Well, here we are, the day after Thanksgiving. If you are anything like me, you ate too much and are currently working through your second roll of TUMS. But that is a good thing, something to be thankful for, both the plentiful food and a wide range of antacids to choose from. We all know there’s always room for a second piece of pumpkin pie.
No time to waste though, Black Friday awaits. After a day of giving thanks, it’s time to put on your shopping face and get into the game. Christmas officially begins, just like Jesus planned.
But isn’t America great? We have Thanksgiving Day to get our holiday juices flowing. It’s a great pre- game festivity leading up to the big show – Christmas! Christmas is celebrated worldwide; we Americans have Thanksgiving Day all to ourselves.
A little Black Friday history I came across –
The origin of Black Friday as we know it today started in Philadelphia during the 1950s and ’60s. Crowds of people would come to town the day after Thanksgiving for the annual Army-Navy football game held the following Saturday. Streets and stores were always packed, which was great for business but made easy pickings for shoplifters. Local police called this Black Friday, and for good reason. Not only did they have to deal with extra traffic and shoplifting, but they also had to work extra hours and couldn’t request the day off.
When the term spread across the nation in the late 1980s, the definition changed. While retailers generally suffered financial losses most of the year, the surge of holiday shoppers marked the first day of real profit. In traditional accounting practices, losses were recorded in red ink, and profits in black ink. And that’s why the day after Thanksgiving, when companies go “into the black” and make a profit, became Black Friday.
So, in short, Black Friday is about retailers going into the black and consumers going into the red. Makes sense to me.
American holiday shoppers will spend an estimated $985 billion in 2024 with $297 billion of that purchased online, accounting for thirty percent of holiday sales. Eighty percent of the $985 billion is for gifts, the rest is for Christmas trees, manger scenes, wrapping paper, decorations, etc.
In 2024, holiday shoppers are expected to spend a total of $55 billion on electronics, $44 billion on apparel, and $29 billion on furniture and home goods. Those are your top three gift categories.
How do I know all this? I googled it.
That’s a lot of cash being tossed around, I know I’ll spend my fair share. I always end up spending more than I had planned. I enjoy giving gifts, almost as much as I enjoy receiving them! I ain’t gonna lie, I don’t want to end up on the naughty list this close to Christmas.
I would struggle mightily to tell you what I received last year for Christmas. Most gifts, but not all, have no emotional value to them and are quickly forgotten. That’s just the way it is. That toy your child had to have last year most likely found its way to a garage sale, and that perfect shirt you spent hours searching for to give to your friend is now wadded up in a clothes hamper with two buttons missing.
By no means am I suggesting that gift giving is meaningless, it can be very meaningful. The objective of gift buying is to make the other person happy; I see no foul in that. Plus, there is nothing like seeing a child run to a brand-new bike under the tree on Christmas morning.
We buy things for people at Christmas, and there is nothing wrong in doing so. But after the Christmas tree is placed back in the attic and the lights are taken down from the roof, the only gift that lives beyond all the money spent on things is love for family and friends. That is something that carries no price tag and is not sold at a discount on Black Friday.
I’m old enough – and lucky enough – to have learned where my greatest gifts in life come from, everything outside of that can be bought and sold on eBay. Even still, fill my stocking up!
Happy Black Friday!
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Todd Howey is a columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose articles appear on Fridays. Email comments to [email protected].
