Romania had its first Black Friday 12 years ago, but in America this phenomenon was in vogue 40 years ago, and the “love” between Black Friday and shopping began 60 years ago. When did he arrive in Europe? Why has it become so popular in the US? What does this have to do with angry cops and mayhem? What has changed in recent years?

Black Friday – how it all began

The term Black Friday was originally associated with the financial crisis, not with shopping. Over 150 years ago, two Wall Street bankers bought a lot of gold together, hoping that the market price for the precious metal would rise and they could sell it at a high price. September 24, 1869 became a day that went down in the history of the American stock market as “Black Friday”, as the gold market crashed and many investors were bankrupted by two speculators.

Their names were Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, and Ulysses S. Grant was the president of the United States at the time.

In the days when American stores wrote their ledgers by hand, profits were written in black ink and losses in red. In general, many stores were “in the red” for most of the year and went into the black after Thanksgiving in late November, when shoppers bought many items on sale.

• eMAG Black Friday 2023 – What discounts does the company promise on November 10

In the early years of the 19th century, it was said that slaves were bought at sales around this time, but this is unlikely, and these rumors appeared in the late 19th century, long after slavery had been abolished.

Thanksgiving is a legal holiday in the USA, it is a kind of “harvest day” and a day when people rejoice and give thanks for all the good things that happened in the year that is almost over. In Europe, this day is best known for scenes from American movies where families have a celebratory dinner during which they carve a turkey (the Thanksgiving turkey).

Yes, for a long time the term Black Friday was associated with the end of November, but the connection with shopping appeared much later, seven decades ago. Originally, the term “Black Friday” was used for sad events or unpleasant situations, such as when employees were absent from work after Thanksgiving.

Chaos, traffic and very difficult times for American police officers on Black Friday

After 1960, the police in Philadelphia called the day after Thanksgiving “Black Friday” because many tourists and many people who wanted to shop came to the city at that time, which was also the time of the highly anticipated American football game.

For the police in Philadelphia, it was “Black Friday” because they did not have the opportunity to take time off, as the city was full of people, traffic was blocked, chaos reigned in many places and crime increased. For them, this day was “black” not only because they could not take a vacation, but also to work much longer, even 12 hours, to keep the difficult situation in the city under control.

When Black Friday got irreparably “stuck” in shopping

It must be said that the idea of ​​making big purchases in November was popular in the US a century ago. For example, in 1924, Macy’s launched the famous New York Thanksgiving Day Parade. Department stores sold well in late November and into the 1930s, even as they felt the effects of the Great Depression, and in 1939, at the request of retailers, the US president moved Thanksgiving a week earlier.

The president hoped that the economy would also benefit from increased sales and consumption, and the transition to this holiday in those years was popularly called “Franking Day” in honor of the president.

The phrase Black Friday caught on, but some retailers did not appreciate the name Black Friday and the negative connotation and tried, unsuccessfully, to change the name to “Good Friday”. They did not succeed, and the name remained and spread especially after 1970 throughout America, because retailers were competing with each other more and more strongly, and they felt one thing: consumers will like an idea if it is well “packaged” with an attractive marketing tactic.

The name “Black Friday” appeared in 1966 in the magazine “American Philatelist”, but at that time it was not a shopping holiday known throughout America. It was only after 1980 that BF became a shopping phenomenon in the US and people started flocking to the stores.

The original Black Friday just got longer and went digital

Black Friday is getting bigger every year in the US, with stores opening earlier and crowds getting bigger.

Black Friday is described as a purely American ritual “at the altar” of consumerism, a “social experience” for the family. In the best years, between 2005 and 2010, an estimated 130 million Americans went to brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday, and the crowds were thick.

Back then, people were fighting over TVs, DVD players, and home appliances, and Black Friday was pitched as a “social shopping experience,” unlike Cyber ​​Monday (born in 2005) and Amazon Prime Day (since 2015), which were days of “solitary activity”.

Two big changes have marked America’s Black Friday over the past 10 to 12 years: online shopping has grown significantly, and Black Friday has become “Black November” and more because the deals now stretch from mid-October to early December.

Unlike the Romanian Black Friday, the American Black Friday did not “move” into the first half of November and always falls at the end, the earliest – November 23 (in 2018 and 2012), and the latest – November 29 (as before). in 2013 and 2019). This year, American Black Friday will be November 24.

In 2008, a Wal-Mart employee was trampled by a mob that came to “hunt” for the best Black Friday deals on Long Island: $300 laptops and $99 GPS navigation systems. To stave off the decline, in 2009 the company turned to crowd management experts, decided to keep almost all stores open 24 hours a day on those days, and staff had to ensure that people stood in line and took food one at a time without pushing. or hit each other.

In 2015, some stores opened at 4 a.m. and from midnight, people with blankets could be seen in front of them waiting for the doors to open. A lot has changed since then, with much of America’s Black Friday now taking place online, and some are talking about “sale fatigue” as people are bombarded with discounts that retailers present as very deep.

A few years ago, the shopping “holiday” in the US consisted of five “intense” days (with a “shopping frenzy”, as the Americans say), from Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, to Monday, Cyber ​​Monday. In recent years, this has also happened in the US, which we are used to: Black Friday campaigns even span 5-7 weeks under different marketing names. This trend started more than ten years ago, and more and more companies are “joining” it.

Retailers will keep customers engaged longer and sell more if they launch a variety of campaigns starting in October. Some are thematic: for example, they insist on smartphones, TVs or household appliances.

Campaigns start faster and because research conducted by retailers showed that more and more customers started shopping for winter holidays from the first decade of November. Sensing the profits, retailers came up with the most inventive campaigns.

One thing will remain the same: retailers will exert psychological pressure on shoppers, taking advantage of their sensibilities when they are placed in front of discount “plates” – plastic or cardboard, or on a computer, tablet or phone screen. Common sense advice is to only buy what you need as much as possible and especially be clear about your maximum budget before you buy anything.

For many years, the press in the US published guides on how to “survive” Black Friday, that is, not to “fall” for offers. For certain categories of goods, the lowest prices for the year fall in January, and for others – in March. For many items, the lowest price of the year is on a OTHER day than BF, but you should keep a close eye on the deals.

Another tip: don’t fall for the so-called “door busters”, really good deals that make you come to the store, but when you do, you see that the items are out of stock and you buy other things that are not yet available . t has been reduced too much.

When Black Friday arrived in Europe

American retailer Amazon organized an online Black Friday promotion for the UK in 2010, in 2011 small timid promotions were organized by retailers from several EU countries, including Romania, and in 2013 they were already dressed in both the US and stores from EU countries. , for example in Asda supermarkets in Great Britain. For the French, the first day of “Vendredi noir” was in 2013.

In France or Germany, Black Friday really took off in 2014 and 2015, but unlike its beginnings in the US, in Europe it has reached much more online.

For example, in the UK, Black Friday sold £2.8 billion online and £4.7 billion offline in 2016, and £5.7 billion online and £1.7 billion offline in 2020.

For European Black Friday, the UK is the largest market with sales of over £7bn, followed by Germany with over €6bn, France with over €4bn and Italy with over €2bn. Other countries with high sales are Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.