Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season.
Americans and knowledgeable folk from other countries can yawn and skip this post - it's for those who don't know of this day. Wiki continues:
It's a bit of a controversial name, with retailers objecting to the negative connotations but with others suggesting it is when they finally come "into the black" for the year, i.e. make a profit. Some suggest it is black becasue of the huge traffic jams and general congestion around shopping centres. Ads like this appear all over the U.S.A. and people can pre-order.
Either way, though it is not always the most lucrative of the year's shopping days, it is one of the most important. Perhaps some Americans can fill us in on this day - what it means to them.
Americans and knowledgeable folk from other countries can yawn and skip this post - it's for those who don't know of this day. Wiki continues:
Retailers often decorate for the Christmas season weeks beforehand. Many retailers open very early (typically 5 am or even earlier) and offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores. Although Black Friday, as the first shopping day after Thanksgiving, has served as the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season at least since the start of the modern Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the term "Black Friday" has been traced back only to the 1960s.
It's a bit of a controversial name, with retailers objecting to the negative connotations but with others suggesting it is when they finally come "into the black" for the year, i.e. make a profit. Some suggest it is black becasue of the huge traffic jams and general congestion around shopping centres. Ads like this appear all over the U.S.A. and people can pre-order.
Either way, though it is not always the most lucrative of the year's shopping days, it is one of the most important. Perhaps some Americans can fill us in on this day - what it means to them.
I think maybe we should adopt that approach in the UK! Christmas always seems to start in August now, with all the stuff in the shops! In years gone by, Christmas didn't start sometime in November.
ReplyDeleteWe have a little ongoing joke going on where I work that Christmas doesn't start till after my birthday ;-)
Do you know whether the Black Friday bargains are available only in-store? Or are they available on-line too? If the latter, and the size of the mark-downs (in the image you have at the top of your post) are typical, then there could be big bargains also for shoppers outside the US (even if for Brits the recent 25% depreciation of the pound reduces the size of the saving).
ReplyDeleteThey are available on-line but whether they'll deliver o/s I'm not sure, good banker.
ReplyDeleteAugust 16th is it, Cherie?
LOL no :-)
ReplyDeleteOK, have to do my HW better.
ReplyDeleteThere are some clues round and about, but I never actually publish the exact day of my Birthday online :-)
ReplyDeleteI always make a point of staying home on that day so as to avoid the insane mobs.
ReplyDeleteAh Bob, I was wondering about that.
ReplyDeleteBlack Friday is often known as the biggest Christmas shopping day in America.
ReplyDelete