Please explain "Black Friday" to a limey

[Veldel]

I'm posting this from work at a Walmart and to be frank


SOMEONE SAVE ME FROM THIS WARZONE!


It the worst 2 days of retail to work as people are crazy and trying to grab everything.

People where fighting over 32inch TVs last night.


When sale started its like the worst of humanity shows.


Stay in doors and hide.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

jesus, you guys keep citing the worst examples possible. while it is pretty bad in some places, that doesn't speak for the majority of places; sure it gets pretty damn busy but it doesn't turn into blood baths like some videos show it to be.


it's a time for retailers to mark down essentially everything so people are willing to spend every dime they've been saving for holiday gifts, thus the increase in purchases drives massive profits, making companies "in the black" economically speaking.


Me personally? I just do online shopping, just as good of deals if not better on amazon/newegg/etc...

cyber monday is basically the equivalent of black friday of retail stores.

But it's kind of hard to focus on the more rational examples when the irrational ones are balls to the wall insane. Sure, in some places, you just have a particularily busy shopping mall, but when people are whipping out pepper spray, it's hard to ignore.

true, but i also believe the "bystander effect" is in place here, if you're in the middle of a crowd and they are all going forward, will you really able to stop and go at your own pace? or stop to help someone who has fallen/been stepped on? hell you probably don't even know that someone did fall for how tight some of those spaces get.

not remotely justifying what happens, just think that people aren't bloody thirsty savages that some people want to believe, it's more of a they can't single handedly do anything about it.

also, the pepper spray thing is definitely people being selfish, they put themselves in that situation, if they are pepper spraying just to get people to give them room then they probably shouldn't be there in the first place.

Sadly I have personally seen the people in motorized wheelchairs/carts use them as battering rams during black friday, disgusts me quite a bit.

 

[hermes]

The meaning of the name originally came from the less than comfortable way shops operate those days. Because of political correctness, people tried to change the name, but the change never stuck. So, they changed the interpretation to being because of "black ink numbers". Typically, it was understood that stores would move from red (deficit) to black (even) in the yearly balance around this time.

 

[EHKOS]

I believe the economic reason for such low prices is so people will buy more for Christmas. (which isn't what the holiday is about in the first place, but glossing over that.)
Unfortunately, the average consumer is so greedy that they drop their mask of concern and care for other human beings and violently seek out things they want at unbelievably low prices. People die every year from being trampled by a crowd. It shows a very ugly side of people.

 

[Torque2100]

Well I'm a Yank, and I can't explain Black Friday because I don't understand it either.

 

[RJ Dalton]

It's just a marketing ploy using the timing of a holiday and deals made feasible by artificial scarcity intended to work the gullible into a murderous, frothy-mouthed shopping frenzy. Best time of year to stay indoors and keep the curtains drawn.

 

[Kennetic]

Since we've already established what Black Friday is, I would like to say that Black Friday is an insult to the meaning of Thanksgiving.

 

[Silvanus]

I only just heard of Black Friday today, reading the free London papers.


Pity I was travelling all day. Might have been fun.


I also think that 'Black Friday' is an unnecessarily ominous name. Haven't numerous horribly violent historical events been termed "Black [weekday]"?

 

[MCerberus]

Black Friday is when you're so sick of being around people you care for that you go out and celebrate vapid commercialism. Often people break the social contract by lying, stealing, and sometimes tasering each-other either for greed or as part of a perceived obligation to corrupt the next holiday.

 

[Dan Steele]

Hi all, I'm taking a break from my usual furtive R+P dwelling to throw out a question to the wider Escapist community.

I feel a little lazy not just Googling or Wikipedia-ing this, but what is Black Friday? I gather it's something to do with sales?

Also, isn't it a bit of a weird name for a day, given that the US is so politically-charged that you have to call a blackboard a "chalkboard" to avoid being racist?

Spending $300 on a tent to camp outside a store for +12 hours to wait in front of a large glass sliding door where you risk getting stampeded and trampled so you can save $50 on a TV

 

[Draken Steel]

It's the day Americans trample each other to death buying stuff, and occurs exactly one day after the day that they are thankful for what they have.

It's why it's called Thanksgiving Day, not Thanksgiving Long Weekend.

Its funny that thanksgiving sorta determined the exact date of black friday, but is now slowly begin consumed by it (so many stores opening/starting sales on thurs instead of fri).

Rampant consumerism shall always trump your decades long tradition!

Fortunately for me, my hording instincts are now mostly based on digital (steam) videogames instead of physical objects, so no social interaction for me

 

[Barbas]

Don't knock it, Setting yourself on fire is a legitimate Black Friday strategy. Nobody even tries to get in your way while you're on fire.

...And flames do make things go faster.

Spoiler

Hmmmm...idea...

 

[kailus13]

Don't knock it, Setting yourself on fire is a legitimate Black Friday strategy. Nobody even tries to get in your way while you're on fire.

...And flames do make things go faster.

Spoiler

Hmmmm...idea...

You do need a way to put the flames out quickly though. Wouldn't want to burn the stuff you're buying.

 

[Snograt]

Thing is, Black Friday is no longer a purely retail thing. All the major etailers have got in on the act and that means it's spreading across the pond. Get used to Black Friday, Brits - it's going to get bigger and bigger over here.

Mind you, I didn't notice my PS4 being any damn cheaper when it arrived today

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

I feel a little lazy not just Googling or Wikipedia-ing this, but what is Black Friday? I gather it's something to do with sales?

Okay, here it is: the History of Black Friday.

Years ago, Black Friday wasn't technically a thing. However, people - particularly those working retail - noticed a pattern. One of the busiest shopping days of the year was the day after Thanksgiving.

Why? Because, typically, people get both Thursday and Friday off from work and school for Thanksgiving. Any days before Thursday are spent getting ready for travel and family. Thursday itself is spent on food and family. And then, on Friday, everyone went to do Christmas shopping because they the day off.

So, people working in Retail started calling it "Black Friday" because it was the worst day to work retail each year due to how busy it was.

Since it was busy, retailers started doing special deals to get even more people to come out and shop. They also started opening early.

And then a vicious cycle started. It used to be that stores opened at 9 AM on Black Friday. Then 8 AM. Then 6 AM. Then 5 AM. 4AM. 3AM. 2AM. Midnight. And now they're opening Thursday evening at 6 PM. The sales got crazier and the crowds got bigger.

The old retail name stuck - and became more and more appropriate.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Troll

You might already know this, but you've got to be really careful outright calling people trolls on this site. The act alone is almost reason enough to flag a post. Just so you know.

Anyway...

Sadly I have personally seen the people in motorized wheelchairs/carts use them as battering rams during black friday, disgusts me quite a bit.

And it's behavior like that that causes Black Friday to make me queesy. Call me naive, but an event that just inspires such terrible behavior just because you can now get an Xbox One at a great deal is screwed up to me. Don't get me wrong, I like stuff, we all do, there's nothing wrong with liking stuff. It's just that around Black Friday, 'stuff' seems to become part of a twisted dogma to some people, and I just think it's disturbing.

I don't think it is exclusive to black friday; the people who do that kind of stuff are just selfish ignorant assholes to begin with. I've been to disneyworld and universal studios(islands of adventure) 3-4 times (we have family down there) and every time I go there I see the same thing happen, and it's a bloody amusement park for christs sake.

 

[lord.jeff]

It's a day for us to sit back and consider the horror of capitalism and its negative effects on the unfortunate consumer, the say "what can we do to alleviate this?"

Or we can just sneer cynically, judgmentally diagnosing a problem w/out doing anything to treat it.

So, what have you done to alleviate us of this problem?

 

[option1soul]

He's a troll, son. Let it go.

Wasn't talking to you..? Let it go.

 

[Queen Michael]

Also, isn't it a bit of a weird name for a day, given that the US is so politically-charged that you have to call a blackboard a "chalkboard" to avoid being racist?

Where I live, it's more that the blackboards just aren't black; they're clearly green.

 

[Ken_J]

Is there any kind of cultural significance to the event, i.e. the date or the name? Is it just coincidence that it's near Thanksgiving? Seems to me the shops would want to hike up the prices ahead of Christmas...

Okay here is an Honest answer to you're question rather than a bunch of people who don't understand basic economics, sneering at capitalism

The name "Black Friday" comes from an accounting term. If your books in the "Red" you're loosing money. If they are in the "Black" you're making money. The name comes from the fact that due to sales volume the Friday after US thanksgiving is the best time of year to get you're books in the black for the quarter.

Also if you think that it's the best time to hike prices than you don't understand one of the most important concepts of Capitalism. The Invisible Hand of Competition.
Black Friday is all about sales volume, getting people in stores to buy things, and sales are the best way to do that. If Alice is selling Widgets for £5 and Bob is selling them for £3 where do you shop. So stores offer the outright best sales of the year to entice shoppers to come to their stores rather than their competition. On Black Friday it is not uncommon to see things on sale for something like %80 off.