Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, often regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. In recent years, most major retailers have opened extremely early and offered promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth Nations. Black Friday is not a federal holiday, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the day after off, followed by a weekend, thereby increasing the number potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time.
Closest reason as to why it is known as Black Friday is given in "Many retailers report some of their highest profits on Black Friday. The black portion of the name, "Black Friday" relates to business recording their losses in red ink and gains in black. This tradition lives on in modern accounting software, hence the name."
While most Black Friday sales go online on Black Friday. However, many Black Friday deals are available online before Black Friday. Many of such Black Friday like or even better than Black Friday deals can be found at DealsOfAmerica.com throughout the year, including right now.
For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m. but in the late 2000's many had crept to 5:00 or even 4:00. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl's, Macy's, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened at midnight for the first time. In 2012, Walmart and several other retailers announced that they would open most of their stores at 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day (except in states where opening on Thanksgiving is prohibited due to blue laws. such as Massachusetts where they still opened around midnight),prompting calls for a walkout among some workers. Black Friday shopping is know for attracting aggressive crowds, with annual reports of assaults, shootings, and throngs of people trampling on other shoppers in an attempt to get the best deal on a product before supplies run out.
United States
The states which have official public holidays for state government employees on "The Day After Thanksgiving" include California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Washington and West Virginia. The new media have long described the day after Thanksgiving as the busiest shopping day of the year. In earlier years, this was not actually the case. In the period from 1993 through 2001, for example, Black Friday ranked from 5th to 10th on the list of busiest shopping days, with the last saturday before christmas usually taking 1st place. In 2003, however, Black Friday actually was the busiest shopping day of the year, and it has retained that position every year since, with the exception of 2004, when it ranked 2nd.
Black Friday is popular as shopping day for a combination of reasons. As the first day after the last major holiday before Christmas it marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season. Additionally, many employers give their employes the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. In order to take advantage of this, virtually all retailers in the country, big and small, offer various sales. Recent years have seen retailers extend beyond normals hours in order to maintain an edge, or to simply keep up with the competition. Such hours may include opening as early as 12am or remaining open overnight on Thanksgiving Day and beginning sale prices at midnight. In 2010, Toys R' Us began their Black Friday sales at 10pm on Thanksgiving Day and further upped the ante by offering free boxes of Crayola crayons and coloring books for as long as supplies lasted. Other retailers, like Sears, Aeropostale, and Kmart, began Black Friday sales early Thanksgiving morning, and random through as late as 11pm Friday evening. Forever 21 went in the opposite direction, opening at normal hours on Friday, and running late sales until 2am Saturday morning. Historically, it was common for Black Friday sales to extend throughout the following weekend. However, this practice has largely disappeared in recent years, perhaps because of an effort by retailers to create a greater sense of urgency.
Canada
The large population centers on Lake Ontario in Canada have always attracted cross-border shopping into the U.S. states, and as Black Friday became more popular in the U.S. Canadians often flocked to the U.S. because of their cheaper prices and a stronger Canadian dollar. After 2001, many were traveling for the deals across the border. Starting in 2008 and 2009, Due to the parity of the Canadian dollar compared with the American dollar, several major Canadian retailers ran Black Friday deals as the their own to discourage shoppers from leaving the U.S.
The year 2012 saw the biggest Black Friday to date in Canada, As Canadian retailers embraced it in an attempt to keep shoppers from travelling across the border.
Before the advent of Black Friday in Canada, the most comparable holiday was Boxing Day in terms of retailers impact and consumerism, but Black Fridays in the U.S. seem to provide deeper or more extreme price cuts than Canadian retailers, even for the same international retailer.
United States
The states which have official public holidays for state government employees on "The Day After Thanksgiving" include California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Washington and West Virginia. The new media have long described the day after Thanksgiving as the busiest shopping day of the year. In earlier years, this was not actually the case. In the period from 1993 through 2001, for example, Black Friday ranked from 5th to 10th on the list of busiest shopping days, with the last saturday before christmas usually taking 1st place. In 2003, however, Black Friday actually was the busiest shopping day of the year, and it has retained that position every year since, with the exception of 2004, when it ranked 2nd.
Black Friday is popular as shopping day for a combination of reasons. As the first day after the last major holiday before Christmas it marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season. Additionally, many employers give their employes the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. In order to take advantage of this, virtually all retailers in the country, big and small, offer various sales. Recent years have seen retailers extend beyond normals hours in order to maintain an edge, or to simply keep up with the competition. Such hours may include opening as early as 12am or remaining open overnight on Thanksgiving Day and beginning sale prices at midnight. In 2010, Toys R' Us began their Black Friday sales at 10pm on Thanksgiving Day and further upped the ante by offering free boxes of Crayola crayons and coloring books for as long as supplies lasted. Other retailers, like Sears, Aeropostale, and Kmart, began Black Friday sales early Thanksgiving morning, and random through as late as 11pm Friday evening. Forever 21 went in the opposite direction, opening at normal hours on Friday, and running late sales until 2am Saturday morning. Historically, it was common for Black Friday sales to extend throughout the following weekend. However, this practice has largely disappeared in recent years, perhaps because of an effort by retailers to create a greater sense of urgency.Canada
The large population centers on Lake Ontario in Canada have always attracted cross-border shopping into the U.S. states, and as Black Friday became more popular in the U.S. Canadians often flocked to the U.S. because of their cheaper prices and a stronger Canadian dollar. After 2001, many were traveling for the deals across the border. Starting in 2008 and 2009, Due to the parity of the Canadian dollar compared with the American dollar, several major Canadian retailers ran Black Friday deals as the their own to discourage shoppers from leaving the U.S.
The year 2012 saw the biggest Black Friday to date in Canada, As Canadian retailers embraced it in an attempt to keep shoppers from travelling across the border.
Before the advent of Black Friday in Canada, the most comparable holiday was Boxing Day in terms of retailers impact and consumerism, but Black Fridays in the U.S. seem to provide deeper or more extreme price cuts than Canadian retailers, even for the same international retailer.
Armin, I enjoyed reading your blog. Lots of information in here, and a good topic. I would like to know, since Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year now, how much earlier and earlier malls and shops will open? Could they open two days in advance soon?!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this blog although the long repeated lists slowed me down some. I'm surprised you didn't find the "Buy Nothing Day" and the reasons Black Friday originated here but not in Canada.
ReplyDeleteI feel Black Friday was a great topic to talk about. For me I don't really understand the reason of Black Friday. Why does everyone think that things are cheaper? I mean of course there will be a few things that are really cheap, but trust me in the six years that I've helped take care of my family and shopped for things there's just as great deals throughout the year as there are on Black Friday. Personally for me since I've always been a family man I don't like Black Fridays because it ruins the whole purpose and meaning of Thanksgiving. Now that Walmart is supposedly opening it's doors at 6:00 pm this year I feel like people won't even spend time with there family anymore. But hey who I am to say all of that, that's just the culture of America. Anyways your blog has been great in both writing and informing us about topics.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is very informing, personally I never understood the reason of Black Friday itself. But oh well, its the way it goes. Interesting facts in the blog
ReplyDelete