The History of Black Friday
The majority of people I surround myself with tell me that I was born in a shopping cart.
Hilarious! They were right, not only was I born into the holiday shopping season (my birthday falls around Black Friday), but I live for this time of year. Crazy lines, busy shopping malls, lots of customers, you name it I love it all. It's that time of year friends, Black Friday is in the house! So, this week's style story is brought to you by Black Friday!
The term “Black Friday” was coined in the 1960s and marked beginning of the holiday season. Black refers to retailers shifting from the red to the black, meaning profits. This is an industry reference to accounting records which kept by hand, red ink indicated a loss, and black a profit.
The start of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, and the Friday after Thanksgiving is considered as the unofficial start to a busy holiday shopping season.
As retailers began to realize they could draw big crowds by discounting prices, Black Friday became the day to shop, even better than those last minute Christmas sales. Did you know that forth quarter, which includes Black Friday sales, is responsible for 40% of the total years sales?
Black Friday is considered to retailers "super bowl" and requires major preparation.
Black Friday is tought to be the last major holiday before Christmas and marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season.
Additionally, many employers give their employees the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
In Recent years retailers open additional hours in order to entice customers and to keep up with the competition. Such hours may include opening as early as 12:00 am or remaining open overnight on Thanksgiving Day. Some consumers find this to be a fun holiday tradition and hope to find a bargain along the way.
In 2014, $50.9 billion was spent during the 4-day Black Friday weekend and approximately 133 million U.S. consumers shopped during that time.
For many years, it was common for retailers to open before dawn on Black Friday, but in the late 2000s that changed when several retailers opened at midnight for the first time 2012. As a side note, I would wake up early to shop every year for Black Friday and sometimes I wouldn't sleep. I would do anything for a great deal, not to mention an opportunity to shop!
Whether you participate in Black Friday or not, know that it is important to our economy and is a huge deal to many retailers. Who doesn't love crowded shopping malls and killer deals?
