The Origin of Black Friday.

This bargain filled day started out as an American Tradition, which occurred to first Friday after Thanksgiving. Traditionally, the idea of Christmas shopping beginning around that day originated with large retailer’s Thanksgiving parades, when they started their Christmas advertising, marking the beginning of the Christmas Shopping Season. In the 1950s, some American businesspeople used to take days of work in order to get a head-start on buying gifts, which led to many employers adding that day as a paid holiday. Over time, this day has evolved to the point where it is the most commercial time of the year, and where the sales span several days. It only spread to the UK a very short time ago.

Although Amazon first had a Black Friday sale in the UK in 2010, it was Asda, in 2013, that really made this custom mainstream in the UK. It offered a Black Friday sale in which it lowered the prices of electronics, appliances and other items. Asda’s success encouraged other companies to hold sales of their own in 2014. Every year since there has been an increase in sales, which could all be down to a rise in consumerist culture.

The term ‘Black Friday’ has a lot of rumours around its meaning. Usually, the word ‘black’ followed by a day of the week describes a bad day, for example, Black Tuesday (the start of the 1929 US economic depression). Rumours regarding the term’s inception include that the day “pushes retailers into the black” (shops finally turning a profit after a year of losses), that it is a bad day for employers because many workers fake being sick, and most controversially, that in the 1700s slaves were sold at discount prices. None of these are the truth. The real story as to how Black Friday got its name is that Philadelphia Policemen were upset at the accidents and traffic around the time, due to people shopping and going to the American Navy vs. Army Football Match in the 1960s. The phrase was meant to make the day sound negative and to persuade people not to go outside. Clearly, it didn’t work.

However, it can also be seen in a negative way. There can be violence in stores when people fight over limited products, but this is a small problem in the UK compared to in the US, where there have been shootings, an example of one occurring being on the 25th of this month in New Jersey. Alternative days such as Amazon’s Prime Day, which made £2.7 Billion this year, now pose serious competition too. In 2016, 77% of the deals on Black Friday were worse than similar deals on Prime Day. Furthermore, fewer people now go to physical shops, with 18% more people moving to online stores to grab the best deals in 2017. This could be a sign of change to come…