Black Friday may have come too early this year before Thanksgiving, but some deals are still happening on Black Friday. It’s been two years since the pandemic, and last year was more of a struggle as the beginning of the virus leaving many people jobless, and this year, inflation with the increased price
Black Friday is the time for consumers to do some early Christmas shopping- at a bargain. The Friday after Thanksgiving this year will be on the 26th. Some retailers have started deals as early as the beginning of the month, usually lasting until the 29th. However, it is not a national holiday in the U.S but more of an event to help boost the economy. Retailers like Walmart and Target offer several Black Friday deals throughout November, avoiding the need for consumers to line up on the big day and closing their doors on Thanksgiving day.
Let me share a little history of how this annual event originated. According to history.com, Black Friday was associated with a 19th-century financial crisis. In 1869, two scheming Wall Street financiers purchased as much gold as possible to greedily increase the price for profit. Rather than getting the revenue they hoped to get, coincidentally, the gold market collapsed and took the stock market leaving millions of investors bankrupt on Friday, September 24.
The term “Black Friday” originated by the Philadelphia police in the early 1960s, when Philadelphian streets congested with pedestrians heading to the Army-Navy football game began looking for deals post-Thanksgiving, calling it “Black Friday.” Philly’s biggest department stores tried to separate themselves from the negative connotation calling it “Big Friday” instead. Business owners were in a struggle of their own after workers called in sick the Friday after Thanksgiving, sapping productivity and wreaking havoc on the economy.
Black Friday didn’t take on its new meaning to a more positive significance as America’s most popular holiday shopping day until the 1980s, as the day that stores sold so much merchandise that their annual revenue went from being “in the red” (loss) to “in the black” (profit) back when accounting records were kept by hand, in which red ink indicated a loss, and black ink a profit.
The idea of opening their doors at midnight or the early hours of Friday after Thanksgiving didn’t come to be until the 1990s, where consumers would camp out before opening hours.
Online shopping has made it more convenient to shop online for Black Friday deals and avoid waiting outside in the cold weather and large crowds. Consumers would consider staying online until the sales start. The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 pushed consumers to do more online shopping than before. The preference for online shopping was amplified last year where in-store shopping on Thanksgiving Day was a tradition that had ended due to the coronavirus pandemic. This year, inflation might be troublesome for some consumers to afford to buy during Black Friday.
According to CouponFollow.com, 186.4 million U.S. consumers shopped in-store and online from Thanksgiving to the following Monday (“Black Friday Weekend”) in 2020.
I found some fantastic deals in Ulta, like the it Cosmetics brushes for Ulta ($10), Sebastian travel-size Dark Oiland No. Breaker Leave-In Spray ($10), Dashing Diva nail gel palette for $5!!!. Although they might have been sold out online rapidly, I went from store to store to try to find them.
Nordstrom is offering Elemis Jumbo Dynamic Resurfacing Facial Wash-$98 Value for $45.50
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