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Black Friday is only associated with Thanksgiving in the US because it marks just about 1 month before Christmas, but otherwise it’s not part of Thanksgiving. I

by orev 5y ago

Black Friday is only associated with Thanksgiving in the US because it marks just about 1 month before Christmas, but otherwise it’s not part of Thanksgiving. It’s also to start selling products for Christmas gifts — not related to getting rid of unsold inventory. Most companies have a fiscal year ending in December, so it’s mostly just about getting that last boost of sales before the end of the year.

LudwigNagasena 5y ago
> It’s also to start selling products for Christmas gifts — not related to getting rid of unsold inventory. That seems totally related to me…
- orev 5y ago
  “Unsold inventory” would be understood as “items that are leftover and need to be cleared out to make room for new products”. That’s not what BF is. Many items sold for BF/Christmas are new products that have just been released (like stuff from Apple that was just released). I’m also not talking about the products that are specifically made for BF only, which are typically lower quality versions of similar products and are lures just to get people into the store. Technically, it might be correct to say that anything not yet sold is “unsold inventory”, but that would have the same meaning and simply saying “inventory”, so adding “unsold” gives the additional implication that it’s unsold for a reason (i.e. it’s old stock, etc.)
aikinai 5y ago
Yes, it's a Christmas-oriented holiday, but the timing is determined by Thanksgiving since the day after Thanksgiving is when everyone turns their attention to Christmas and starts buying gifts (traditionally).
pirate787 5y ago
The history of Thanksgiving -- FDR moved the holiday to support the holiday shopping season. Black Friday has not really been about dumping excess inventory but as the beginning for the holiday shopping season..."black" references the profit retailers make, going from red to black for the year. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/franklin-roosevelt-moved-thanksgiving-to-goose-the-economy-and-chaos-ensued/ https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/franklin-roosevelt...
- cyberlurker 5y ago
  Fantastic article. I didn’t realize how polarized things were. “Public opinion split along political lines. A Gallup Poll showed Democrats favored the switch 52% to 48%, while Republicans opposed it 79% to 21%.”
- CallMeJim 5y ago
  This is entirely unrelated, but it's unusual to see "black" used in a positive sense... Just thinking about all the phrases it's been used negatively in (eg "black sheep of the family"). I'm entirely uninvested in the US culture war, but it's good to see something on the positive side of the ledger.
- allen_lasn 5y ago
  The name Black Friday comes from the nightmare experienced by store staff, shoppers, mall cops, etc on a day of extreme overcrowding and sometimes fights over discounted items. The reference to being 'in the black' was invented afterwards to try and make the name seem more positive.
allen_lasn 5y ago
It's not entirely true that it's unrelated to Thanksgiving. That day originally became a popular day to start Xmas shopping because a lot of people took that day off, since Thursday is a federal holiday, but the actual Thanksgiving festivities were over.

by orev 5y ago

LudwigNagasena 5y ago

> It’s also to start selling products for Christmas gifts — not related to getting rid of unsold inventory. That seems totally related to me…

orev 5y ago
“Unsold inventory” would be understood as “items that are leftover and need to be cleared out to make room for new products”. That’s not what BF is. Many items sold for BF/Christmas are new products that have just been released (like stuff from Apple that was just released). I’m also not talking about the products that are specifically made for BF only, which are typically lower quality versions of similar products and are lures just to get people into the store. Technically, it might be correct to say that anything not yet sold is “unsold inventory”, but that would have the same meaning and simply saying “inventory”, so adding “unsold” gives the additional implication that it’s unsold for a reason (i.e. it’s old stock, etc.)

aikinai 5y ago

Yes, it's a Christmas-oriented holiday, but the timing is determined by Thanksgiving since the day after Thanksgiving is when everyone turns their attention to Christmas and starts buying gifts (traditionally).

pirate787 5y ago

The history of Thanksgiving -- FDR moved the holiday to support the holiday shopping season. Black Friday has not really been about dumping excess inventory but as the beginning for the holiday shopping season..."black" references the profit retailers make, going from red to black for the year. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/franklin-roosevelt-moved-thanksgiving-to-goose-the-economy-and-chaos-ensued/ https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/franklin-roosevelt...

cyberlurker 5y ago
Fantastic article. I didn’t realize how polarized things were. “Public opinion split along political lines. A Gallup Poll showed Democrats favored the switch 52% to 48%, while Republicans opposed it 79% to 21%.”
CallMeJim 5y ago
This is entirely unrelated, but it's unusual to see "black" used in a positive sense... Just thinking about all the phrases it's been used negatively in (eg "black sheep of the family"). I'm entirely uninvested in the US culture war, but it's good to see something on the positive side of the ledger.
allen_lasn 5y ago
The name Black Friday comes from the nightmare experienced by store staff, shoppers, mall cops, etc on a day of extreme overcrowding and sometimes fights over discounted items. The reference to being 'in the black' was invented afterwards to try and make the name seem more positive.

allen_lasn 5y ago

It's not entirely true that it's unrelated to Thanksgiving. That day originally became a popular day to start Xmas shopping because a lot of people took that day off, since Thursday is a federal holiday, but the actual Thanksgiving festivities were over.