Black Friday

Overview

The day after Thanksgiving, many retailers offer steep discounts for the American tradition of “Black Friday.” Though it’s not an official holiday, it’s still popular: US consumer spending is significantly higher on Black Friday than on any other day of the year.

In the 1950s and ’60s, the Philadelphia police used the term “Black Friday” to describe the chaos that hit the city post-Thanksgiving for the Army-Navy football game (examples include increased traffic, crowds, and shoplifting). Some Philadelphia merchants tried calling the day “Big Friday” to remove its negative associations, but it didn’t stick.

Another two decades would pass before the retailers of the 1980s spun “Black Friday” into a positive, saying that the holiday sales would help their earnings go from in the “red” (losing money) to “black” (profiting).

On Black Friday 2024, US shoppers spent a record $10.8B on e-commerce purchases alone. In recent years, consumers have increasingly trended toward holiday shopping online rather than braving Black Friday’s famous in-person crowds.

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