Retailers weren’t that happy with the name &quot;Black Friday&quot; at first: it was associated with the Great Depression of the 1930s, signaled by Black Thursday, so they tried to reinvent the image of the Black Friday frenzy.
The ‘black’, it was argued, referred to the ledgers used by retailers. For the majority of the year, shops would be ‘in the red’ (losing money) but Black Friday indicated the moment when most retailers would start making a profit, or going ‘in the black’.

Reimagining The Black Friday Frenzy

In 1960&#39;s, the Philadelphia Police Department became so frustrated with the overflowing streets, traffic jams and regular fights caused by the crowds of people that visited the stores the day after Thanksgiving that, it’s believed, they coined the name ‘Black Friday’ in the hope of dissuading people from heading to the shops.
It completely failed, but the name stuck.

The Intense Crowding After Thanksgiving

All about how Black Friday came to be and its impact on our shopping.

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

health

Health

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Black Friday Bonanza

Why Is The Shopping Day After Thanksgiving Called 'Black Friday?

Black Friday is the conventional starting day for the holiday shopping season.
Historically, it’s also been the best day to find great deals on the year’s hottest toys, games, and electronics.

Why Black Friday Is So Popular

<ul>
<li>In 1869, two oligarchs conspired to corner the American gold market, which was at that time the basis for the U.S. dollar.</li>
<li>Their plan was so complex and the plot finally unraveled on Friday, September 24, sending U.S. financial markets into a tailspin, ruining countless investors, and tanking the broader economy.</li>
<li>That dark day came to be known as “Black Friday.”</li>
</ul>

The Term “Black Friday”

<ul>
<li>The day after Thanksgiving was a natural time for shoppers to head into town and hit the department store. Most families were still together from the prior day’s feast, and few middle-class folks were required to work.</li>
<li>Big-city shopping districts were anchored by department stores. Department stores sold clothing, cosmetics, jewelry, home goods, appliances, and much more.</li>
<li>With a single visit to a department store and a few side trips to specialty retailers, you could take care of your entire holiday shopping list in a single day.</li>
</ul>

The Department Store Model: Holiday Shopping in the Early to Mid-20th Century

<ul>
<li>Thanksgiving fell on the last Thursday of November since 1863 until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November (starting with 1941), influenced by the request of a powerful coalition of retailers.</li>
<li>When Thanksgiving fell on November 30, it left only 24 holiday shopping days and this worried retailers who reasoned that busy holiday shoppers would simply shop less in a shorter season.</li>
<li>They promoted the idea that a longer holiday shopping season would be good for the American economy.</li>
</ul>

The Modern Holiday Shopping Calendar

<ul>
<li>In the middle of the 20th century, Thanksgiving parades drew crowds in most major cities and in some of the smaller towns too. Many were sponsored by local or national retailers. Back in the day, that meant mostly department stores.</li>
<li>By attaching their names to the most visible events on the preholiday calendar, department stores reminded their customers that they were open for business in the coming holiday shopping season.</li>
<li>Over time, Thanksgiving parades came to mark the unofficial start of that season.</li>
</ul>

The 20th Century: The Parade of Sponsors

<ul>
<li>Today’s retail environment is omnichannel. Shoppers are just as likely – if not more so – to buy stuff at home on their smartphones or laptops than drive to the nearest mall to seek the best deals in person.</li>
<li>The decline of brick-and-mortar retail is devastating the lower and middle echelons of the suburban shopping center market and threatens to deal a last dealt a death blow to the downtown department store model.</li>
<li>Black Friday now happens when, where, and how consumers choose. It’s also happening earlier than ever, with “Black Friday” deals appearing as early as Halloween.</li>
</ul>

Black Friday Today

Black Friday wasn’t a great day for the police departments in mid-20th-century Philadelphia. By the 1960s, locals had taken to calling the chaotic day after Thanksgiving “Black Friday.”
In 1950s Philadelphia, Thanksgiving weekend was a mob scene. The Army and Navy college football teams celebrated their fierce rivalry each year with a neutral-ground clash in Philly on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The day before, thousands of people from surrounding communities – as well as Army or Navy devotees from farther afield – flooded the city in anticipation of the big game. They took the opportunity to stock up on clothes, home goods, and other giftable items at central Philly’s many retail shops and department stores.

Why Black Friday Is “Black”

Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. Learn more about how the retail holiday originated and evolved into what it is today.

What Is Black Friday - History of the Holiday Shopping Phenomenon

Getting great deals is fun, but it turns out that giving to charity feels even better.
If you get the opportunity to give a little extra for a good cause, go ahead and do it.

Hardwired for generosity

Our brains are wired for pleasure, and we can find it in many different pursuits and at many different levels.
Shopping offers plenty of opportunities for savoring: from your mochaccino pit stop to the sense of satisfaction you feel when you’ve crossed something off your gift list.

Savor pleasure wherever it arises

Gift-giving inspires us to think about others and what they would really like to receive. Take a moment before you pay to consider your partner’s/friend&#39;s or family member&#39;s preferred method of receiving, and how that would best translate into a material object or an experience.
Even couples who have been together forever get gifts wrong all the time; we tend to choose presents for others that we’d want to receive ourselves.

Gift selection: a way to focus on your relationships

Black Friday can involved a lot of unexpected and unwanted pauses, whether in traffic or in line. Use the pauses to practice being in the moment.
Check out the setting around you. How do the people look? Even notice the products displayed in the stored. Really take it all in. Then notice your breath, how you feel. If you’re shopping at home, pause while the images load to gaze out a window, take three deep breaths, and notice the world outside the screen.

Black Friday: Using the forced pauses to your benefit

Shopping can be a bonding activity between friends and family members. But making positive connections with people you don&#39;t know (offering a cashier a warm thanks for example) has a remarkably powerful impact on well-being and even physical health.
These short moments of connection expand your awareness in ways that accrue to create lasting and beneficial changes in your life.

Shopping as a bonding activity

Before you hit the mall or open your laptop, consider these five ideas for transforming shopping into an opportunity to practice mindfulness and bring more positive emotions into your life.

Five Ways to Make Your Black Friday More Mindful

The term was made-up by the overworked Philadelphia police officers.
<ul>
<li>In the 1950s, crowds of shoppers and travelers flooded Philadelphia the day after Thanksgiving.</li>
<li>Philadelphia stores hosted major sales that day, but the city also hosted the Army-Navy football game on Saturday of the same weekend.</li>
<li>Because of the crowds, traffic cops were required to work 12-hour shifts, and they were not allowed to take the day off.</li>
<li>Over time, the annoyed and fatigued officers started to refer to this dreaded workday as "Black Friday."</li>
<li>The term became popular and spread to store salespeople who used "Black Friday” to describe the long lines and general chaos they had to deal with on that day.</li>
</ul>

The origins of Black Friday

<ul>
<li>Black Friday become the shopping phenomenon event it is today in the 2000s when Black Friday was officially designated the biggest shopping day of the year.</li>
<li>Until then, that title had gone to the Saturday before Christmas.</li>
<li>Today, Black Friday is becoming an increasingly lengthy event: a Black Weekend</li>
</ul>

How Black Friday evolved

<ul>
<li>In history, Black Friday was a stock market disaster that happened on September 24, 1869, when, after a period of uncontrolled speculation, the price of gold crashed, and the markets crashed.</li>
<li>The contemporary meaning refers to the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, which has been a holiday itself for many employees. It is known as a day full of shopping deals and heavy discounts and is considered the beginning of the holiday shopping season.</li>
</ul>

Black Friday has two relevant meanings

<ul>
<li>For online stores, a similar tradition to Black Friday has arisen on the Monday following Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday is seen as the unofficial start of the online holiday shopping season.</li>
<li>The idea is that consumers return to work after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, ready to start shopping.</li>
<li>Online shops often promote their sales prior to the actual day in order to compete against the Black Friday offerings at brick-and-mortar stores. </li>
<li>In terms of sales, Cyber Monday has proven to be a success among shoppers.</li>
</ul>

Cyber Monday competition

<ul>
<li>Retailers may spend an entire year planning their Black Friday sales. They use this event as their chance to offer special prices on overstock inventory and discounts on seasonal items, such as typical holiday gifts.</li>
<li>Retailers also offer significant discounts on top-selling brands of TVs, smart devices, and other electronics, tempting customers in the hope that, once inside, they will purchase higher-margin goods.</li>
<li>Consumers often shop on Black Friday for the hottest trending items, which can lead to stampedes and violence in the absence of adequate security.</li>
</ul>

Black Friday and retail spending

There is a theory stating that, when it comes to "Black Friday", the term "black" refers to being profitable, which comes from the old bookkeeping practice of recording profits in black ink and losses in red ink.
Retail businesses should be able to sell enough on this Friday (and the ensuing weekend) to put themselves "in the black” for the rest of the year.

"In the Black"

<ul>
<li>The sales registered on Black Friday are frequently seen as a litmus test for the overall economic situation of the country and a way for economists to assess the confidence of the average American.</li>
<li>Those who follow the Keynesian hypothesis​ that spending drives economic activity view lower Black Friday sales figures as a harbinger of slower growth.</li>
<li>Some investors and analysts look at Black Friday numbers as a way to gaugemeasure the overall health of the entire retail industry.</li>
<li>Others suggest that it only causes very short-term gains or losses.</li>
</ul>

Why Is The Shopping Day After Thanksgiving Called 'Black Friday?

What Is Black Friday - History of the Holiday Shopping Phenomenon

Five Ways to Make Your Black Friday More Mindful

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

Black Friday Definition

CURATED BY

Why Is The Shopping Day After Thanksgiving Called 'Black Friday?

What Is Black Friday - History of the Holiday Shopping Phenomenon

Five Ways to Make Your Black Friday More Mindful

It's time to Read like a Pro.

Black Friday Definition

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.