Black Friday Sale 2022 is live- But what is the significance of this day?
Black Friday is a name for the Friday that comes after Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. Many stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes as early as midnight or even on Thanksgiving. Some stores’ sales continue to Monday (“Cyber Monday”) or for a week (“Cyber Week”). This day has reportedly been the busiest shopping day of the year.
So what is the story behind this Black Friday?
There are different stories behind this. One view says it was to denote that companies were no longer “in the red” and instead doing well. But, a more accurate version comes from the early 1960s, when police officers in the city of Philadelphia began using the phrase “Black Friday” to describe the chaos that resulted when large numbers of suburban tourists came into the city to begin their holiday shopping.
The day after Thanksgiving has been regarded as the beginning of the United States Christmas shopping season since 1952. The reason behind this may be because of the idea of Santa Claus parades. Parades celebrating Thanksgiving often include an appearance by Santa at the end of the parade, with the idea that “Santa has arrived” or “Santa is just around the corner” .
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Santa or Thanksgiving parades were sponsored by department stores. These include the continuing Toronto Santa Claus Parade in Canada since 1905, originally sponsored by Eaton’s, and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade held in Manhattan, New York City since 1924, sponsored by Macy’s. Department stores would use the parades to launch a big advertising push. Eventually, it became an unwritten rule that no store would try doing Christmas advertising before the parade was over. Therefore, the day after Thanksgiving became the day when the shopping season officially started.
In 2015, Amazon.com was the first to offer “Black Friday in July” deals on what they called “Prime Day”, promising better deals than on Black Friday. Amazon repeated the practice in 2016 and 2017, and other companies began offering similar deals. In the upcoming, several other brands stepped into the sale season including Udemy, Nykaa, Adobe, Flipkart, PVR etc and none can deny that the deals are lavishing.
Analyst Marshal Cohen of The NPD Group claimed in 2020 that Black Friday is declining in favor of online shopping and that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this process. The pandemic also resulted in holiday deals being offered over a longer period of time, even as early as October. Fewer people shopped in person on Black Friday 2020, and most business took place online.
Market research company Numerator said sellers of clothing, tools and other items considered nonessential during lockdowns were not promoted as heavily because lower production meant less available to sell. Adobe Analytics reported that online sales reached $9 billion in 2020, 22% more than the previous year. Foot traffic to stores fell 48% in 2020 from last year, according to RetailNext, while Sensormatic Solutions reported a 52% decrease.
