Black Friday

[was]

..After many years of avoiding Black Friday, I went Christmas shopping today. Sure, I ran into some idiot drivers, but I didn't see the huge crowds or the really spectacular deals that supposedly symbolize the day. Has Black Friday been eclipsed by these week/month-long sales? Or was it just media hype and not really that big a deal to begin with?

 

[Homicidal_Squirrel]

A lot of people are just getting their stuff from online stores. I don't know if the brick and mortar stores offer the same discounts in their online stores, but they may have started to. There is also the Cyber-Monday thing. People would rather shop from home than standing in line to buy the few things left. Also, people have probably gotten tired of these stores pulling the black Friday BS. Black Friday is supposed to be the day that stores finally get in the red because of all the shopping people do. They put out some discounts to get people to buy more stuff. The truth is that they could offer the same exact prices all year long, and they'd be in the black far more often. Instead they try to rip you off all year long, and they entice you to buy their old inventory at the end of the year at a normal price.

 

[Scott DeWar]

I had an accountant explain black Friday to me. between January first and the day after Thanksgiving, the retailers mostly operate in the red.

on that day, they start operating in the black from the sales. The sales during this time are so intense, the week between Christmas and new years is sometimes called the 5th quarter. No lie.

 

[Morrus]

Seems a bit of an astonishing coincidence that the day they start operating in the black is the exact day after Thanksgiving.

Even more odd the last couple of years it seems the Black Friday practice has begun to be imported over here. But not Thanksgiving. Great.

 

[Scott DeWar]

So be the first to celebrate thanksgiving In Great Britain!

 

[Umbran]

Seems a bit of an astonishing coincidence that the day they start operating in the black is the exact day after Thanksgiving.

It would be. It does not seem to be the origin of the name, either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)#Origin_of_the_term

"The earliest known usage of "Black Friday" as a post-Thanksgiving shopping day appears in December 1, 1961 issue of The Shortsville-Manchester Enterprise (Shortsville, New York). This article, discovered by Barry Popik, refers to a usage by police in Rochester, New York.

Kathie Caulkin, our intrepid advertising manager, made a serious mistake in judgment last Friday. Took her three kids to Rochester on the day all city police call "Black Friday." Besides being the day after Thanksgiving—thus one of the busiest shopping days in the year—bus drivers were still on strike, adding to automotive traffic. Katie reports she waited through 13 changes of a single traffic light—then had to back up to get into the parking garage. "I didn't care if I crumpled fifty fenders at that point," Katie reports."

and

"JANUARY 1966—"Black Friday" is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. "Black Friday" officially opens the Christmas shopping season in Center City, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing."

 

[delericho]

So be the first to celebrate thanksgiving In Great Britain!

Doesn't really work when we don't get the day off.

 

[Morrus]

Doesn't really work when we don't get the day off.

Yeah. All my family and friends have jobs. We'd be talking a microwave meal for one. Even my wife would be at work!

 

[Scott DeWar]

Sorry. True that. How does one make an event a national holiday? Do you petition your house of Lords or Commons? (I ask this in great respect, ) or do you petition Her Majesty, The Queen?

 

[Morrus]

Sorry. True that. How does one make an event a national holiday? Do you petition your house of Lords or Commons? (I ask this in great respect, ) or do you petition Her Majesty, The Queen?

I have absolutely no idea. It's not something I've ever thought about before!