{"id":11434,"date":"2015-11-06T16:32:05","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T16:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/?p=11434"},"modified":"2020-11-28T11:45:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T11:45:47","slug":"10-fascinating-facts-about-black-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/10-fascinating-facts-about-black-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Fascinating Facts about Black Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Black Friday<\/strong><\/em> is the biggest shopping day of the year in the biggest economy in the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Full from their Thanksgiving<\/strong><\/em> feasts, millions of US shoppers descend on stores across the country on the Friday after the holiday, hoping to save on their Christmas shopping.<\/p>\n

But as ever more promotions proliferate \u2013 add Cyber Monday<\/strong><\/em> and Small Business Saturday to the shopping calendar \u2013 the question remains: Just what is Black Friday anyway?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"dicas-black-friday\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are 10 surprising facts about America\u2019s unofficial paean to all things commercial.<\/p>\n

1. \u201cBlack Friday\u201d used to refer to stock market crashes in the 1800s.<\/h2>\n

Although it is now known as the biggest shopping day in the US, the term \u201cBlack Friday\u201d originally referred to very different events.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack for centuries has been used for various calamities,\u201d says linguist Benjamin Zimmer, executive editor of Vocabulary.com.<\/p>\n

\"black<\/a><\/p>\n

In the US, the first time the term was used was on 24 September 1869, when two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk, tried to corner the gold market on the New York Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n

When the government stepped in to correct the distortion by flooding the market with gold, prices plummeted and many investors lost sizable fortunes.<\/p>\n

\"_71419803_macy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

2. \u201cSanta Claus parades\u201d were Black Friday\u2019s predecessor.<\/h2>\n

For many Americans, the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day<\/strong><\/em> Parade has become part of the holiday ritual.<\/p>\n

But the event actually was inspired from the US\u2019s neighbours in the north. Canadian department store Eaton\u2019s held the first \u201cSanta Claus parade\u201d on 2 December 1905. Once Santa appeared at the end of the parade, the signal was that the holiday season \u2013 and thus, holiday shopping, had begun. Of course, consumers were encouraged to buy their presents at Eaton\u2019s.<\/p>\n

US department stores such as Macy\u2019s took inspiration from the parade, and started sponsoring similar efforts across the country. In 1924, New York saw the first Macy\u2019s parade featuring animals from Central Park Zoo and run by the store\u2019s employees.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"lx-suspension-750\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3. The date of Thanksgiving was, indirectly, determined by holiday shoppers.<\/h2>\n

From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, in a custom started by US President Abraham Lincoln, the president would declare a \u201cday of thanks giving\u201d on the last Thursday in November. This could either fall on the fourth or fifth Thursday in the month.<\/p>\n

Do you remember?\u00a0MAISON VALENTINA\u00b4S PARTNERS IN FIFTY SHADES OF GREY<\/a><\/p>\n

But in 1939, a funny thing happened \u2013 the last Thursday happened to be the last day in November. Retailers, worried about the shortened holiday shopping season, petitioned then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to declare the holiday a week earlier \u2013 which he did.<\/p>\n

For the next three years, Thanksgiving was known derisively as \u201cFranksgiving\u201d and celebrated on different days in different parts of the country.<\/p>\n

Finally, at the end of 1941, a joint resolution from Congress cleared up the matter. From then on, Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November \u2013 guaranteeing an extra week of shopping before Christmas.<\/p>\n

\"_71364900_thanksgivingchangetelegram\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4. \u2018Friday-after-Thanksgiving-itis\u2019<\/h2>\n

According to Bonnie Taylor-Blake, a researcher at the University of North Carolina, Factory Management and Maintenance \u2013 a labour market newsletter \u2013 lays claim to the first use of the term as it relates to the holiday.<\/p>\n

In 1951 the circular drew attention to the suspiciously high level of sickness that day.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Friday-after-Thanksgiving-itis\u2019 is a disease second only to the bubonic plague in its effects. At least that\u2019s the feeling of those who have to get production out, when Black Friday comes along. The shop may be half empty, but every absentee was sick \u2013 and can prove it,\u201d reads the circular.<\/p>\n

5. Big Friday?<\/h2>\n

\"_71382151_phil\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The city that first popularised the term was Philadelphia. Police officers, frustrated by the congestion caused by shoppers on the day, started referring to it derisively as \u201cBlack Friday\u201d.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, retailers weren\u2019t happy to be associated with traffic and smog.<\/p>\n

So they tried to rebrand the day \u201cBig Friday\u201d, according to a 1961 local Philadelphia paper.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the term didn\u2019t stick.<\/p>\n

Get inspiration here: VINTAGE DECOR TO REMODEL YOUR LUXURY BATHROOM<\/a><\/p>\n

6. \u201cBlack Friday\u201d didn\u2019t become a national term until the 1990s.<\/h2>\n

The phrase \u2018Black Friday\u2019 remained a Philadelphia quirk for a surprisingly long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see it spreading a little bit to Trenton, New Jersey, which is close by, but it doesn\u2019t really start getting mentioned outside of Philadelphia until the 1980s,\u201d says Mr Zimmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t become widespread until the mid-90s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BF\"<\/a><\/p>\n

7. Some say Black Friday refers to \u201cgoing into the black\u201d.<\/h2>\n

Retailers tried to put a positive spin on the \u201cblack\u201d bit of the term by saying it was when retailers became profitable, or as the saying goes \u201cwent into the black\u201d. However, there is no evidence to back this claim up.<\/p>\n

It is true that holiday sales make up the bulk of consumer spending for the year.<\/p>\n

Last year, shoppers on Black Friday spent an estimated $59.1bn, according to the National Retail Federation. But how much of that is profit isn\u2019t clear \u2013 given how retailers vie with each other to offer bigger incentives and discounts.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:BLACK AND GOLD FOR YOUR LUXURY BATHROOM<\/a><\/p>\n

\"mv-bathtubs-750\"<\/a><\/p>\n

8. Black Friday became the biggest shopping day of the year in 2001.<\/h2>\n

Although it\u2019s often touted as the biggest shopping day of the year, the day didn\u2019t earn the designation consistently until the 2000s.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because, for many years, the rule wasn\u2019t that Americans loved deals, it was that they loved procrastinating. So up until that point, it was the Saturday before Christmas that typically saw the most wallets being emptied.<\/p>\n

\"heres-a-complete-list-of-black-friday-store-hours\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some ideas for gifts:\u00a0WEDDING GIFT REGISTRY: DON\u2019T FORGET THE BATHROOM!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"kk-cabinets-750\"<\/a><\/p>\n

9. Black Friday has become an international affair.<\/h2>\n

Canadian retailers have long winced as their customers went south on Black Friday in search of better shopping deals. So now they\u2019ve begun offering their own sales- despite the fact that Canadian Thanksgiving is a full month earlier.<\/p>\n

In Mexico, there is El Buen Fin, which roughly translates as \u201cthe good weekend\u201d. It\u2019s pegged to the anniversary of Mexico\u2019s 1910 revolution, which sometimes falls on the same day American Thanksgiving. It lasts, as the name suggests, the entire weekend.<\/p>\n

Beyond North America, as online shopping has grown, retailers like Amazon have looked to Cyber Monday, first heard of in 2005, to promote deals for shoppers across the globe. While in China, the recently launched \u2018Singles Day\u2019 prompted sales of two million bras in one hour, making a pile that would be three times higher than Mount Everest.<\/p>\n

10. Black Friday is becoming extinct.<\/h2>\n

Wal-Mart, the world\u2019s largest retailer, broke the Black Friday tradition in 2011, when it opened its store on Thanksgiving evening. Ever since, retailers have been in a race to catch up and now, 33 million Americans said they planned to shop\u00a0immediately after turkey.<\/p>\n

\"maxresdefault\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Source:BBC<\/a><\/p>\n

What do you think? Are you ready for this event? Please comment your thoughts below. <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year in the biggest economy in the world. Full from their Thanksgiving feasts, millions of US shoppers descend on stores across the country on the Friday after the holiday, hoping to save on their Christmas shopping. But as ever more promotions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":11445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[911],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11434"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12163,"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11434\/revisions\/12163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maisonvalentina.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}