Ten things you should know about Black Friday

22nd November 2016

... Comments

A common myth suggests that the name refers to the selling of slaves by their wealthy owners, the day after Thanksgiving, at a reduced price.
It is more likely that the term derives from stock market crashes in the mid 1800's.
Many businesses referred to it as Black Friday due to the increased amount of staff calling in 'sick' on the day after Thanksgiving.
Many attribute this as the start of the holiday shopping season, originally following department store Macy's Thanksgiving parade.
Until the early 1990's, the term was only used in Philadelphia, due to the endless queues of traffic and smog caused by the eager shoppers.
Retailers tried to put a positive spin on the event and used the term 'black' to show they were in profit, although this has never been officially confirmed.
It has become an extension of the Thanksgiving holiday, with some avid participants not returning to work until the following Tuesday!
Some shoppers set up camp outside big stores in order to secure their place in the queue the night before the event starts.
It is now an international event, and has different names across the globe, such as El Buen Fin (The Good Weekend) in Mexico, and Cyber Monday (online giant Amazon's equivalent).
The recently launched 'Singles Day' in China, saw the sale of 2000 Bras in one hour, which if piled up, would be three times higher than Mount Everest!

Enjoy Black Friday!