You may (or may not) be surprised to learn that Black Friday is the most popular shopping day of the entire year. That’s right – according to the National Retail Federation, an estimated 77 million Americans shop brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday, while 174 million shop either online or in-store. Though things might look different this year due to the pandemic, there’s no doubt about it:
Black Friday shopping remains as popular as ever.
However, Black Friday wasn’t always Americans’ shopping day of choice. In fact, the day’s early history looks very different than what you might expect. Read on to discover a few cool facts about Black Friday.
The term “Black Friday” was initially associated with a famous stock market crash.
Ever wondered why we call Black Friday that? It has to do with the stock market. In 1869, two men looking to make a profit in finance hatched a plan to conspire against the gold market. However, their plan backfired tremendously, forcing the market to crash on Friday, September 24, 1869. The date went down in infamy as Black Friday.
Black Friday as we know it got started in the 1950s.
“Black Friday” wasn’t used to refer to a shopping holiday until the mid-1900s. According to historians, Philadelphia police used the term to refer to the chaotic scene at shopping malls when tourists would flood the city for the annual Army vs. Navy football game. Then, in the 1980s, the term caught on with retailers, who decided to lend “Black Friday” a more positive connotation so they could turn a profit.
The average American spends $335.00 over Thanksgiving weekend.
You’re certainly not the only one looking to drop hundreds of dollars on Black Friday and the days that follow. Studies show that the average person spends over $300.00 during this popular shopping weekend and that a vast majority of that cash goes toward holiday gifts.
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