Key Takeaways
- Black Friday, a post-Thanksgiving shopping event, is characterized by deep discounts and large crowds, but its future is uncertain.
- The term 'Black Friday' originated in Philadelphia in the 1950s to describe traffic chaos, not retailer profitability.
- Retailers extended the shopping frenzy with Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, and by opening on Thanksgiving Day.
- Economists and analysts suggest Black Friday's intense, deep-discount model may be financially suboptimal and could decline.
- The aggressive pursuit of limited 'doorbuster' deals has led to numerous injuries and fatalities in crowded retail environments.
- Alternatives to Black Friday consumerism include 'Buy Nothing Day' and China's 'Singles Day' which is the world's largest online shopping day.
Deep Dive
- The 'Stuff You Should Know' podcast reintroduces a classic episode on Black Friday.
- The hosts note the phenomenon may be fading, positioning their discussion as a historical record.
- One host expresses a strong aversion to Black Friday sales, preferring to visit the DMV.
- The tradition of post-Thanksgiving Christmas shopping began in the late 19th to early 20th century, partly driven by department store parades like Macy's.
- The term 'Black Friday' emerged in Philadelphia in the 1950s or early 1960s, coined by city workers to describe the chaos and traffic from the Army-Navy game and shoppers.
- A later, revised narrative claimed 'Black Friday' signified stores moving from 'red ink' to 'black ink' (profitability).
- The holiday shopping season, starting with Black Friday, accounts for 20-40% of retail profits annually.
- Black Friday emerged as a major U.S. consumer event around 2004-2005.
- Retailers extended the shopping frenzy by creating Cyber Monday in 2005 as an online counterpart.
- American Express introduced Small Business Saturday in 2010 to encourage local shopping.
- Retailers, aiming to maximize sales during a shortened season, began opening on Thanksgiving Day, a practice that drew criticism.
- Economists suggest that an intense focus on Black Friday may be detrimental to overall retail profits.
- A financial analyst proposed that retailers should extend sales periods and avoid deep discounts for better financial outcomes.
- In 2013, 53% of American adults (152 million people) participated in Black Friday, shopping an average of three hours.
- Online shopping, particularly on Thanksgiving Day, is on the rise, with 70% of Black Friday shoppers planning online purchases.
- 'Doorbusters,' deeply discounted items in limited quantities, have been a tactic since at least 1917.
- Retailers employ a 'bait and switch' tactic, hoping customers will buy other items once inside the store.
- Quantities are extremely limited, often as few as 10 per store, and rain checks are typically not offered.
- The combination of limited, deeply discounted items and a first-come, first-served policy creates a 'recipe for disaster.'
- In 2008, a crowd of approximately 1,000 people gathered 12 hours before a Long Island Walmart opening.
- A surge of 2,000 people pushed through the doors, causing a deadly crowd crush that killed employee Jim Tay DeMoore.
- John Seabrook's New Yorker article 'Crush Point' documented this specific incident.
- Crowd crush incidents are disturbingly common on Black Friday, often resulting in injuries.
- In 2008, a dispute at a Toys R Us in Palm Desert, California, escalated into a fatal shootout between two husbands.
- A 2011 incident at a Los Angeles Walmart involved a woman pepper-spraying shoppers over an Xbox, with no charges filed.
- Many retail workers are forced to work on Thanksgiving and Black Friday without adequate holiday pay or time off.
- A study indicated that highly-planned shoppers exhibit the most anti-social behavior during sales events.
- 'Buy Nothing Day,' created by artist Ted Dave in the 1990s, encourages abstaining from purchases for 24 hours to protest consumerism.
- China's 'Singles Day' on November 11th, initiated by Alibaba, has become the world's largest online shopping day, generating billions in minutes.
- Many Black Friday shoppers purchase items for themselves, with a significant percentage doing so for the majority of their purchases.