The term “Black Friday” is solely associated with holiday shopping these days, but it wasn’t always that way. Black Friday dates as far back as the 1960s in the United States of America (USA). The term was used to describe all the shoppers from the suburbs that flocked to Philadelphia in the days after Thanksgiving. At the time there was a financial crisis in the United States, as the gold market crashed. Black Friday then became linked to retail after stores were “in the red” for the entire year, which indicated poor sales. The day after Thanksgiving, retailers were “in the black” after the influx of shoppers spent their money on discounted goods. Later, many retail chains attempted to change it to “Big Friday”. They failed.
In the following, more recent years, the former one-day shopping event has since spread over a four-day period. Black Friday is followed by Small Business Saturday and Sunday, and Cyber Monday. This gives shoppers the chance to snap up great deals for longer, as well as helps small businesses to get the traffic their bigger competitors get on Black Friday.
Many traditions found in the USA gradually get embraced in many parts of world, as has Black Friday. Although, some countries have features quite different from the US traditions, the trend has become very popular and is constantly growing. In the future, we can expect that almost the entire world will indulge in fervent shopping with the best deals on Black Friday.
For South Africa, however, Black Friday has only become more well-known over the past few years, officially starting in 2014.
The big sale day is celebrated in South Africa on the Friday following American Thanksgiving. Although it is not a recognized holiday, many people “celebrate” it by buying in stores and online. Bringing the start of the Christmas shopping season forward, this year Black Friday is on the 25th of November.
