consumerism!

It's kinda like our Boxing Day I guess. In that the sales begin.

It would be interesting to see an abstention from Black Friday (it's a corporate invention, right?) in the current economic/political climate - but I guess people need their bargains.

But why now?

and why is it black?

I think it's something to do with them celebrating thanksgiving, being off work and stuff.

Shall I post a Let me Google that for you link?

Turns out it's the start of the Christmas 'shopping season' according to Wikipedia. Like a starter gun to begin spending. The important thing is that it's a holiday :D

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early, often at 4 a.m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many British Commonwealth countries. Black Friday is not actually a holiday, but most non-retail employers give their employees the day off, increasing the number of potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005,[1] although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate,[2] have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time.[3]

The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.[4] Use of the term started before 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black".[5]

For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00, but in the late 2000s, many had crept to 5:00 or even 4:00. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohls, Macy's, Best Buy, and Bealls) will open at midnight for the first time, forcing employees to either go without enough sleep or miss all or part of Thanksgiving with family. A backlash has resulted, with an online petition gathering more than 184,000 virtual signatures urging Target to let their employees have Thanksgiving with their families instead of their employer.[6] Walmart will open at 10:00 on Thanksgiving night and Toys 'R' Us at 9:00. In 2010, Sears was open on Thanksgiving day.

Because Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, the day after occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November.

don't have time to explain, I'm camping outside of toys r us so I can be first in line

I'm American and I don't even really know the source of Black Friday. All I know is that this is the first one I have off from work in 3 years and I have no money to buy a fancy new tv like I say I want every year.

I still don't understand why amazon.co.uk are sending me emails about black friday

The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.[4] Use of the term started before 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black".

So it started off as a negative association to the name and they tried to turn it into a positive one. Oh everything is so good and positive in the advertising world.

Not to be confused with:

Black Thursday

a term used to refer to events which occurred on a Thursday. It has been used in the following cases:

February 6, 1851, Black Thursday, a day of devastating bushfires in Victoria, Australia.

September 18, 1873, during the Panic of 1873 when the U.S. bank Jay Cooke & Company declared bankruptcy, triggering a series of bank failures.[1]

October 24, 1929, the start of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 at the New York Stock Exchange. "Black Tuesday" was the following week on October 29, 1929. It caused the great deppression through exploding.

October 14, 1943, when the Allies suffered large losses during bombing in the Second Raid on Schweinfurt during World War II

Night of 16/17 December 1943, when RAF Bomber Command losses in the Berlin bombing campaign were particularly high due to combat losses and bad weather over home airfields.

August 24, 1995, when the Moscow interbank credit market collapsed[2]

February 8, 1996, the Black World Wide Web protest against the Communications
Decency Act in the United States

July 24, 2003, Jueves negro (Spanish for Black Thursday), when a series of violent political demonstrations created havoc in Guatemala City

The May 6, 2010 Flash Crash, when the Dow Jones briefly lost more than 900 points in response to the 2010 European sovereign debt crisis and algorithmic trading

30 September 2010, when the Irish government revealed to its people the alleged full cost of bailing out Anglo-Irish Bank, causing the country's deficit to rise to 32% of GDP.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

or

Black Wednesday

Refering to the events of 16 September 1992 when the British Conservative government was forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after they were unable to keep it above its agreed lower limit. George Soros, the most high profile of the currency market investors, made over US$1 billion profit by short selling sterling.

In 1997 the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.4 billion, with the actual cost being £3.3 billion which was revealed in 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI).[1]

The trading losses in August and September were estimated at £800 million, but the main loss to taxpayers arose because the devaluation could have made them a profit. The papers show that if the government had maintained $24 billion foreign currency reserves and the pound had fallen by the same amount, the UK would have made a £2.4 billion profit on sterling's devaluation.[2] Newspapers also revealed that the Treasury spent £27 billion of reserves in propping up the pound.

or

Black Tuesday

Is the Wall Street Crash of 1929, an American stock market crash.

Black Tuesday may also refer to:

1967 Tasmanian fires, a day of devastating bushfires in the Australian state of Tasmania

Black Tuesday (film), a 1954 film starring Edward G. Robinson

or

Black Monday

In finance, refers to Monday October 19, 1987, when stock markets around the world crashed, shedding a huge value in a very short time. The crash began in Hong Kong and spread west to Europe, hitting the United States after other markets had already declined by a significant margin. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped by 508 points to 1738.74 (22.61%).[1]

or

Black Sunday

In events may refer to:

Black Sunday, a day of major bushfires in Victoria, Australia during the 1925-26 Victorian bushfire season

Black Sunday (storm), a large dust storm that swept across the Midwestern United States in 1935

Black Sunday (1955), a series of bushfires in South Australia

Black Sunday, the 1955 opening day of Disneyland Park

Black Sunday, the 1982 cancellation of the Colony Shale Oil Project

Black Sunday, the 1984 victory by the Los Angeles Raiders in Super Bowl XVIII

Black Sunday, the 1998 failure of the Denver International Airport Automated Guideway Transit System

Black Sunday, the 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt

or

Black Saturday

may refer to:

Holy Saturday

Black Saturday (France), the busiest day of the year when many people go on holiday

Black Saturday bushfires (2009), when a series of bushfires burnt across the Australian state of Victoria

Black January or Black Saturday (1990), a crackdown on Azeri demonstrations by the Soviet army

Black Saturday (1988), the single worst day of the fires in Yellowstone Park

Black Saturday (wrestling) (1984), when the WWF took over the TBS time slots that had been home to the GCW

Black Saturday (1983), the crisis when the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate was at an all-time low

Black Saturday (Lebanon) (1975), a series of massacres and armed clashes in Beirut

Black Saturday (Cuban Missile Crisis) (1962), when tensions reached their height

Cairo Fire or Black Saturday (1952), a series of riots in Cairo

Operation Agatha or Black Saturday (1946), British arrests of Jewish paramilitaries

Battle of Gazala (1942), a battle between the German Afrika Korps and British armoured divisions

Black Saturday (Mau Movement) (1929), the killing of 11 unarmed people by New Zealand police during a Mau demonstration in Samoa

Black Saturday (1621), a dark, stormy day in Scotland, taken as a sign of Armageddon

Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (1547), a battle fought between the Scottish and the English Royal armies

Black Friday is great because it gets the lunatics out and shopping while I am asleep. By the time I get around to buying all my presents (mid December) there are less of them out and about. In theory. But honestly its been awhile since I got pumped for any Blak Friday deals. Seems like 99% of the time, the extra time you are spending is not worth the extra money you save on typically junky products.

So good :D ^^ (I must watch some of that Fast Show again).

Black Friday is terrifying if you work in retail. People are fucking crazy.

hahahahah

"Black Sunday, the 1955 opening day of Disneyland Park"


what???

Didn't some Brit blog about this last year, or the year before? Also why wouldn't you have sales BEFORE Christmas? Boxing Day sales would seem to encourage everyone to only get each other cash or gift cards for Christmas.

I went around to stores on Black Friday either last year or '09. So crowded. Get there at like 4-5AM. People standing in long ass lines, some even fighting. Otherwise they stand by wrapped-up crates that are protected like the lifeboats at the end of Titanic.

We got breakfast after, so that was nice.





In recent years, I think one (at least the news covered just one) Wal-Mart employee got trampled to death, which was disgusting (on the part that greed and consumption would blind people to step on a human being) and very sad.

Apparently they want to Occupy Black Friday this year. Which is foolish because they will be murdered by rampaging grandma to get 50% of their favorite throw pillow.

Black Friday is fun. If you get murdered its your own fault Mr. Walmart guy standing in front of the doors.

The murder part of my post was sarcastic. Sarcasm. Can't be read on the internet.

Oh man my husband has to pick up our new couch on Friday. and I'm like "no you can't, I'll be a widow!! Just wait, we don't need something to sit on!" And he was like: "Fuck Black Friday, I'm gonna bring you that couch baby and leave a wake of carnage behind me!"

That's what it's like.

Black Friday = WWF Try-Out Day

if you like to follow the masses then more power to you!
i personally stay in a fallout shelter till the coast is clear and i can see the light of day, consumers are like zombies for bargains, shitz crazy! not worth the stress and dealing with the village idiots! and if you work retail...best of luck to you!

....wait....charity.ryan is married?! congrats!

I like that a bunch of the black Friday deals you can now get online on Thursday.

Well I guess we have boxing day sales and then January sales because people don't really need to be encouraged to spent money before Christmas, as everyone is frantically running around buying tones of pointless crap to give to each other in a seemingly meaningless fashion, because Jesus was born 2000 years ago.

So as soon as it is over and everyone is on an anti climax with consumerism cold turkey they drag us out of our homes to spend more money on more pointless crap.

Steve The Great on Nov 22 '11 at 8:05am
hahahahah

"Black Sunday, the 1955 opening day of Disneyland Park"


what???

Yeah, the opening day was apparently terrible because they were only expecting so many people but a lot more showed up. A bunch of rides broke down and none of the drinking fountains worked because the plumbing was still being worked out, so Walt Disney had to choose between drinking fountains and toilets with running water.

They had to have another opening the next day, and that was "officially" Opening Day.

it's the best day of hte year to be beligerent, rude, disrespectful and in a general a total asshole to everyone in your way because you're looking for stuff that someone may or may not really need.

I like that a bunch of the black Friday deals you can now get online


I never go out into that madcapped shit in person.

Yeah I just got an email from amazon.co.uk about it!?!

I've decided that i'll be fighting crazed soccer moms, obnoxious pre-teens and WWII vets tonight at Walmart. Glad I dont have to stand in line outside and wait.

Was at Best Buy yesterday and there were people who had tents set up outside. The cashier inside said they had already been there for 24hrs...