MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Black Friday

Black Friday

posted 6 months ago by R_Kane (15828)
4 replies | jump to latest

I write this on the dawn of so-called Black Friday, 2023. I am SO GLAD that 10 years ago I looked around at the Black Friday preparations in my big-box, grab-and-go, get-helped-by-a-GED-holder-with-a-cell-phone-up-his-ass cash-grab of a retail outlet, and I thought, “I am not taking another Black Friday,” and I quit. As I write this, Best Buy etc. are sending emails to their floor staff, thanking them for giving up Thanksgiving for the greater glory of an incompetent retail business model that does not know how to make money year—around. I will live longer and MUCH happier, now.

Studies have found that MOST people—educated, employed, well-adjusted adults—finish their Christmas shopping by the start of November. Online shopping options make this rapid completion easier with each passing year—but the retailers still do not adapt, bring years behind the tech they purport to sell the consumer. “Hey: Cyber Monday!” They say. Yeah, Cyber Monday, when the servers crash and we can’t read your bank card and complete your transaction. THAT Cyber Monday??

[–] SaveTheSeason (286) 6 months ago

It's called the day after Thanksgiving. The bogus term "Black Friday" needs to be removed from the lexicon. It's merely industry jargon that originated with the American department stores, from the accounting phrase "in the black," meaning to turn a profit. The After-Thanksgiving Sales (also the proper term) were highly profitable, so the retailers began to refer to the day as (in the) "black Friday."

The media got wind of the term and it eventually spread to public usage sometime during the 1990s. The retailers and the advertising industry now had a convenient buzzword with which they could dupe the populace. They've done a great job with this con game, getting people to believe that this is the biggest, must-attend sales event of the year, when in reality it isn't. There are sales being conducted at other times of the year that offer much better savings than this contrived nonsense.

If people would think and plan ahead (I realize this is too difficult for some to comprehend) they would keep an eye out for these other sales. If there's an item at a Memorial Day Sale that you know someone would like as a gift, purchase it then and store it away until December. You could have the majority of your shopping finished before Halloween, and there would be no reason to ruin the Thanksgiving weekend. And you will save a lot more money.

It's a shame that this "Black Friday" rubbish ended up crossing the border into Canada and has begun infecting countries in Europe. This is a spreading cancer and it needs to be stopped. We can begin by calling the day by its proper designation.

2023 Holiday Schedule:
If you live in the U.S.:
November 23 is Thanksgiving Day, a holiday and not a day for stores to be open.
November 24 is the day after Thanksgiving, not "Black Friday."

If you live outside of the U.S.:
November 23 and 24 are just ordinary days in November.

[–] parkerbot (5898) 6 months ago

What I can't get is why is it still called Black Friday?

Are we to associate black folks with deals? Without being able to pay full price for things? With crazy and rude shoppers?

I mean, if we're all in, we're all in.

We are all in right?

[–] R_Kane (15828) 6 months ago

The “black” comes from “in the black,” meaning “turning a prophet.”
It would take me years to enumerate everything that is stupid about the retail business, but sheer feckless sloth is at the top of the list. It loses money all year, until the Holiday Buying Frenzy arrives. Then they rake in the dough—out of the red (negative cash flow) and into the black (a profit).

[–] parkerbot (5898) 6 months ago

Someone turned Jesus or Mohammed?

Yikes.