Black Friday
It's the day right after Thanksgiving when stores fling their warehouse doors wide open to turn their red ink of losses into the black ink of profits.
Definition Black Friday refers to the Friday immediately following Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) in the United States, marking the kickoff of the holiday shopping season with the year's biggest sales. Retailers drive a massive portion of their annual earnings through deep discounts, while shoppers rush in to snag deals on things they need.
Why is it called 'Black' Friday?
When Philadelphia police officers first coined the term in the 1960s, it was not a happy phrase. Massive crowds of shoppers and tourists flooded downtown streets the day after Thanksgiving, triggering severe traffic jams and accidents. Police called it 'Black Friday' because it was a grim, exhausting day with no breaks.
However, retailers gave this dark label a clever, positive spin. In traditional bookkeeping, losses were written in red ink while profits were recorded in black. Merchants reframed the day as the moment businesses operating at a loss all year finally turned a profit 'in the black'.
What started as a massive headache for traffic cops was reborn into a global shopping festival that buyers and sellers eagerly await every year.
How Can Stores Sell Things So Cheaply?
There is a calculated retail strategy behind those massive discounts. Keeping products in warehouses incurs ongoing storage costs, and outdated inventory eventually becomes unsellable. For retailers, clearing out old stock completely, even with virtually no profit margin, is the smartest way to cut losses.
Stores also use 'loss leaders'โproducts priced below costโto draw shoppers through the doors. By offering a few big-ticket items like TVs at unbelievable doorbuster prices, they lure in eager crowds. Once inside, customers end up tossing regular-priced household goods and clothes into their carts alongside the TV.
In the end, profits from other purchases easily cover the losses from doorbusters, allowing retailers to clear inventory while locking in massive overall profits.
Modern Shopping Culture and Evolution
In the past, Black Friday was famous for chaotic scenes where shoppers pitched tents outside storefronts before dawn and rushed through the doors at opening, sometimes even scuffling over popular items. As online retail took over, those chaotic lines shifted to smartphone screens.
Today, the sale extends beyond brick-and-mortar stores to online events like Cyber Monday. It has evolved from a single-day rush into an extended holiday shopping season that stretches from early November right through Christmas.
Retailers around the globe now run their own synchronized discount events, making Black Friday a borderless, global retail phenomenon.
๐ค Common misconceptions
The name Black Friday originated from slave auctions or a tragic historical disaster.
It actually began in the 1960s with Philadelphia police officers describing the grueling traffic and chaotic crowds the day after Thanksgiving as a 'black' day.
๐งบ Where you meet it
The Friday after Thanksgiving when retailers roll out deep discounts to clear excess inventory and turn their annual finances into the black.