Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and before Christmas when real shopping takes place, and many people believe that this is the start of the Christmas season.1)
“The Day After Thanksgiving” is observed as a state government holiday in California and certain other states, occasionally in lieu of another federal holiday, such as Columbus Day.2)
Many non-retail employees and schools take both Thanksgiving and the next Friday off, making it a four-day weekend with the following normal weekend, boosting the amount of prospective customers.3)
Since 2005, Black Friday has become the biggest day of the year in the United States, with people going crazy for the deals.4)
For many years, stores opened around 6:00 a.m., but by the late 2000s, many had slipped to 5:00 or 4:00. This was pushed to a new level in 2011, when major businesses (including Target, Kohl's, Macy's, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened for the first time at midnight.5)
There have been 10 documented deaths and 111 injuries in the United States since 2006.6)
Prospective shoppers frequently camp out during the Thanksgiving holiday in order to get to the front of the queue and therefore a greater chance of purchasing desired products.7)
On Black Friday, the SouthPark neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the busiest in the country.8)
Historically, it was typical for Black Friday deals to stretch into the next weekend, but this practice has virtually faded in recent years, possibly due to businesses' efforts to generate a stronger feeling of urgency.9)
Serious incidents have occurred on Black Friday. In 2010, a lady from Madison, Wisconsin, was detained outside of a Toys 'R' Us store after cutting in line and threatening to shoot other customers who objected.10)
Black Friday began in Norway as a PR stunt campaign in 2010 to stimulate sales at the retail center Norwegian Outlet. Since its inception, it has been marketed year after year in a wider and rising market throughout the country.11)
In 2014, Bolivia, Colombia, Denmark, Italy, Finland, France, Ireland, Lebanon, Nigeria, South Africa, and Sweden adopted Black Friday. Black Friday was first observed in Poland, Greece, and Ukraine in 2016.12)
The popularity of Black Friday is expanding in the United Kingdom. On Black Friday 2016, total expenditure on online retail sites was £1.23 billion, a +12.2% increase over the £1.1 billion spent on the same day in 2015. For the first time in 2017, retail sales in the United Kingdom increased faster in November than in December.13)
An internet legend in 2013 claimed that the phrase originated in the American south prior to the Civil War, from the practice of selling slaves on the day following Thanksgiving. Snopes.com refuted this in 2015.14)
Black Friday is not just for stores, but also for online retailers who sell a variety of things.15)