Black Friday Shopping
Black Friday is the name given to the day after Thanksgiving in the United States and it is considered to be the biggest shopping event of the year.
Traditionally, it is also the day when many people begin their Christmas shopping. Hence Black Friday is heavily promoted by retailers. On this day when hundreds of thousands of Americans hang up their work clothes and head out to the shopping malls to officially kick start the Christmas season. It is usual for traders to offer exclusive deals and to open their shops early to draw in customers.
Meaning of the term
It is supposedly the day when retailers find that their business has turned the corner and in their books the figures turn from red (meaning loss) to black (meaning profit). Another interpretation of the term is that this is the day when traders face the worst crowds and buyer behavior, giving the day a black appearance.
Origin of the day
From the financial panic caused by two speculators’ efforts to corner the market in gold on 24th September, 1869 to the devastating bush fire in Australia on 13th January, 1939, the term Black Friday has many interpretations and many origins. The Black Friday shopping did not have any takers before the 70’s. It limped on halfheartedly for the next thirty years and only gained extensive appeal around 2001. Since then its popularity has gone up by leaps and bounds with millions of shoppers visiting the malls on this day.
The internet
This Monday following the Friday is dubbed ‘Cyber Monday,’ and is the day when shoppers go online to look for goods they were not able to find over the weekend or deals (special discounts and free shipping etc.) that are unveiled only then. The most popular e-commerce site, with around 10 million visitors on Black Friday, is eBay.
The myth
Although Black Friday is the day where the highest volume of consumer traffic is seen, it does not get necessarily into highest volume of sales. This normally happens on Christmas Eve or the last Saturday before Christmas.
Fortunately, Belgium does not know this “Black Friday”; we only know the horrible first day of the “bargain sales” in January and in July but I don’t participate: I don’t like to wait hours and hours the opening of the stores and the shopping “rush”.
November 24th, 2007 at 11:06 am