Can it just stop? Please!!!!!
This Is The Crazy Week
This Friday is Black Friday. Regardless of all else that has happened throughout 2020 (the pandemic, the economy, the protests, the election and all of the craziness surrounding it), we will still probably have a very crazy Black Friday. Week. Black Friday Week.
This just needs to stop. Really.
Thank You, Canada
Over the years, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has become part of the holiday season rituals in America. But according to this website, the first “Santa Claus Parade” was held in Canada in 1902. When Santa appeared at the very end of the parade, it was a signal to officially kick off the holiday season.
American stores took their lead and began to have similar parades all across the United States. In 1924, the premier Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade was held. The parade was run by employees of Macy’s and featured some of the animals from the zoo in Central Park.
Let’s get to the nitty gritty. Why is it the entire week?
Thank You, Plumbers
As bizarre as this may sound, CNN reporters explained that plumbers are needed to clean up after guests “overwhelm the system.” And Thanksgiving is to blame! Yes, Thanksgiving is to blame for the massive build-up of holiday purchasing that puts people all over the world in financial constraints. (Somehow, I’m not sure how clogged toilets lead to holiday buying, but, hey, different strokes….)
And following through with that thought, holiday shoppers indirectly determined the date for Thanksgiving.
From the mid-19th to the early 20th Century, the US president would declare a “day of giving thanks” on the last Thursday in November. This changed in 1939 when the last Thursday was the last day in the month. Retailers were afraid that the holiday season would be shortened and petitioned the president to declare the holiday be held one week earlier.
Thank You, Congress
In 1941, Congress created a joint resolution to clear things up. After that, Thanksgiving was always celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, which gave shoppers one extra week to shop before Christmas.
Black Friday wasn’t officially claimed to be the busiest shopping day of the year, until 2001. Before that, the Saturday before Christmas was the busiest day. The Saturday BEFORE CHRISTMAS.
Thanks to all of the hoopla, we have lengthened the madness by A MONTH.
And because those pesky Canadians who started the ball rolling worried about people crossing the border for great deals, they started their own Black Friday deals. And now it has spread AROUND THE WORLD!
In Mexico, it is referred to as “El Buen Fin”, which translates to “the good weekend.” This is actually attached to the anniversary of the 1910 Mexican revolution, which sometimes coincides with the American Thanksgiving. El Buen Fin actually lasts for the entire weekend instead of just one day.
WE HAVE DRAWN MEXICO INTO THE MADNESS!!!!!
Thank You, Walmart
In 2011, Walmart broke the tradition of Black Friday. The tradition of Black Friday shopping was broken when Walmart opened up their store on the evening of Thanksgiving. Since that time, the retailers are engaged in a race against the clock to catch up with the times. These days, 33 million Americans plan to run out shopping as soon as they finish their Thanksgiving feast.
This is known as Gray Thursday.
Thank You, Liquor, Wine & Beer Sellers
According to a survey conducted on behalf of the coupon site RetailMeNot, 12% of all Black Friday shoppers admit they hit the stores while under the influence of alcohol.
Thank You, Progress
If you don’t like the madness of Black Friday, fear not, Cyber Monday is gaining in popularity, when millions of shoppers sit at home ready to click ‘add to cart’ when the item they’re watching goes on sale.
Take Your Pick
Whether you prefer Gray Thursday, Black Friday or Cyber Monday, this weekend is truly the biggest shopping weekend of the year.
THE MADNESS HAS TO STOP!
And Thank You, The Rest Of The World
Using information from this website, I bring you other really (not-so-good) news.
- Black Friday is not an official holiday, but several states observe “The Day After Thanksgiving” as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day.
- Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the following Friday off, which, along with the following regular weekend, makes it a four-day weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers.
- It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time.
- Similar stories resurface year upon year at this time, portraying hysteria and shortage of stock, creating a state of positive feedback.
- In 2014, spending volume on Black Friday fell for the first time since the 2008 recession.
- $50.9 billion was spent during the 4-day Black Friday weekend, down 11% from the previous year. However, the U.S. economy was not in a recession.
- Christmas creep has been cited as a factor in the diminishing importance of Black Friday, as many retailers now spread out their promotions over the entire months of November and December rather than concentrate them on a single shopping day or weekend.
- The earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday applied to the day after Thanksgiving in a shopping context suggests that the term originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.
- This usage dates to at least 1961. More than twenty years later, as the phrase became more widespread, a popular explanation became that this day represented the point in the year when retailers begin to turn a profit, thus going from being “in the red” to being “in the black”.
- For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m., but in the late 2000s many had crept to 5:00 or 4:00.
- This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened at midnight for the first time.
- In 2012, Walmart and several other retailers announced that they would open most of their stores at 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, prompting calls for a walkout among some workers.
- In 2014, stores such as JCPenney, Best Buy, and Radio Shack opened at 5:00 PM on Thanksgiving Day while stores such as Target, Walmart, Belk, and Sears opened at 6:00 PM on Thanksgiving Day.
- Three states, Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts, prohibit large supermarkets, big box stores, and department stores from opening on Thanksgiving, due to blue laws.
- There have been reports of violence occurring between shoppers on Black Friday.
- Since 2006, there have been 7 reported deaths and 98 injuries throughout the United States.
- It is common for prospective shoppers to camp out over the Thanksgiving holiday in an effort to secure a place in front of the line and thus a better chance at getting desired items.
- This poses a significant safety risk (such as the use of propane and generators in the most elaborate cases, and in general, the blocking of emergency access and fire lanes, causing at least one city to ban the practice.)
- “Black Friday” used to refer to stock market crashes in the 1800s. Although it is now known as the biggest shopping day in the US, the term “Black Friday” originally referred to very different events.
- “Santa Claus parades” were Black Friday’s predecessor. For many Americans, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has become part of the holiday ritual. But the event actually was inspired from the US’s neighbors in the north. Canadian department store Eaton’s held the first “Santa Claus parade” on 2 December 1905. Once Santa appeared at the end of the parade, the signal was that the holiday season – and thus, holiday shopping had begun.
- Low-end entertainment items (books, movies and music) are the items with the highest Black Friday markdowns. According to WalletHub, the average additional discount on these items is 28 percent.
- Despite the huge advertising campaigns, jewelry sales offer the worst deals on Black Friday. As a category, jewelry is discounted only 4 percent on Black Friday, according to WalletHub.
- Previous year’s Black Friday repeat items won’t necessarily be any cheaper the next year. WalletHub found that retailers including Big Lots, Sears, Office Depot and Office Max, and JCPenney among others all raised their Black Friday discount prices in 2015 for the exact same item they also discounted ion 2014.
- There are more deals on toys than any other categories. According to WalletHub, almost 23 percent of discounted items fall into the toys category, followed by apparel (21.67 percent) and appliances (9.5 percent). Consumer packaged goods had the lowest concentration of discounts (1.4 percent).
- Black Friday may be going away … or at least losing all relevance. Like the proverbial snake swallowing its own tail, Black Friday contributes to its own irrelevance a little more each year as more retailers begin offering “Black Friday” deals on Thanksgiving Day or even earlier in the week and more shoppers look for deals online. It’s plausible to foresee a day-after-Thanksgiving where long lines outside department stores have complete vanished
In Closing
So Black Friday may be going away. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the madness will now start on Thanksgiving Day or earlier. Those Christmas decorations hit the stores in September. And it will go through – what – the new year? Easter? AACCKK!!