BLACK FRIDAY: AMERICA’S BIGGEST SHOPPING EVENT

The Retail Phenomenon: Why Black Friday Matters in America

Happening the day right after Thanksgiving in November, “Black Friday” is an American “holiday” that since 1952 has traditionally marked the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States.  Described as “the busiest shopping day of the year” Black Friday sees many (if not all) retail establishments nationwide slash their prices and offer astronomical sales at highly discounted rates that are otherwise not offered during the rest of the year.

In the 1950s, stores began opening much earlier and closing much later but as the years went by and people started “catching on” stores began opening earlier and earlier, and closing much, much later.  Many retailers (in fact) began opening as early as midnight, or even on Thursday during Thanksgiving and would continue to operate on to Monday, thus the creation of “Cyber Monday,” while others would remain open for a week (Cyber Week).  

Tracing the Roots of Black Friday: Legends, Myths, and Real History

Since Black Friday has traditionally been linked to the start of the Christmas shopping season, Santa Claus has become inextricably linked to the retail holiday as well with many major department stores holding Christmas themed events as early as Thanksgiving.  The popular Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, for example, is one of the biggest and most extravagant of its kind and has been held in New York City since 1924.  It would include the appearance of Santa at the end of the parade giving birth to the idea that Santa has “arrived” or that Santa is “just around the corner” because Christmas is the next major American holiday after Thanksgiving.  

Not many are aware, however, that the origin of this retail bonanza has a bit dark side.

In a particularly ugly twist to the tradition, legend has it that back in the early 1800s Southern plantation owners would buy enslaved workers at a discount on the day after Thanksgiving.  One can only imagine the uproar and eventual boycott of the retail holiday that this would cause if this were true.  Fortunately, this piece of “history” is only legend and has no actual basis in fact.  The crash of the U.S. gold market on Friday, September 24, 1869, though is another matter.  

Early in that year, ruthless Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, tried to corner the gold market by buying as much of the nation’s gold as they could.  They did this to drive the price of gold as high as possible and sell it for astonishing profits.  Unfortunately, the gambit failed and on that Friday in September the conspiracy was revealed, which sent the stock market into free-fall literally wiping out everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.  Thus, coining the term “Black Friday.”


The Global Impact of Black Friday: A Day of Traffic, Chaos, and Shopping 

Then there was how the police in the city of Philadelphia and Rochester used the term to describe the traffic and chaos that ensued the day after Thanksgiving in the early 1950s.  Apparently, hordes of suburban shoppers and tourists flooded into the city for the big Army-Navy football game held that weekend every year.  Philly cops had to work extra-long, and even double shifts to deal with the enormous crowds in department stores and traffic all over the city, a situation that shoplifters and other criminal elements took great advantage of adding to the “Black Friday” headache.

By the mid 1970s, however, retailers and merchants began objecting to the way the word “black” gave their most profitable day of the year a negative connotation and suggested an alternative.  For over two thirds of the year, most retailers would operate at a financial loss, or be “in the red.”  The day after Thanksgiving, however, things would suddenly bounce back and retailers would ride the wave of profits that would last the duration of the holiday season.  Black Friday, then, is the beginning of the period when retailers would no longer be in the red, and instead be “in the black.”  

This explanation would eventually become the accepted “reason” for the retail holiday’s name and by the 1980s, Black Friday has been the retail blow-out that America knows and loves.  It has become such as an extravaganza, in fact, that the tradition has spread to many other countries with at least 129 countries celebrate their own versions of Black Friday (despite the fact that none of them celebrate the American tradition of Thanksgiving).  

In the United Arab Emirates, for example, it is called “Yellow Friday,” an online shopping extravaganza that falls on the last Friday of November every year.  In Wales, it’s called “Dydd Gwener y Gwario Gwirion,” which translates to, “Silly Spending Friday,” for obvious reasons.  Still, a Mega-Sale is a Mega-Sale (as shoppers know it in the Philippines) and whenever there is money to be had and a deal to be made Black Friday will be alive and well in America and throughout the world.

As Black Friday continues to evolve, its influence shows no signs of slowing down. What began as a day marked by traffic and chaos in the streets of Philadelphia has transformed into a global shopping phenomenon, embraced by consumers and retailers alike. From America to countries around the world, the allure of deals and discounts has solidified Black Friday as an annual event that drives economies and shapes shopping habits. Whether it’s known as 'Mega-Sale,' 'Yellow Friday,' or simply 'the biggest shopping day of the year,' Black Friday’s impact remains universal, proving that the pursuit of a great deal is a language everyone can understand.