When one says “Black Friday” most people think of the day after Thanksgiving as the biggest shopping day of the year. It has not always been that way. There was a time when you put the word “black” in front of a weekday, which meant something much worse. I did some research and found a list of “Black Fridays” that marked tragic days in history. There was the 1869 “Black Friday” financial crisis not long after the Civil War. Another was the 1881 “Black Friday” Eyemouth disaster in which 189 fishermen died. There was also the “Black Friday” of 1910 when police brutality attacked women’s suffrage activists in England. How can we forget “Black Thursday” in 1929 which was the start of the Great Depression. Have I completely crushed your spirits yet? I counted at least 21 Black Fridays and not one offered a great price on an 80” flat screen TV. If they had, it might have diffused these tragedies.
I am old enough to remember the big shopping day after Thanksgiving before it was called “Black Friday.” I’m originally from the Chicago area and remember when hoards of shoppers headed to downtown Chicago to start the Christmas shopping season. We did not have large shopping malls like now. State Street in Chi-Town was the premier shopping district for the whole metropolitan area. It was also home to all the big movie theaters where all the big new movies premiered months before they headed out to the suburbs for the rest of us, but I digress.
All the big department stores went all out to create elaborate Christmas displays for their sidewalk front windows. Many people just went downtown to look at the colorful decorations the stores put up. There was always film (yes, cellulose, not video tape) of the thousands of shoppers walking up and down that “Great Street” (Nickname for State Street) on the newscast that evening. All of this marked the beginning of the Christmas Season in Chicagoland. Kind of like that little parade they stage in New York on Thanksgiving. Can’t quite remember what it’s called, but it is there.
How things have changed. I have no idea when the day after Thanksgiving got the name “Black Friday,” but instead of denoting a tragic event, it means the official Christmas season has started, retailers are offering outrageously great offers for things we really don’t need and the term “Black” means stores are getting out of the red and finally making a profit for the fiscal year. That is a good thing. It also means commercial after commercial showing happy people in snowy places, cars with big bows on them and tons of references to good cheer, usually served out of a bottle over ice.
“Black Friday” was my late wife’s favorite day. It was her Superbowl, World Series and Academy Awards mixed into one day. At a time when newspapers were the main source of the big sales of the day, she would make sure we had the Sunday before and day before Thanksgiving editions. The paper would be stuffed with all kinds of inserts offering the big deals for the special shopping day. She would spend the week clipping the necessary coupons and making a game plan for where we would start our shopping day. Notice I said we. I was a supportive husband (translation: I got to play softball, golf and watch sports on TV so now it was time to help her do what she wanted to do) and would make sure she arrived at whatever store she wanted to be at in plenty of time. It meant standing in long lines just to get the give away the store was offering. It also meant she would receive two of each item they were giving away. One year, we took all three of our sons to one department store at an ungodly early hour because they were handing out gift cards worth $5, 10$, $25 and $100. We ended up with five gift cards and mine was the $100 one. It was in my hand for about 3 seconds before it was snatched so it could be applied to some purchases at a later time. Do you know how many JCPenney Disney Snowglobes we have in our Christmas collection? Wonder if they’re still giving those away…no, not really.
Things have changed again. “Black Friday” used to be the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, but not anymore. We have all seen the multiple ads for “early” black Friday sales. They happen all year round. Yes, I have seen “Black Friday” sales in the summer. Retailers see a good thing and try to replicate it as often as possible. I have no idea if it works for them, but it must, because they keep doing it. The Christmas sale season really starts in September during the football season. All those fragrance ads that are running during the games are a sign Christmas is only a mere four months away…wait, what?
Another new sales blitz for the holiday season is “Cyber Monday.” That is the Monday after Thanksgiving. This is when everyone is supposed to jump on their computers to do their electronic Christmas Shopping. During our pandemic, more people might be doing their shopping online than heading to the shopping malls. The results of “Cyber” Monday is filling Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ coffers with more wealth so he can make another trip into space. He might be looking to buy some real estate on the moon.
As soon as Christmas is over, we have to suffer through discount sales on left over merchandise and white sales. Then we get a break and get back to mattress sales for important holidays like MLK Day, President’s Day and Memorial Day. What better way to celebrate important people in our history, put their picture on money, then have a mattress sale for us to spend that money on.
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