The day after Thanksgiving, or “Black Friday” as it is commonly referred to, marks the official beginning of the Christmas holiday shopping season. Retailers begin preparing for this day weeks in advance and typically have special store hours set just for Black Friday.
Although it is generally considered to be the most profitable shopping day of the holiday season, the reality is that although it is one of the busiest days it is rarely the most profitable shopping day of the season.
Origin of Black Friday
The term “Black Friday” can be traced back many years and has been used in many different contexts. According to Wikipedia, the earliest known uses of “Black Friday” in association with the day after Thanksgiving occurred in Philadelphia. Here, the heavy traffic that occurred on the day after Thanksgiving coupled with the massive crowds in stores and city sidewalks caused police officers to call the day a “Black Friday.”
Other interpretations of “Black Friday” associate it with the accounting practice of using red ink to show a negative balance and black ink to show a positive balance. Thus, retailer stores who were in the red for the first 10 months of the year could look forward to a day of being in the black, the first day of the shopping season.
Regardless of how the name came into being, many shoppers gear up for sales and special store hours in anticipation of deep discounts and a chance at purchasing the popular gift items before they are sold out. It is not uncommon to see lines of people in store parking lots hours before opening.
Online Documentation and Black Friday
Many retailers send out early advertisements to entice people to shop at their stores. In recent years websites have begun appearing that list each store and what they are going to have on sale for Black Friday. Retail stores like Wal-Mart have begun fighting this practice claiming an infringement on copyright laws. The reality is that they don’t want consumers going to these sites instead of coming to their shops.
The majority of these advertising tip sites have not backed down and continue to post the pre-sales prices and products on their sites. Essentially, time is on the side of the tip sites. Retailers who go through the proper channels to have their ads removed usually lose out to time. “Black Friday” comes and goes and the tip site is in place until then.
“Black Friday” is a tradition in many households. Whether or not it manages to continue through the economic recession remains to be seen. One thing is certain, retailers are bound to offer extra deep discounts during difficult economic times.
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