Nytimes
Black Friday Isn’t What It Used to Be
J.Wright3 months ago
That’s not to say that Black Friday has lost all meaning. The days when scores of customers camped out at big-box retailers or trampled one another in the rush to get cheap televisions may be gone, but Black Friday is still shorthand for the shopping frenzy that grips Americans this time each year. “It’s still a cultural event, but it’s not what it was some years ago,” said Craig Johnson, founder of the retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners. “It’s nothing like it used to be.” Here is what you need to know about Black Friday shopping. How did Black Friday come to be? The term “Black Friday” was coined around the 1960s by Philadelphia police officers. On the day after Thanksgiving and before the annual Army-Navy football game on Saturday, tourists would storm retailers in the city and the crowds would overwhelm law enforcement. Retailers embraced the interest but the original meaning was lost on many people — who came to understand being in the “black” as a reference to profits at retailers (compared with red, which signifies losses). Over the decades, thanks to retail promotions, it became a fixture on the national calendar, — eventually defined by long lines, unruly crowds and occasional casualties . As stores sought to compete for shoppers, they extended their hours — first starting at the crack of dawn on Friday, then the night of Thanksgiving .
Read the full article:https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/24/business/what-is-black-friday.html
0 Comments
0
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/2JSXFKMIPNIJNK26H3O3KZUZCI.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/GLMNW4QFMO47GABZLJICK2DUNQ.jpg)
