Ah Black Friday, that once uniquely American celebration of all things consumerism, which is now a worldwide sales phenomenon that blows up the email inboxes of billions of people every year with 50% discounts on things they definitely don’t need (and a few things they do). 

Black Friday, falling traditionally on the Friday after the 4th Thursday in November, originated in the long holiday weekend following Thanksgiving Thursday in the United States.

A Spirit of Thanksgiving 

The Thanksgiving celebration is based on the story of a harvest feast shared by the Wampanoag people and their English settler neighbors, the Pilgrims, in the Plymouth colony, in the modern day state of Massachusetts in 1621. 

The legend of the feast grew from a series of extreme hardships for the religious colonists, most of whom had been ill-equipped and poorly supplied to survive the harsh conditions in their fledgling colony. Generally it is held that the celebration marked a turning point in the history of the colonies of New England. The native tribe took pity on the struggling settlers, and taught them how to cultivate local crops and animals, including turkey, potatoes, corn, and pumpkins. 

While the true history of the celebration, and relations between the colonists and native people is quite a bit more nuanced and historically sketchy, the holiday gained widespread support in the United States during the 19th century. Today it marks an idealized spirit of thankfulness and cooperation, when families and communities come together to enjoy a meal of especially American character, with foods native to New England. Today, many ethnic communities in America adapt the holiday to include items from their own cultural heritage or local cuisines. 

A Short History of Black Friday

It didn’t take the rapidly industrializing United States long to notice that a four day work holiday near the end of November also provided shoppers with an opportunity to purchase Christmas gifts in local shops. And so it wasn’t long before the Thanksgiving holiday became intrinsically linked with the beginning of the “Christmas Shopping Season.” 

Bookkeepers of the 19th century often used red ink to denote financial losses, reserving black ink for profits and positive cash flow. This crucial shopping weekend became known among retailers as “Black Friday,” because it was the day when many shops got “into the black,” or profits, for the year.

By the 20th century, the long Thanksgiving weekend had become so crucial to the expanding consumer economy of the US that retailers often planned for it all year, hiring extra workers, and working hard to entice shoppers to travel over long distances and make the bulk of their yearly purchases in one big shopping trip. Black Friday expanded not only in its scope, but also in its duration, with shops opening earlier and earlier on Black Friday, or in the early morning hours on Thanksgiving Day itself.

Today of course, Black Friday has caught on all over the world, with sales and promotions running through much of November and into December. Follow-on events like “Cyber Monday,” now sometimes called “Cyber Week” also attract shoppers to digital purchases to go with their brand new electronic gadgets. New and updated products also debut during this season, giving shoppers a reason to part with a year’s savings to buy the latest and greatest toys. 

Shopping Fever

Another thing that Black Friday represents for many, unfortunately, is overconsumption and waste. Retailers have become so reliant on the lure of discounts and splurge purchases, that they will go to extreme lengths to get shoppers through their doors. Retailers like Walmart and Target offer so-called “loss leaders,” or products that lose the retailers money, in hopes that the attractive prices will convince buyers to spend more of their hard-earned money than they had planned to. 

Black Friday in recent years has only gotten bigger, with nearly 10% year-over-year sales increases in the United States. All told, American shoppers spend upwards of $100 billion on Black Friday shopping events alone. In the United States especially, an incredible 95% of shoppers make significant holiday purchases during the Black Friday weekend.

Black Friday Tips: 

Contending with this bonanza of spending, how can consumers avoid some of the major pitfalls of overspending, fueled by an endless supply of credit cards, discounts, and product debuts? In our hyper-connected world, what are the best ways to make sure you’re saving as much as you can, and not missing the deals you look forward to all year? Here are a few of our Black Friday shopping tips: 

Save and Budget

Budgeting and saving are critical to success at this time of year. You can use Wallet to create special Black Friday shopping lists, and anticipate how much you’ll need to purchase everything you want. Research past promotions at your favorite retailers to get an idea of what you can expect this year.

Skip the Store

Not only is in-store shopping more stressful at this time of year, but you’re also likely to overspend by picking up items you hadn’t planned to acquire. Big retailers plan for this event all year, so they will have their stores arranged in such a way that shoppers will by and large spend more than they had planned. Meanwhile, Cyber Week deals often extend for weeks before and after Black Friday, making online shopping easy. 

Wait for Post Christmas Deals 

Another trick is to hold out on big ticket items like TVs and computers until just after the Christmas shopping season. Retailers often let go of year-old models and unsold surplus inventory from their Black Friday sales, making shopping after Christmas one of the absolute best times to acquire items like TVs, washing machines, mobile phones, and many other household items that will soon be replaced by newer models. This is a great time to buy older models for price conscious shoppers.

Another huge opportunity in the post-holiday season is the chance to pick up opened-package items, usually returned by someone who received them as a gift. These items, never used but with broken packaging, are covered by legal warrantees, and are usually at least 25% cheaper than unopened items. 

Sign Up for Email discounts

Most of us just leave that “sign up for email marketing” square blank when we make online purchases. After all, once you’ve given permission for a company to email you, you’re likely to be inundated with spam. However, during this time before and after Black Friday, you’re much more likely to receive genuinely good discounts on anything from digital services, online subscriptions (like to newspapers), and other items that are commonly bought online. 

You can always unsubscribe from these messages after the holiday season, but for now, e-mail is a key source of fantastic deals. 

Use Loyalty Programs

Your holiday shopping is also a great time to take advantage of loyalty programs, such as point systems at retailers, or special offers from your credit card provider. Try to do your shopping according to who will give you the most benefits. This is why planning ahead is so key. 

Be Careful with Credit Cards

🎵 ‘Tis the season to overspend, la la la laaa la la laa laaa 🎵

Don’t forget that your credit card is best used as a source of ready cash, but not a way to spend more money than you have. Keep your credit card purchases to only as much as you can immediately pay back. Otherwise those great black friday deals won’t be anywhere near as great when you’re paying 18% a year in interest to pay off your cards. 

Forget Gift Cards

Retailers and restaurants love gift cards. Do you know why? Because at any given time, Americans alone hold over $23 billion in unused gift card cash. That’s about $187 per person in the whole country. 

Think about it: what would be better for a retailer than collecting money, interest free, from customers who may well forget they even received a gift card, and are as likely as not to never spend the full amount? Or, even better, customers will use their gift cards, and inevitably add yet more purchases in the process, making the retailer even more money. Gift cards are a gift to big business, and not something that benefits the consumer. If you must, give cash, or have your friends and relatives make a list of items they would like to receive instead. 

Don’t start too early (or too late!)

Pacing is everything in the holiday season. Don’t bite on too many black Friday deals too early. Consider that even steeper discounts may be available on the day, or even after the shopping season, as mentioned above. If you spend all your money on early-bird deals, you may miss out on some even better offers. 

Check Competitors

Now is not the time to do all your purchases on Amazon, or at a single physical store. Look around for the best deals, and consider that stores very well know what their competitors are charging in other stores, and online. Always ask, if you find a cheaper price somewhere else, if the store can match that price? Sometimes they will agree to this. It never hurts to ask.

Enjoy your Black Friday shopping, and happy holidays from the team at BudgetBakers!