Black Friday is the day following
Thanksgiving Day in the United States, often regarded as the
beginning of the Christmas
shopping season. In recent years, most major retailers have opened
extremely early and offered promotional sales to kick off the holiday
shopping season, similar to
Boxing Day sales in many
Commonwealth Nations. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but
many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the day
after off, followed by a weekend, thereby increasing the number of
potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of
the year since 2005,[1]
although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate,[2]
have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much
longer period of time.[3]
The day's name originated in
Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and
disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day
after Thanksgiving.[4][5]
Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use outside
Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be
offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers
begin to turn a profit, or are "in
the black".[4][6]
For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m., but
in the late 2000s many had crept to 5:00 or even 4:00. This was taken to
a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including
Target,
Kohls,
Macy's,
Best
Buy, and
Bealls[7])
opened at midnight for the first time.[8]
In 2012,
Walmart and several other retailers announced that they would open
most of their stores at 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day (except in states
where opening on Thanksgiving is prohibited due to
blue laws, such as
Massachusetts where they still opened around midnight),[9]
prompting calls for a
walkout
among some workers.[10]
Black Friday shopping is known for attracting aggressive crowds, with
annual reports of assaults, shootings, and throngs of people trampling
on other shoppers in an attempt to get the best deal on a product before
supplies run out.
Shopping
United States
The news media have long described the day after Thanksgiving as the
busiest shopping day of the year.[3]
In earlier years, this was not actually the case. In the period from
1993 through 2001, for example, Black Friday ranked from fifth to tenth
on the list of busiest shopping days, with the last Saturday before
Christmas usually taking first place.[2]
In 2003, however, Black Friday actually was the busiest shopping day of
the year, and it has retained that position every year since, with the
exception of 2004, when it ranked second (after Saturday, December 18).[1]
Black Friday is popular as a shopping day for a combination of
reasons. As the first day after the last major holiday before Christmas
it marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season. Additionally,
many employers give their employees the day off as part of the
Thanksgiving holiday weekend. In order to take advantage of this,
virtually all retailers in the country, big and small, offer various
sales. Recent years have seen retailers extend beyond normal hours in
order to maintain an edge, or to simply keep up with the competition.
Such hours may include opening as early as 12:00 am or remaining open
overnight on Thanksgiving Day and beginning sale prices at midnight. In
2010,
Toys 'R' Us began their Black Friday sales at 10:00 pm on
Thanksgiving Day and further upped the ante by offering free boxes of
Crayola
crayons and coloring books for as long as supplies lasted. Other
retailers, like
Sears,
Aéropostale, and
Kmart,
began Black Friday sales early Thanksgiving morning, and ran them
through as late as 11:00 pm Friday evening.
Forever 21 went in the opposite direction, opening at normal hours
on Friday, and running late sales until 2:00 am Saturday morning.[11][12]
Historically, it was common for Black Friday sales to extend throughout
the following weekend. However, this practice has largely disappeared in
recent years, perhaps because of an effort by retailers to create a
greater sense of urgency.
The news media usually give heavy play to reports of Black Friday
shopping and their implications for the commercial success of the
Christmas shopping season, but the relationship between Black Friday
sales and retail sales for the full holiday season is quite weak and may
even be negative.[13]
Canada
The large population centers around
Lake Ontario in Canada have always attracted cross border shopping
into the U.S. states, and as Black Friday became more popular in the
U.S., Canadians often flocked to the U.S. because of their cheaper
prices and a stronger Canadian dollar. After 2001, many were traveling
for the deals across the border. Starting in 2008 and 2009, due to the
parity of the
Canadian dollar compared with the
American dollar, several major Canadian retailers ran Black Friday
deals as their own to discourage shoppers from leaving for the U.S.[14][15]
The year 2012 saw the biggest Black Friday to date in Canada, as
Canadian retailers embraced it in an attempt to keep shoppers from
travelling across the border.[16]
Before the advent of Black Friday in Canada, the most comparable
holiday was
Boxing Day in terms of retailer impact and consumerism, but Black
Fridays in the U.S. seem to provide deeper or more extreme price cuts
than Canadian retailers, even for the same international retailer.
Other countries
More recently, Black Friday has been exported to nations outside of
North America such as the United Kingdom by major online retailers like
Amazon and Apple.[17][18]
In 2011, IBM reported online Black Friday sales were up 24.3% according
to a study that included 500 retailers.[19]
In 2012, after two years of disappointing results, several department
stores in Brazil joined their foreign competitors in a sucessful Black
Friday which more than doubled the total revenue in comparison to the
previous year.
Origin of the term
"Black Friday" as a term has been used in multiple contexts, going
back to the 19th century, where in the United States it was associated
with a
financial crisis of 1869. The earliest known invocation of "Black
Friday" to refer to shopping on the day after Thanksgiving was made in a
public relations newsletter from 1961 that is clear on the negative
implications of the name and its origin in Philadelphia:
For downtown merchants throughout the nation, the biggest
shopping days normally are the two following Thanksgiving Day.
Resulting traffic jams are an irksome problem to the police and, in
Philadelphia, it became customary for officers to refer to the
post-Thanksgiving days as Black Friday and Black Saturday. Hardly a
stimulus for good business, the problem was discussed by the
merchants with their Deputy City Representative, Abe S. Rosen, one
of the country's most experienced municipal PR executives. He
recommended adoption of a positive approach which would convert
Black Friday and Black Saturday to Big Friday and Big Saturday.[20]
The attempt to rename Black Friday was unsuccessful, and its
continued use is shown in a 1966 publication on the day's significance
in Philadelphia:
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.[5]
The term "Black Friday" began to get wider exposure around 1975, as
shown by two newspaper articles from November 29, 1975, both
datelined Philadelphia. The first reference is in an article
entitled "Army vs. Navy: A Dimming Splendor", in
The New York Times:
Philadelphia police and bus drivers call it "Black Friday" – that
day each year between Thanksgiving Day and the
Army–Navy Game. It is the busiest shopping and traffic day of
the year in the Bicentennial City as the Christmas list is checked
off and the Eastern college football season nears conclusion.
The derivation is also clear in an
Associated Press article entitled "Folks on Buying Spree Despite
Down Economy", which ran in Pennsylvania's
Titusville Herald on the same day:
Store aisles were jammed. Escalators were nonstop people. It was
the first day of the Christmas shopping season and despite the
economy, folks here went on a buying spree... "That's why the bus
drivers and cab drivers call today 'Black Friday,'" a sales manager
at
Gimbels said as she watched a traffic cop trying to control a
crowd of jaywalkers. "They think in terms of headaches it gives
them."
The term's spread was gradual, however, and in 1985 the
Philadelphia Inquirer reported that retailers in Cincinnati and Los
Angeles were still unaware of the term.[21]
Accounting
practice
Many merchants objected to the use of a negative term to refer to one
of the most important shopping days in the year.[21]
By the early 1980s, an alternative theory began to be circulated: that
retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the
year (January through November) and made their profit during the holiday
season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving.[4]
When this would be recorded in the financial records, once-common
accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and
black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is
the beginning of the period when retailers would no longer have losses
(the red) and instead take in the year's profits (the black).[22]
The earliest known use, which like the 1961 and 1966 examples above
presents the "black ink" theory as one of several competing
possibilities, was found by Bonnie Taylor-Blake of the
American Dialect Society in the November 28, 1981 edition of the
Philadelphia Inquirer:
If the day is the year's biggest for retailers, why is it called
Black Friday? Because it is a day retailers make profits – black
ink, said Grace McFeeley of Cherry Hill Mall. "I think it came from
the media," said William Timmons of Strawbridge & Clothier. "It's
the employees, we're the ones who call it Black Friday," said Belle
Stephens of Moorestown Mall. "We work extra hard. It's a long hard
day for the employees."[23]
The Christmas shopping season is of enormous importance to American
retailers and, while most retailers intend to and actually do make
profits during every quarter of the year, some retailers are so
dependent on the Christmas shopping season that the quarter including
Christmas produces all the year's profits and compensates for losses
from other quarters.[24]
Violence
In 2006, a man shopping at
Best
Buy was recorded on video assaulting another shopper.[25]
Unruly
Walmart shoppers at a store outside
Columbus, Ohio, quickly flooded in the doors at opening, pinning
several employees against stacks of merchandise.[26]
Nine shoppers in a California mall were injured, including an elderly
woman who had to be taken to the hospital, when the crowd rushed to grab
gift certificates that had been released from the ceiling.[27]
In 2008 a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in
Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 5:00 am opening of
the local
Wal-Mart. As opening time approached the crowd grew anxious and when
the doors were opened the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down,
and trampling a 34-year old employee to death. The shoppers did not
appear concerned with the victim's fate, expressing refusal to halt
their stampede when other employees attempted to intervene and help the
injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and
were not willing to wait any longer. Shoppers had begun assembling as
early as 9:00 the evening before. Even when police arrived and attempted
to render aid to the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving
and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store. Several
other people incurred minor injuries, including a pregnant woman who had
to be taken to the hospital.[28][29][30]
The incident may be the first case of a death occurring during Black
Friday sales; according to the
National Retail Federation, "We are not aware of any other
circumstances where a retail employee has died working on the day after
Thanksgiving."[28]
During Black Friday 2010, a
Madison, Wisconsin woman was arrested outside of a
Toys 'R' Us store after cutting in line, and threatening to shoot
other shoppers who tried to object.[31]
A
Toys for Tots volunteer in Georgia was stabbed by a shoplifter.[32]
An
Indianapolis woman was arrested after causing a disturbance by
arguing with other Wal-Mart shoppers. She had been asked to leave the
store, but refused.[33]
A man was arrested at a Florida Wal-Mart on drug and weapons charges
after other shoppers waiting in line for the store to open noticed that
he was carrying a
handgun
and reported the matter to police. He was discovered to also be carrying
two knives and a
pepper spray grenade.[34]
A man in
Buffalo, New York, was trampled when doors opened at a
Target store and unruly shoppers rushed in, in an episode
reminiscent of the deadly 2008 Wal-Mart stampede.[35]
On Black Friday 2011, a woman at a
Porter Ranch,
California
Walmart
used pepper spray on fellow shoppers, causing minor injuries to at least
10 people who had been waiting hours for Black Friday savings. It was
later reported that the incident caused 20 injuries. The incident
started as people waited in line for the new
Xbox
360. A witness said a woman with two children in tow became upset
with the way people were pushing in line. The witness said she pulled
out pepper spray and sprayed the other people in line. Another account
stated: "The store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox video game
players, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping, when the
woman began spraying people 'in order to get an advantage,' according to
the police.[36]
In an incident outside a Walmart store in
San Leandro, California, one man was wounded after being shot
following Black Friday shopping at about 1:45 am.[37]
Also stemming from Black Friday unruliness in 2011, 73-year old
greeter Jan Sullivan was fired from a
Tampa area
Wal-Mart after she was shoved by a Black Friday shopper. Sullivan
alleges that when she attempted to stop an unnamed woman from exiting
through a door where exits were not being permitted, the woman pushed
her. Sullivan claims that as she fell, she instinctively tried to grab
onto the woman to keep from falling. Since Wal-Mart employees are not
allowed to touch customers, Sullivan was then fired. The story has been
a source of some controversy for Wal-Mart and garnered much community
support for Sullivan, including media coverage and at least two
Indiegogo fundraisers were launched to support her financially after
the incident.[38]
On Black Friday 2012, two people were shot outside a Wal-Mart in
Tallahassee, Florida during a dispute over a parking space.[39]
History
That the day after Thanksgiving is the "official" start of the
holiday shopping season may be linked together with the idea of
Santa Claus parades. Parades celebrating Thanksgiving often include
an appearance by Santa at the end of the parade, with the idea that
'Santa has arrived' or 'Santa is just around the corner'.
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, many Santa parades
or Thanksgiving Day parades were sponsored by department stores. These
include the
Toronto Santa Claus Parade, in Canada, sponsored by
Eaton's,
and the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade sponsored by
Macy's.
Department stores would use the parades to launch a big advertising
push. Eventually it just became an unwritten rule that no store would
try doing Christmas advertising before the parade was over. Therefore,
the day after Thanksgiving became the day when the shopping season
officially started.
Later on, the fact that this marked the official start of the
shopping season led to controversy. In 1939, retail shops would have
liked to have a longer shopping season, but no store wanted to break
with tradition and be the one to start advertising before Thanksgiving.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the date for Thanksgiving one week
earlier, leading to much anger by the public who wound up having to
change holiday plans.[40]
Some even refused the change, resulting in the U.S. citizens celebrating
Thanksgiving on two separate days.[40]
Some started referring to the change as
Franksgiving.
Black Thursday
In recent years, retailers have been trending towards opening on
Black Thursday, occurring Thanksgiving evening. In 2011,
Walmart
began its holiday sale at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day for the first
time. In 2012, Walmart began its Black Friday sales at 8 p.m. the day
before on Thanksgiving; stores that are normally open 24 hours a day on
a regular basis started their sales at this time, while stores that do
not have round-the-clock shopping hours opened at 8 p.m. Competitors
Sears and
Kmart
will also be opening at 8 p.m. on Thursday night, while
Target and
Toys "R" Us will be opening at 9 p.m. Other retailers, such as
Lord & Taylor are also opening on Thanksgiving for the first time.[41][42]
A number of media sources began referring to this instead by the name
Gray Thursday.[43][44]
Online
Cyber Black Friday
The term
Cyber Black Friday refers to the online version of Black Friday.
According to Hitwise in 2010,[45]
Thanksgiving weekend offered a strong start, especially as Black
Friday sales continued to grow in popularity. For the 2nd
consecutive year, Black Friday was the highest day for retail
traffic during the holiday season, followed by Thanksgiving and
Cyber Monday. The highest year-over-year increases in visits took
place on Cyber Monday and Black Friday with growth of 16% and 13%,
respectively.
Advertising tip
sites
Some websites offer information about day-after-Thanksgiving specials
up to a month in advance. The text listings of items and prices are
usually accompanied by pictures of the actual ad circulars. These are
either leaked by insiders or intentionally released by large retailers
to give consumers insight and allow them time to plan.
In recent years, some retailers (including
Walmart,
Target,
OfficeMax,
Big
Lots, and
Staples) have claimed that the advertisements they send in advance
of Black Friday and the prices included in those advertisements are
copyrighted and are
trade secrets.[46]
Some of these retailers have used the
take-down system of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act as a means to remove the offending
price listings. This policy may come from the fear that competitors will
slash prices, and shoppers may comparison shop. The actual validity of
the claim that prices form a protected work of authorship is uncertain
as the prices themselves (though not the advertisements) might be
considered a fact in which case they would not receive the same level of
protection as a copyrighted work.[47]
The benefit of threatening Internet sites with a DMCA based lawsuit
has proved tenuous at best. While some sites have complied with the
requests, others have either ignored the threats or simply continued to
post the information under the name of a similar sounding fictional
retailer. However, as the DMCA allows websites 24 hours to comply with
the
take-down notice or file a counter notice, careful timing may
mitigate the take-down notice. An
Internet service provider in 2003 brought suit against
Best
Buy,
Kohl's, and
Target Corporation, arguing that the take-down notice provisions of
the DMCA are unconstitutional. The court dismissed the case, ruling that
only the third-party posters of the advertisements, and not the ISP
itself, would have
standing to sue the retailers.[48]
Usage of Black Friday Advertising Tip sites and buying direct varies
by state in the U.S., influenced in large part by differences in
shipping costs and whether a state has a sales tax.[49]
However, in recent years, the convenience of online shopping has
increased the number of cross-border shoppers seeking bargains from
outside of the U.S., especially from Canada. Statistics Canada indicates
that online cross-border shopping by Canadians has increased by about
300M a year since 2002.[50]
The complex nature of additional fees such as taxes, duties and
brokerage can make calculating the final cost of cross-border Black
Friday deals difficult. Dedicated cross-border shopping solutions such
as the Canadian shopping platform
Wishabi[51]
and Canada Post’s Borderfree exist to mitigate the problem through
estimation of the various cost involved.
Cyber Thanksgiving
The term Cyber Thanksgiving, refers to online retailer's
Thanksgiving Day promotions.[52]
Cyber Monday
Main article:
Cyber MondayThe term Cyber Monday, a
neologism invented in 2005 by the
National Retail Federation's division Shop.org,[53]
refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday based on a trend
that retailers began to recognize in 2003 and 2004. Retailers noticed
that many consumers, who were too busy to shop over the Thanksgiving
weekend or did not find what they were looking for, shopped for bargains
online that Monday from home or work.
Retail Sales
The
National Retail Federation releases figures on the sales for each
Thanksgiving weekend.[54]
| Year |
Date |
Survey Published |
Shoppers, millions |
Average Spent |
Total Spent |
Consumers Polled |
Margin for Error |
| 2012 |
Nov 22 |
Nov 25 |
247m |
$423.66 |
$59.1 billion |
4,005 |
1.6% |
| 2011 |
Nov 24 |
Nov 27 |
226m |
$398.62 |
$52.5 billion |
3,826 |
1.6% |
| 2010 |
Nov 25 |
Nov 28 |
212m |
$365.34 |
$45.0 billion |
4,306 |
1.5% |
| 2009 |
Nov 26 |
Nov 29 |
195m |
$343.31 |
$41.2 billion |
4,985 |
1.4% |
| 2008 |
Nov 27 |
Nov 30 |
172m |
$372.57 |
$41.0 billion |
3,370 |
1.7% |
| 2007 |
Nov 22 |
Nov 25 |
147m |
$347.55 |
$34.6 billion |
2,395 |
1.5% |
| 2006 |
Nov 23 |
Nov 26 |
140m |
$360.15 |
$34.4 billion |
3,090 |
1.5% |
| 2005 |
Nov 24 |
Nov 27 |
n/a |
$302.81 |
$27.8 billion |
n/a |
n/a |