Friday, November 23, 2012

Black Friday: What's the Rush?




Today marks the biggest day in shopping of the entire year, Black Friday. This day has been here for almost a decade and people often don't know too much about its origin. So, why not take a look back? Ok, Black Friday became consistently the biggest day in shopping in 2005 (c). Before that from 1993 to 2001 it shifted around from fifth through tenth. The name originated in the city of Philadelphia where it was used to refer to the heavy traffic that would occur right after Thanksgiving. The 'black' was then changed to refer to when retailers were in the 'black', or turning a profit. The opening of Black Friday has gradually become sooner and sooner. Last year, companies like Target opened at midnight, a huge leap, however this year companies have even opened at 8 PM on Thursday. Black Friday has been a hectic day in history, even inducing some unfortunate violence. Finally, the reason for the day being right after Thanksgiving is mainly because it marks the beginning of the Christmas season, so people have an extra reason to shop.

Black Friday, from a retailers point of view is a big strategy game. Often they lose money on the items that are put on 'mega sale' because they expect the people who come in to buy other things too that they will make money back on. Also, to ensure that it happens like that, often the 'mega sale' items are not similar so people in theory will not be particularly interested in just buying those items. Another major front for them is advertising, new motto's, spokespeople and ideas. The first step in getting customers is alerting them of your brand, in terms of Black Friday, that is even more true. The last part of Black Friday for retailers is making sure that employees aren't unhappy, because the hours are getting longer, strikes are not impossible.

Should Black Friday exist? Yes. But only if the hours get more reasonable. If the hours are ok, than Black Friday benefits everyone. The other cool part about Black Friday is that inspired other shopping days like Small Business Saturday, but let's save that for a different article.

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