Black Friday (shopping)
In 2014, spending volume on Black Friday fell for the first time since the 2008 recession. Black Friday has not been a four-day weekend, and does not appear to have caught on. In several countries, local retailers have attempted to promote the day to remain competitive with US-based online retailers.
About Black Friday (shopping) in brief
Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States since 2005. In 2014, spending volume on Black Friday fell for the first time since the 2008 recession. The earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday originated in Philadelphia, where it was used by police to describe the heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Three states—Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts—prohibit large supermarkets, big box stores, and department stores from opening on Thanksgiving, due to what critics refer to as blue laws. In several countries, local retailers have attempted to promote the day to remain competitive with US-based online retailers. Since 2006, there have been 12 reported deaths and 117 injuries throughout the U.S. Black Friday has not been a four-day weekend, and does not appear to have caught on. Around the same time, the terms ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Friday’ were used in the journal Factory Management, for November 1951 and again in 1952, respectively. In 1952, it was referred to the day in the week after Thanksgiving when workers in the factory called in sick in order to order to work on the next day. In 1951, it occurred again in the same journal, this time in November 1952, when workers were called in to work the following day. The word ‘Black’ was also used to refer to a day in 1869 when financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk took advantage of the Grant Administration in an attempt to corner the gold market.
When President Grant learned of this connection, he ordered the release of a large supply of gold, which halted the run and caused prices to drop eighteen percent. The Panic of 1869 was the most significant such event in American History, which occurred when the president’s brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, ruined a single day and lost eighteen percent of his own fortune. 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 2013, stores such as JCPenney, Best Buy, and Radio Shack opened at 5: 00 p.m. and 6:00 p. m., while stores like Target, Walmart, Belk, and Sears opened at 6: 00p.m on Thanksgiving Day. In the late 2000s many had crept to 5:00 or 4: 00. 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. Environmentalists cite one more adverse factor: discount deals encourage people to purchase things they don’t need, and this overproduction contributes to climate change. Since the start of the 21st century, there has been attempts by retailers with origins in the US to introduce a retail \”Black Friday\” to other countries around the world.
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This page is based on the article Black Friday (shopping) published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
