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Black Friday History: From 1869 to 1929 to Today

Contents
With Black Friday being around the corner, we already know what to expect: a 40% Discount, streets filled with consumers, a 60% Discount, some doorbuster drama, and how about an 80% Discount?

But how did we end up here?
Why is Black Friday ‘black’?
When did it become about sales?
And why is it on a Friday anyway?

Here is the Black Friday history to answer all your questions.

Why is Black Friday on a Friday?

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving.

Therefore, to answer why Black Friday is on a Friday, we should first explain why Thanksgiving is on a Thursday.

Thanksgiving began in the early 17th century. It is a day devoted to giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and the preceding year.

J.A. Brownscombe: The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, 1914

However, prayers and ceremonies as a public religious demonstration of piety had a hard time becoming a national holiday in the USA. We shouldn’t forget that the USA is a country based in part on the separation of church and state.  As such, Thomas Jefferson believed that Thanksgiving shouldn’t be given a “national holiday” status. As a result, the celebration date ended up being different from state to state.

The nationalization of the holiday didn’t come until A. Lincoln’s era, in 1863. Influenced by the 40-year campaigning of author Sarah Josepha Hale, President Lincoln made a proclamation marking Thursday, November 26, 1863, as Thanksgiving. He called upon his countrymen to “set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise”.

Our Black Friday history continues two centuries later, in 1939, at the tail-end the of Great Depression. It was when President F.D. Roosevelt tried to change the time of Thanksgiving. You see, Roosevelt was looking for ways to boost the economy by extending the holiday shopping period. So he thought about making Thanksgiving the third, instead of the fourth Thursday of November, to create more chances for shopping by one week, etc.

FDR carves a Thanksgiving turkey, 1935 / Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library

And he did. The Thanksgiving date changed for purely economic reasons. Nevertheless, his proclamation proved to be quite unpopular. Two years later, the president and Congress established Thanksgiving as a United States federal holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.

Why is Black Friday ‘Black’?

Unlike in the case of Black Friday, the word ‘black’ before any day has a long tradition of describing a highly unpleasant or turbulent event in history.

Black Monday refers to Monday, October 19, 1987. It was when the markets of Europe crashed, echoing the crash of Hong Kong’s stock market, and finally hitting the US economy.

Black Tuesday happened on October 29, 1929, during the first days of the Wall Street Crash. Due to panic, about 16 million shares were traded that date—an unbreakable record for the next 40 years.

Black Wednesday took place on September 16, 1992. It was when a collapse in the pound sterling forced Britain to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM).

Black Thursday, October 24, 1929, marked the beginning of The Great Depression. It started when the market lost 11 percent of its value. The rest is history.

Black Friday, September 24, 1869. 1869. On that day, Jay Gould a railroad developer (and a speculator), and James Fisk, a stockbroker (also a speculator) created a boom-and-bust in gold prices. The price of gold fell by 20 percent, and the stock market crashed. As a result, commodity prices dropped by 50 percent.

Panic at the Gold room(!) on Black Friday

Black Saturday happened on February 7, 2009 in Australia. A series of bushfires ignited or were burning across the Australian state of Victoria. Up to this day, it’s Australia’s all-time worst bushfire disaster.

Black Sunday occurred on April 14, 1935, and it was one of the worst dust storms in American history. It’s estimated that around 300 thousand tons of topsoil were displaced from the prairie region.

‘Black Friday’ Meant Something Bad for a Long Time

The original Black Friday (the one in 1896 with the stock market scandal) was losing its relevance year by year. So the term ‘Black Friday’ didn’t really mean much as time was going by.

So a century later, the term was resurrected to describe a different situation. For the first time in our Black Friday history, the term was linked to the post-Thanksgiving period. And the city of Philadelphia was the city responsible for this change.

The streets of Philadephia, like the streets of any major US city, were flooding with seasonal shoppers the day after Thanksgiving. But Philly had one more event that was making the streets even more crowded: The Army/Navy football game.

Pennsylvania Railroad after the game / Source: steamlocomotive.com

Indeed, dense crowds are great business owners. But they are bad news for a different kind of profession, namely police officers. Unlike most other people during those festive days, many officers not only couldn’t take the day off but also had to work overtime to control all this carnage. Therefore, police officers used the terms Black Friday and Black Saturday to describe their living hell during the post-thanksgiving days.

Source: BBC

At the same time, shopkeepers and merchants of Philadelphia attempted to rebrand these “black” days and tried to introduce them as “Big Friday” and “Big Saturday”, as they have a more sales-friendly tone.

However, they never really succeded and the term ‘Black Friday’ is still what we use today.

When Did ‘Black Friday’ Start Meaning Something Good

It was not until the 1980s that the term ‘Black Friday’ was used to describe a fortunate event, which was the turning point in Black Friday’s history.

Back when things were less digital, bookkeeping and every other financial recording were happening on a piece of paper rather than a screen. The negative amounts were shown with a red wink while the positive amounts with black ink.

Traditionally, many retailers operated at a financial loss for most of the year – January through November. They only began to make a profit at the beginning of the holiday season, which is the day after Thanksgiving. This was when they would no longer be “in the red”; they would put the red pen in the drawer and pull out the black pen. It was profit time, marked with black – “in the black”.

In the coming years of Black Friday history, the term gained popularity. As the hype around Black Friday grew, so did the crowds that went out shopping.

Up to the early 2000s, back when the big 5 tech companies weren’t that big (and growth hacking agencies like ours didn’t even exist) the biggest shopping day of the year was the Saturday before Christmas, aka Super Saturday.

But in the early 2000s, Black Friday took the throne of Super Saturday and became the frenzy we know today.

Black Friday History Today – Statistics

According to Salesforce, Black Friday online sales grew 3.5% to $65.3 billion globally in 2022.

People prefer shopping digitally, so it comes as no surprise that they also do that on a day when shopping from a physical store is like shopping from Hell. At the same time, eCommerce stores and eShops equip Black Friday strategies for retailers to gain even more ground.

YearSpent per shopperTotal spent (in billion dollars)Percent increase
2002N/A$416.402.1%
2003N/A$437.605.1%
2004N/A$467.206.8%
2005$734.69$496.006.2%
2006$750.70$512.10 3.2%
2007$755.13$526.00 2.7%
2008$694.19$501.50-4.7%
2009$681.83$502.67 0.2%
2010$718.98$528.77 5.2%
2011$740.57$553.26 4.6%
2012$752.24$567.65 2.6%
2013$767.24$583.52 2.8%
2014$802.45$611.52 4.8%
2015$805.65$628.17 2.7%
2016$935.58$646.723.0%
2017$967.13$679.24 5.0%
2018$1,007.24$691.481.8%
2019$1,047.83$718.643.9%
2020$997.79$777.358.2%
2021N/A$886.714.1%

Source: thebalance.com

Here are a few more handpicked Black Friday statistics:

  • Black Friday/ Cyber Monday weekend saw sales of $7.5 billion from independent businesses worldwide, a 19% increase
  • Black Friday online sales totaled a record $9.12 billion in 2022
  • 87.2 million US consumers shopped online on Black Friday in 2022
  • In 2022, 31% of customers started their Black Friday spree on Thursday, while 15% aimed to begin shopping for gifts between midnight and 5 AM on Friday.

Black Friday Shopping Advice for Your Customers

Whether your customers are ready for some serious door-busting or intend to click their way through shopping, here are a few things you can let them know.

Do your research. Do your research beforehand and try not to buy impulsively. Be prepared to shop around to get the best price.

Set a budget. Have a particular number in mind you are willing to spend. It can be easy to get carried away if you don’t set a spending limit for yourself, especially with online shopping.

Long-term buying. Shopping on Black Friday could save you from last-minute shopping before Xmas. Most of the time, a need for a present will come to the surface just before Xmas. Black Friday shopping can mean more free time during Xmas.

Sign up for email newsletters. Make sure your email is on the lists of brands and shops you are interested in. Most sellers send a Black Friday exclusive email that can give you a heads-up on the deals in advance. Remember, email marketing is not dead.

Know your rights. Goods should be of satisfactory quality, fit to do the job intended, and be as described. For more info, you can visit the Federal Trade Commission if you live in the US or the European Consumer Organisation if you are a citizen of the EU.

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2 Responses

  1. Good post. Informative. Relevant. And I will steal large portions of it at the table next Thursday in order to expand my reputation for erudition.

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With Black Friday being around the corner, we already know what to expect: a 40% Discount, streets filled with consumers, a 60% Discount, some doorbuster drama, and how about an 80% Discount? But how did we end up here? Why is Black Friday ‘black’? When did it become about sales? And why is it on a Friday anyway? Here is the Black Friday history to answer all your questions.

Why is Black Friday on a Friday?

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving. Therefore, to answer why Black Friday is on a Friday, we should first explain why Thanksgiving is on a Thursday. Thanksgiving began in the early 17th century. It is a day devoted to giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and the preceding year.
J.A. Brownscombe: The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, 1914
However, prayers and ceremonies as a public religious demonstration of piety had a hard time becoming a national holiday in the USA. We shouldn’t forget that the USA is a country based in part on the separation of church and state.  As such, Thomas Jefferson believed that Thanksgiving shouldn’t be given a “national holiday” status. As a result, the celebration date ended up being different from state to state. The nationalization of the holiday didn’t come until A. Lincoln’s era, in 1863. Influenced by the 40-year campaigning of author Sarah Josepha Hale, President Lincoln made a proclamation marking Thursday, November 26, 1863, as Thanksgiving. He called upon his countrymen to “set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise”. Our Black Friday history continues two centuries later, in 1939, at the tail-end the of Great Depression. It was when President F.D. Roosevelt tried to change the time of Thanksgiving. You see, Roosevelt was looking for ways to boost the economy by extending the holiday shopping period. So he thought about making Thanksgiving the third, instead of the fourth Thursday of November, to create more chances for shopping by one week, etc.
FDR carves a Thanksgiving turkey, 1935 / Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
And he did. The Thanksgiving date changed for purely economic reasons. Nevertheless, his proclamation proved to be quite unpopular. Two years later, the president and Congress established Thanksgiving as a United States federal holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.

Why is Black Friday ‘Black’?

Unlike in the case of Black Friday, the word ‘black’ before any day has a long tradition of describing a highly unpleasant or turbulent event in history. Black Monday refers to Monday, October 19, 1987. It was when the markets of Europe crashed, echoing the crash of Hong Kong’s stock market, and finally hitting the US economy. Black Tuesday happened on October 29, 1929, during the first days of the Wall Street Crash. Due to panic, about 16 million shares were traded that date—an unbreakable record for the next 40 years. Black Wednesday took place on September 16, 1992. It was when a collapse in the pound sterling forced Britain to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). Black Thursday, October 24, 1929, marked the beginning of The Great Depression. It started when the market lost 11 percent of its value. The rest is history. Black Friday, September 24, 1869. 1869. On that day, Jay Gould a railroad developer (and a speculator), and James Fisk, a stockbroker (also a speculator) created a boom-and-bust in gold prices. The price of gold fell by 20 percent, and the stock market crashed. As a result, commodity prices dropped by 50 percent.
Panic at the Gold room(!) on Black Friday
Black Saturday happened on February 7, 2009 in Australia. A series of bushfires ignited or were burning across the Australian state of Victoria. Up to this day, it’s Australia’s all-time worst bushfire disaster. Black Sunday occurred on April 14, 1935, and it was one of the worst dust storms in American history. It’s estimated that around 300 thousand tons of topsoil were displaced from the prairie region.

‘Black Friday’ Meant Something Bad for a Long Time

The original Black Friday (the one in 1896 with the stock market scandal) was losing its relevance year by year. So the term ‘Black Friday’ didn’t really mean much as time was going by. So a century later, the term was resurrected to describe a different situation. For the first time in our Black Friday history, the term was linked to the post-Thanksgiving period. And the city of Philadelphia was the city responsible for this change. The streets of Philadephia, like the streets of any major US city, were flooding with seasonal shoppers the day after Thanksgiving. But Philly had one more event that was making the streets even more crowded: The Army/Navy football game.
Pennsylvania Railroad after the game / Source: steamlocomotive.com
Indeed, dense crowds are great business owners. But they are bad news for a different kind of profession, namely police officers. Unlike most other people during those festive days, many officers not only couldn’t take the day off but also had to work overtime to control all this carnage. Therefore, police officers used the terms Black Friday and Black Saturday to describe their living hell during the post-thanksgiving days.
Source: BBC
At the same time, shopkeepers and merchants of Philadelphia attempted to rebrand these “black” days and tried to introduce them as “Big Friday” and “Big Saturday”, as they have a more sales-friendly tone. However, they never really succeded and the term ‘Black Friday’ is still what we use today.

When Did ‘Black Friday’ Start Meaning Something Good

It was not until the 1980s that the term ‘Black Friday’ was used to describe a fortunate event, which was the turning point in Black Friday’s history. Back when things were less digital, bookkeeping and every other financial recording were happening on a piece of paper rather than a screen. The negative amounts were shown with a red wink while the positive amounts with black ink. Traditionally, many retailers operated at a financial loss for most of the year – January through November. They only began to make a profit at the beginning of the holiday season, which is the day after Thanksgiving. This was when they would no longer be “in the red”; they would put the red pen in the drawer and pull out the black pen. It was profit time, marked with black – “in the black”. In the coming years of Black Friday history, the term gained popularity. As the hype around Black Friday grew, so did the crowds that went out shopping. Up to the early 2000s, back when the big 5 tech companies weren’t that big (and growth hacking agencies like ours didn’t even exist) the biggest shopping day of the year was the Saturday before Christmas, aka Super Saturday. But in the early 2000s, Black Friday took the throne of Super Saturday and became the frenzy we know today.

Black Friday History Today – Statistics

According to Salesforce, Black Friday online sales grew 3.5% to $65.3 billion globally in 2022. People prefer shopping digitally, so it comes as no surprise that they also do that on a day when shopping from a physical store is like shopping from Hell. At the same time, eCommerce stores and eShops equip Black Friday strategies for retailers to gain even more ground.
YearSpent per shopperTotal spent (in billion dollars)Percent increase
2002N/A$416.402.1%
2003N/A$437.605.1%
2004N/A$467.206.8%
2005$734.69$496.006.2%
2006$750.70$512.10 3.2%
2007$755.13$526.00 2.7%
2008$694.19$501.50-4.7%
2009$681.83$502.67 0.2%
2010$718.98$528.77 5.2%
2011$740.57$553.26 4.6%
2012$752.24$567.65 2.6%
2013$767.24$583.52 2.8%
2014$802.45$611.52 4.8%
2015$805.65$628.17 2.7%
2016$935.58$646.723.0%
2017$967.13$679.24 5.0%
2018$1,007.24$691.481.8%
2019$1,047.83$718.643.9%
2020$997.79$777.358.2%
2021N/A$886.714.1%
Source: thebalance.com Here are a few more handpicked Black Friday statistics:
  • Black Friday/ Cyber Monday weekend saw sales of $7.5 billion from independent businesses worldwide, a 19% increase
  • Black Friday online sales totaled a record $9.12 billion in 2022
  • 87.2 million US consumers shopped online on Black Friday in 2022
  • In 2022, 31% of customers started their Black Friday spree on Thursday, while 15% aimed to begin shopping for gifts between midnight and 5 AM on Friday.

Black Friday Shopping Advice for Your Customers

Whether your customers are ready for some serious door-busting or intend to click their way through shopping, here are a few things you can let them know. Do your research. Do your research beforehand and try not to buy impulsively. Be prepared to shop around to get the best price. Set a budget. Have a particular number in mind you are willing to spend. It can be easy to get carried away if you don’t set a spending limit for yourself, especially with online shopping. Long-term buying. Shopping on Black Friday could save you from last-minute shopping before Xmas. Most of the time, a need for a present will come to the surface just before Xmas. Black Friday shopping can mean more free time during Xmas. Sign up for email newsletters. Make sure your email is on the lists of brands and shops you are interested in. Most sellers send a Black Friday exclusive email that can give you a heads-up on the deals in advance. Remember, email marketing is not dead. Know your rights. Goods should be of satisfactory quality, fit to do the job intended, and be as described. For more info, you can visit the Federal Trade Commission if you live in the US or the European Consumer Organisation if you are a citizen of the EU.

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