We asked the question… “who created Black Friday” and Google came up with a whole lot of answers. We all know what Black Friday is… and Cyber Monday too – it’s when the holiday shopping season begins!! There are lots of ‘good deals’ and the shopping is intense, so how did this ‘good idea’ come to be? We’ll look around for some answers.
The Origin of the Term
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday is the following Monday. Some say that the origin of the ‘day’ was when the crowds swarmed Philadelphia stores prior to attending the Army-Navy football game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This story says the Philadelphia police coined the term as they were overwhelmed by the crowds taking advantage of retailers’ reduced prices. This was in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Others say that the ‘day’ came about on the day after Thanksgiving when retailers began to turn a profit and go from being in the ‘red’ to being in the ‘black’. According to the History channel [LINK], there is another origin of the term.
“The first recorded use of the term “Black Friday” was applied not to post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping but to financial crisis: specifically, the crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869. Two notoriously ruthless Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, worked together to buy up as much as they could of the nation’s gold, hoping to drive the price sky-high and sell it for astonishing profits. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into free-fall and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.”
According to the History website, the market crash in September of 1869 was the first use of the term. But the thing that brought it to life with regard to shopping and good deals after Thanksgiving, was the crowds in Philadelphia on the Friday prior to the Army-Navy football game. Apparently the ‘in the red’ and ‘in the black’ was made up to put a positive spin on the term. The following is from the History website once again:
“The most commonly repeated story behind the Thanksgiving shopping-related Black Friday tradition links it to retailers. As the story goes, after an entire year of operating at a loss (“in the red”) stores would supposedly earn a profit (“went into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving, because holiday shoppers blew so much money on discounted merchandise. Though it’s true that retail companies used to record losses in red and profits in black when doing their accounting, this version of Black Friday’s origin is the officially sanctioned—but inaccurate—story behind the tradition.”
A Good Time to Shop!
Black Friday has blossomed into a four-day shopping spree, i.e. Small Business Saturday/Sunday and Cyber Monday. The excitement for the weekend is so great, that people head out after Thanksgiving dinner to get a super low price on a product they’ve been wanting to buy. Truthfully, it doesn’t matter that much how the weekend event began… it is a GOOD TIME to do some shopping!!
We asked Google how to prepare for Black Friday and we got an excellent answer: “To prepare for Black Friday, you should: plan your shopping budget in advance, research deals early, compare prices across stores, bookmark desired products, consider early bird sales, prioritize customer service, create contingency plans for potential issues, and utilize social media to stay informed about deals and promotions; for businesses, this means assessing your checkout process, offering free shipping, rewarding loyal customers with exclusive deals, and monitoring analytics to optimize your marketing strategy.”
On Monday, the 25th of November we’ll be entering Black Friday Week… yes the ‘day’ has become a week. Black Friday has no negative connotations anymore – instead it’s simply a really fun shopping time when the chances are good shoppers will find a ‘deal’ or three. It’s time to enjoy some bargains: Ready, Set, Go!
We’ll Be Helping
AMS Fulfillment has been handling peak season for 20+ years, so we do know how to make it flow for our clients. We look forward to helping our clients have a very successful 2024 holiday season.
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AMS Fulfillment is a Certified B Corporation, dedicated to People and Planet before Profit. We work to B the Change we wish to see in the world.
