What is black Friday and what does it have to do with?

Answer 1

BLACK FRIDAY (SHOPPING) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_Sale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, is historically one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. Many consider it the "official" beginning to the holiday season. Most retailers will open very early and usually provide massive discounts on their products.

Although Black Friday is typically the busiest shopping day of the year in terms of customer traffic, it is not typically the day with the highest sales volume. That is usually either Christmas Eve or the last Saturday before Christmas.

Origin

The first use of this term to describe the day after Thanksgiving is not exactly known. There are two popular theories as to its origin.

Accounting practice

One theory is that stores traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year (January through November) and made their profit during the holiday season. When this would be recorded in the financial records, common accounting practices use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink would show positive amounts. Black Friday is the beginning of the period where they would no longer have losses (the red) and instead take in the year's profits (the black).

Stress from large crowds

Another theory comes from the fact that shopping experience on this day can be extremely stressful. The term is used as a comparison to the extremely stressful and chaotic experience of Black Thursday or other black days. According to The Word Spy:

Earliest Citation:
Christmas decorations around Tampa Bay started going up in late October, and business has been brisk since then. And while Friday--known as Black Friday for the legendary hordes--will be the biggest shopping day for many area stores, others ring up the greatest sales the Saturday before Christmas.
—Marilyn Marks, "Retailers expect good sales this Christmas," St. Petersburg Times, November 27, 1986

There exists an earlier reference, speaking to the Friday after Thanksgiving:

A BLACK FRIDAY.
There have been many Black Fridays in recent history. Most of them have been days of financial panic. There has been none of blacker foreboding than last Friday. And the blackness is not loss or fear of loss in stocks and bonds.
New York Times (1857-Current file).
New York, N.Y.: Dec 3, 1922. pg. 38, 1 pgs
ISSN/ISBN 03624331

Employees of retail stores have for years referred to Black Friday in a satirical way, to note the extremely stressful and hectic nature of the day. Heavy traffic and customer demands added to the long hours make it a difficult day.


Black Friday on the Internet

Advertisements in advance

Certain websites such as DealTaker.com offer information about Black Friday deals up to a month in advance. The text listings of prices are usually accompanied by adscans -- complete PDFs either leaked by insiders, or intentionally released by large retailers to give consumers insight and allow them time to plan.

Cyber Monday

The term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, which unofficially marks the beginning of the holiday online shopping season.

In recent years, Cyber Monday has become a busy day for online retailers, with some sites offering low prices and other promotions on that day.

Controversy

Response (Buy Nothing Day)

Anti-consumer frenzy protesters have chosen this day as Buy Nothing Day in North America, where those concerned about the increasing power and influence of consumer corporations are urged to not make consumer purchases.

DMCA

In recent years, some retailers (including Wal-Mart, Target Corporation, Best Buy, and Staples, Inc.) have claimed that the advertisements they send in advance of Black Friday and the prices included in those advertisement are intellectual property and protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Using the take down provision of the DMCA, these retailers have threatened various internet web sites who post Black Friday prices to the internet in advance of the intended release date by the retailers. This policy apparently derives from a fear that competitors, in addition to customers, will also have access to this information and use it for competitive advantage. The actual validity of the claim that prices are protected intellectual property is uncertain as prices might be considered a 'fact' in which case they would not receive the same level of protection as pure intellectual property.

The benefit of threatening internet sites with a DMCA based lawsuit has proved tenuous at best. While some sites have complied with the requests, others have either ignored the threats or simply continued to post the information under the name of a similar sounding fictional retailer.

Answer 2

Black Friday is what they call the biggest cristmas shopping day of the year.
All the retail store call it Black Friday probably because it a mad house and people trying to get the big sales item.
I work at Walmart and sometimes there are fights over the sale item. Wal -Mart call there sale blintz sale it from 6am until 11 am none of the sales items are unwrapped and none of it get sold before 6 am but people will camp out at Walmart to be the first one to get one of the sales item like a 598 dollar Flat screen tv was one of the sales items or computers , printers marked down real cheap.

Answer 3

Being "in the black" or "in the red" are accounting terms as in a cash flow situation. If you are in the black, you are positive in cash, whereas in the red is negative cash. Black Friday is a time when many retail companies can get ahead or break even from slimmer motnhs of the year. This time of year also can provide business owners with a forecast of the year.

Answer 4

A lot of businesses go most of the year not making much profit and do not make their profit for the year until Thanksgiving and Christmas. Therefore they go from red(no profit) to black (profit) during that time that starts on the day after Thanksgiving.

Answer 5

I think black Friday is the day after thanksgiving and it is called that because most business start having their after thanksgiving sales and the go from non profit to making profits. ( red ink to black ink )

Answer 6

The Day After Thanksgiving the Day that everyone goes Nuts & Shops lol very early in the morning all the stores have crazy sales been going on for many years no joke.

Answer 7

In the old days before computers, companies had books they entered their profits (in black ink), and losses (in red ink). The day after Thanksgiving was one of those days when most retailers expected to make up for their losses, and "everything would be in the black (a profit). "

Answer 8

It represents the official start of the Xmas shopping season, but it is called such, owing to the amount of crowds and total madenss that happens that day

Answer 9

It is where the stores that are in the RED, (negative) try to come into the BLACK, (positive) in there bank accounts!

Answer 10

Its got somethin to do with catholicism but most people look at it as a day where you can get great deals.