How Did Black Friday Develop

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has evolved into a shopping day not only pervasive in the United States, but even other countries, which do not celebrate Thanksgiving, still using that day as their start of the holiday shopping season. While the growth of online shopping has transformed its significance, with now shopping deals online extending before and after Black Friday, Black Friday is still seen as the general beginning of the holiday season for many.

Origin of Black Friday

Black Friday may have its origins from the late 19th century and early 20th century, when department stores across the United States began to become not only larger but also more competitive. The term itself was not associated with shopping but with a major stock market crash on September 24, 1869. However, that meaning and event lost relevance over the course of the 20th century. In relation to Christmas, department stores, such as Macy's or Lord and Taylor, held annual parades on the day after Thanksgiving as part of their brand promotion and sales for the Christmas shopping period. Many people took the day after Thanksgiving off, creating a type of free holiday. Department stores took advantage of this by promoting their brand and sponsoring large parades. Usually these parades were advertising oriented to promote the new products for sale that year or offer discounts on given shopping items in the lead up to Christmas. Usually, department stores and other retailers did not advertise their Christmas items for sale until after Thanksgiving. The department stores, as they grew in influence, began to set a trend in using the day after Thanksgiving as the launch of the Christmas shopping season. As more and more stores adopted the trend sent by the department stores, people generally began to see the Friday after Thanksgiving as a time when deals and sales might be offered to entice them over rival shopping competitors. For decades, however, the Friday after Thanksgiving was widely known as the beginning of the shopping season for Christmas but no reference existed for that day.

It is not clear what led to or when the term "Black Friday" came into existence in reference to the day after Thanksgiving. Most likely, in Philadelphia during the late 1950s or early 1960s, increased shopping traffic and pedestrian traffic getting to stores led to more frequent traffic jams and accidents. There was also increased crime as shoplifting and even violent crime increased, leading to the police and other emergency services having to increase their presence during that day. For many emergency services personnel, Black Friday became a dreaded day when they knew they would be busy. Some people began to see that day as disruptive, particularly people who did not take part in the shopping. The term may have begun as a pejorative for the disruption but soon shoppers themselves or at least the media began to use the term more frequently by the early 1960s. Since the 1960s until the late 1990s, Black Friday remained relatively similar, with stores traditionally offering discounts and sales. However, some stores began to try to gain initial advantages by moving Black Friday sales earlier or even open very early on Black Friday at around midnight or even early in the morning.

Figure 1. The Macy's annual Christmas Parade the day after Thanksgiving helped to launch the Christmas shopping season.

Later Developments

By the early 2000s, Black Friday sales led more stores to move their opening times to be earlier. Some of the earliest are around midnight, while others open around 4 or 5 AM (Figure 2). However, other stores have increasingly moved their Christmas shopping offerings to a much earlier date, some starting as early as the day after Halloween. The phenomenon of Christmas creep, as it is called, has become widespread. In recent years, deep discounts on electronics and traditionally more expensive consumer goods have led to shoppers camping out in front of stores during the Thanksgiving holiday or even before then. In some cases, it has even led to violence between shoppers who compete with each other to purchase limited goods given at deep discounts. Since the 2000s, American companies, including Amazon, have started marketing Black Friday deals in their international outlets. While countries outside of the United States do not celebrate Thanksgiving, countries in Europe, North American and even east Asia began adopting either Black Friday as a discount day for Christmas shopping or even used the week of Thanksgiving as the beginning of promotions. At times, the term itself has been changed or adapted to local language and tastes. Even in the UK, Black Friday was a term used for the Friday before Christmas. In that case, it was a term used by hospital and emergency personnel who had to deal with a large increase of patients received before Christmas due to many party goers and drunk behaviour increasing workload for such personnel. In other countries, where Christmas is not a major holiday, such as India, retailers have attempted to replicate the idea of Black Friday around days preceding major holidays such as Diwali.

Figure 2. Scene such as this have become all too familiar on Black Friday.

Current Use of Black Friday

Over the last ten years, as Internet shopping has increased, Black Friday has lost some meaning, as other days and times also offer deals. Over this time, countries in South America, Middle East, and other regions have attempted to create Black Friday and Black Friday deals. Online retailers have attempted more creative business strategies, such as combing efforts or creating group shopping experiences, for their customers. Some countries, such as Latvia, where the holiday has proven popular, new innovations to the promotional period have been developed. There, the entire week has been declared as "Black Week" to extend shopping times and promotions over a longer period. In the UK, Black Friday, even though few have that day off, has become so popular among some retail chains that police and extra security have to be called in to prevent outbreaks of fights or violence between customers. In fact, some stores have seen Black Friday as disruptive, due to increased traffic and noise, leading them to even avoid putting any special discounts or promotions so that trouble would not occur. Online, Black Friday has also offered retailers 24 hour shopping and enabled them to extend sales across multiple days. The effect of Black Friday has been significant not just for offline but also online retailers.<rf>For more on the rise of the Internet and its effect on Black Friday, see: Carr NG (2010) The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember. London: Atlantic.

Summary

Over the decades, Black Friday has almost become a type of unofficial holiday for many. Even for people who do not shop or enjoy shopping, Black Friday is still an experience to go people watching or just to visit stores to watch all the deals and promotions that stores creatively use. More broadly, as companies try to replicate success in the United States, large online and offline retailers have promoted variations of Black Friday abroad, often adapting it to local cultures nad traditional holidays.