Black Friday

As soon as one heavily-marketed holiday is over, consumers are bombarded with the next.  In Canada, it seems the Christmas decorations go up in stores before the Halloween candy gets discounted.  South of the border, today, the day after American Thanksgiving, marks the launch of the Christmas shopping season.  It is known as "Black Friday" because it is the point in the year when retailers' books move from the red to the black.  The holiday season is often looked upon as make-or-break time, and can account for up to half of retailers' annual profits. In recent years the trend has been for stores to open at 5:00 or 6:00 am on this Friday, or even as the clock strikes midnight at the end of Thanksgiving Day, offering deep discounts on big-ticket items to attract customers before the competition opens.  These opening day specials have apparently led to a drop in actual sales figures for Black Friday (the busiest day of the season is now the Saturday before Christmas Day) but it's still considered the "official" launch of the season.  So when the Vancouver-born consumption awareness campaign Buy Nothing Day went global in 1997, it moved its annual event from September to Black Friday. [more on Buy Nothing Day in my next post]

CBC News, Nov. 24: U.S. shoppers hit stores on "Black Friday"

Black Friday: A Man-Made Monster Is On The Loose!