“The Biggest Shopping Day of the Year.” – How Black Friday has Changed

By Sidney Ziemendorf

According to History.com, the most repeated story behind the Thanksgiving shopping-related Black Friday tradition links it to retailers. As the story goes, after an entire year of operating at a loss (“in the red”), stores would supposedly earn a profit (“go into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving because holiday shoppers spent so much money on discounted merchandise. Black Friday has changed from a chaotic, one-day, in-store event to a prolonged, global, online, and in-store experience. There would be lines wrapped around stores, fights over products, and even more chaos.

“The first recorded use of the term ‘Black Friday’ was applied not to post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping but to a financial crisis: specifically, the crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869,” said Sarah Pruitt of History.com. “Two notoriously ruthless Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, worked together to buy up as much as they could of the nation’s gold, hoping to drive the price sky-high and sell it for astonishing profits. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into free-fall and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.”

Now, this day has lost its sense of urgency and is competing with “Cyber Monday,” which is an all-online shopping day that occurs on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Retailers used Black Friday to clear out inventory and make space for new products, and now, with the rise of online shopping, stores no longer have to draw customers in with big, limited-time promotions, leaving Black Friday not what it used to be.

The change began during COVID-19, when we were confined to our homes and forced to shop online instead of going into stores. Most retailers opted to remain closed after the pandemic for the first time in a decade. Instead, they spread their sales throughout the entire season to eliminate large crowds during the pandemic. Since 2019, there have been more total online shoppers during Black Friday than during Cyber Monday.

The big question seems to be: Is Black Friday dying? Although the number of shoppers on the Friday after Thanksgiving is declining, there is context to consider. Many people think it is easier to go online and shop for the sales there instead of rushing to the store at dawn to find what they are looking for. Black Friday shoppers are more likely to be looking than buying. That is another reason retailers spread their sales, because by the weekend before Christmas, shoppers are ready to open their wallets and buy gifts for the holiday. Although Black Friday may not be the chaotic day it used to be, it still remains one of the busiest shopping days of the year.