Black Friday (retail)

Black Friday (retail)
Name	Black Friday (retail)
Date	"Day after Thanksgiving (United States)"
Location	"Primarily United States; international adoption"
Significance	"Major annual retail sales event"

Contents

Black Friday (retail) is an annual retail sales phenomenon observed primarily on the day after Thanksgiving (United States), marked by large-scale promotions, doorbuster discounts, and high consumer turnout. Retailers such as Walmart, Target, Amazon, Best Buy, and Costco deploy cross-channel strategies drawing shoppers from metropolitan centers like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago as well as from regional hubs such as Dallas, Atlanta, and Seattle. Observers from institutions including the National Retail Federation, U.S. Census Bureau, International Council of Shopping Centers, and Bureau of Labor Statistics analyze sales, traffic, and employment metrics to assess retail performance, while commentators at The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg L.P., Forbes, and CNBC cover trends and controversies.

History

The modern retail event evolved from mid-20th-century seasonal promotions at department stores like Macy's, Sears, Roebuck and Co., J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, and Macy's Herald Square locations, with early high-volume shopping traditions linked to parades such as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and holiday markets in Philadelphia and Boston. Academic researchers at institutions like Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Stanford University trace commercialization through shifts in retail models by firms including Kmart Corporation, Nordstrom, Inc., Dillard's, and Saks Fifth Avenue. Trade organizations such as the National Retail Federation and media outlets including Time (magazine) documented the expansion of weekend sales into weeklong events as e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon began offering online equivalents, while logistics carriers such as United Parcel Service, FedEx, United States Postal Service, and DHL Express adjusted capacity to handle peak seasonal volumes.

Scholars and journalists debate the etymology of the label, citing uses in municipal reports from police departments in cities like Philadelphia Police Department and Baltimore Police Department describing heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and business periodicals referencing phrases coined by retailers including executives at Wanamaker's and Chrysler Corporation. Alternative explanations reference accounting practices documented by firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG that described moving from red ink to black ink for profitability, as reported by newspapers like The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. Cultural historians at Yale University, Princeton University, and University of California, Berkeley analyze the term alongside postwar consumer culture described by authors from The Atlantic and The Smithsonian Institution.

Retailers implement tactics including doorbuster pricing, limited-quantity offers, loss leaders, loyalty program incentives, and omnichannel fulfillment using platforms from Shopify, Magento (Adobe Commerce), Salesforce, and Oracle Corporation. Major chains such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Kohl's, Home Depot, Lowe's, IKEA, Macy's, Nordstrom, Inc., and TJX Companies coordinate advertising across outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google Ads, and TikTok while leveraging data from Nielsen Holdings, Comscore, and Adobe Analytics for targeted promotions. Payment networks including Visa Inc., Mastercard Incorporated, American Express, and PayPal handle surge volumes even as point-of-sale vendors like Square and Ingenico Group support in-store transactions. Supply-chain partners such as UPS, FedEx, XPO Logistics, and major wholesalers tune inventory forecasting with enterprise systems from SAP SE and Microsoft Dynamics.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup monitor Black Friday spending as an indicator for seasonal retail revenues and employment trends tracked by Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau retail sales reports. Consumer research by firms like Nielsen Holdings, Kantar Group, McKinsey & Company, and Bain & Company examines substitution effects between in-store purchases and e-commerce from Amazon and marketplace sellers, while behavioral economists at London School of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Chicago study scarcity cues, herd behavior, and discount framing. Municipalities including Las Vegas, Orlando, and Houston experience tourism and hospitality effects reported by local chambers of commerce and state revenue departments, and labor organizations such as Service Employees International Union and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union negotiate seasonal staffing and wage issues.

High-profile incidents at outlets like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and independent malls have included crowd surges, stampedes, and disputes that drew responses from local police departments and emergency services, with coverage by CNN, BBC News, The Guardian, Reuters, and Associated Press. Legal actions involving retailers have engaged courts at the level of United States District Court decisions and municipal ordinances addressing opening-hours regulation and worker protections. Activist groups such as Occupy Wall Street and labor advocates at AFL–CIO have organized protests and campaigns against certain practices, while public safety studies by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and Federal Emergency Management Agency advise on crowd management and incident response.

Versions of the event have been adopted and adapted in markets including United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Brazil, Mexico, China, India, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, and Russia, often synchronized with local holidays and retail calendars such as Boxing Day in United Kingdom and Canada. E-commerce giants including Alibaba Group (notably Singles' Day), JD.com, Rakuten, and Mercado Libre run parallel campaigns while broadcasters and publishers like BBC News, NHK, and GMA Network report on regional consumer responses. Regulatory bodies such as the Competition and Markets Authority and national consumer protection agencies monitor advertising claims, price parity, and fair-trading standards, and multinational retailers including H&M, Zara (Inditex), Primark, Carrefour, and Auchan tailor promotions to local market dynamics.

Category:Retail events