to shop, even better than those last minute Christmas sales, or even those in January. Some retailers put their items up for sale on the morning of Thanksgiving, or email online specials to consumers days or weeks before the actual event. The most shopped for items are electronics and popular toys, as these may be the most drastically discounted. However, prices are slashed on everything from home furnishings to clothing.
Interestingly, the day after Thanksgiving has only recently become the biggest shopping day of the year. Between 1993 and 2001, it ranked between fifth and tenth on the list of the busiest shopping days. In fact, for years, the busiest shopping day was usually the Saturday before Christmas.
But things changed in 2002. That was the year Black Friday took the lead, and it has remained the busiest shopping day of the year ever since, with the exception of 2004 when it was second. Experts speculate that shopping on the day after Thanksgiving has become more popular because many people have the day off, stores offer extended hours, and almost every store seems to have a sale on the day after Thanksgiving.
Shopping brutality
In 2008, the first death attributed to Black Friday fanaticism was recorded at a Walmart in Valley Stream, New York. Stampeding shoppers trampled an employee to death. Consumers refused to stop their rush when store employees tried to help their co-worker, ultimately contributing to the man’s demise. Shoppers also buffeted the police officers who arrived to help.
These days, however, you have other shopping options to avoid the turmoil. Many retailers begin offering deals on Thanksgiving Day or earlier.
Photos by: Laurie, Frank Tasche, Colony of Gamers.