History of Black Friday
Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Along with the 46 million Turkeys eaten, overdrawn conversations with relatives about politics, and general gluttony, comes the notorious day after Thanksgiving known lovingly as Black Friday.
Black Friday is a somewhat controversial business practice in the retail world. Marketers and companies love it in the sense that they see a significant uptick in business. On the other hand, employees loathe it as it takes them away from their families and forces them to work non-standard hours around customers that frequently get out of hand.
But what is the history behind Black Friday?
Initially, Black Friday began by coincidence. Historically, with Thanksgiving over, the Christmas season officially began. Obviously, if you venture into any brick-and-mortar nowadays, you know that the Christmas season sometimes begins as soon as October. In the past, this lead to a significant uptick in the retail business as people began their holiday shopping on that Friday following Thanksgiving, perhaps as a way of escaping their family.
In fact, there was such an uptick in both foot traffic and vehicle traffic in Philadelphia that the pollution, coupled with so many people and low hanging clouds, made the sky appear darker. From this appearance, the moniker Black Friday came and was used very frequently in Philadelphia beginning in the early 1960’s. The term was more widely adopted in the U.S. in the 1970’s.
Due to the national adoption of the term, the rationale behind it was revamped. It was then called Black Friday because people believed that the companies were operating at a loss (in the red) from January to November and this marked a cross over to operating at a profit (in the black). Clearly, this rationale was devised by someone that doesn’t understand the fiscal year runs from October through September.
Since that time, Black Friday has increased in importance, becoming longer and longer. The deals kept getting better and better, and the customers continued to get increasingly excited. Certain big box shops, like Best Buy, have people camping out in front of them up to 36 hours ahead of schedule just get the limited number of goods on whatever discount is being offered. This has led to many instances of customers being trampled and even killed over electronics and toys.
Past few years, Black Friday may have reached the zenith of popularity with stores beginning Black Friday on Thursday. In fact, there has been a significant shift this year of companies making it a point to not be open on Black Friday. The company REI made national news with their announcement that they would be closed on Black Friday a couple of years ago and encouraged everyone to enjoy the outdoors with friends and family. Since then, many other big named companies have followed suit with giving their employees the day off.
It will be interesting to see how this trend continues to grow momentum. It was also be of interest to note how the other holidays surrounding Black Friday fair, such as Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Will you be shopping this Black Friday?
