How Black Friday went from a fun, family tradition to competitive shopping

American consumerism has driven Black Friday from one day to a full season of sales and spending

Today's expression: For better or for worse
Explore more: Lesson #318
December 7, 2020:

Black Friday used to be a fun family tradition for when families got together for the long Thanksgiving weekend. But over the years, American consumerism has driven Black Friday from a one-day shopping event to a full season of sales and spending. It’s evolved into an exhausting, competitive and even dangerous event. Plus, learn “for better or for worse.”

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An oral history of Black Friday

Lesson summary

All right, “oral history” might be a bit of an exaggeration. This is just my personal memory of how Black Friday has gone over the years.

Thanks for joining us for Plain English. I’m Jeff; JR is the producer; and you are listening to Lesson 318 of Plain English. You can find the full lesson at PlainEnglish.com/318.

So like I was saying, today I’ll give you my personal history of Black Friday. The actual term goes back to the 1950s or so, but my perspective dates back to the late 80s, early 90s. So I’ll share that with you. The expression is “for better or for worse” and we have a quote of the week.

Black Friday: the good, the bad and the ugly

It all started as a nice, wholesome family tradition. American Thanksgiving is our biggest national holiday and it comes on a Thursday in late November. It has always been common for people to have Thursday and Friday off, making it a long four-day holiday weekend. More Americans travel on Thanksgiving than on any other day of the year—in a normal year. They travel by air and by car, but this is a big domestic travel day. Some families do Thanksgiving abroad, but most stay in the States.

Most things are closed on Thanksgiving. Offices, banks, hair salons, restaurants, and stores are closed; many grocery stores and fitness centers are open only until about noon or 1 pm. For better or for worse, you’re stuck inside with your family, watching football and enjoying a big meal on Thanksgiving Day.

After the Thanksgiving celebrations on Thursday, it was common for family members to go out shopping on Friday as they start to think about the Christmas gift-giving season. A lot of big movies come out on Thanksgiving weekend, so going out together to see movies and do some shopping was always a good family tradition, since extended families were already together for the holiday.

Most stores and malls would have special sales and promotions as they all competed for shoppers’ attention. It was common, through most of the 80s and 90s, for malls to open super-early in the morning—7 o’clock or even 6 o’clock in the morning—and shoppers would make an event out of their Black Friday shopping, waking up early together, deciding what stores to go to first, and standing in line waiting for the doors to open. For many people—never for me, but for many people—it was a nice family tradition. Television news made it an event, with reporters interviewing consumers about the shopping they were doing and the deals they were finding. Newspapers were full of coupons. TV commercials were all about holiday sales.

Well. This turned into an arms race, and it was American consumerism at its most outlandish. Stores eventually started opening earlier and earlier, each trying to get an edge on the competition. People were camping out overnight in the parking lots of major retailers, waiting for bargains. When stores started opening at 5:00 am, I thought, this can’t get any worse. Oh, it got worse. 4:30 am, 4:00 am, until one year, 2011, the malls and stores opened at midnight.

This was certifiably insane. Shoppers, hungry for bargains, would shop all night long. Stores would have hourly sales to keep people coming into the store late into the night and into Friday morning. Meanwhile, Black Friday shopping became a contact sport. Retailers would publicize deep, deep discounts that applied to just a limited amount of merchandize. The trick was to get people in the door for the deep discounts, but then make money on the other shopping they’d do there. This didn’t turn out well. There would be news stories about injuries as people fought over limited sales or stampeded doors when they opened. It became ugly.

But retailers and shoppers couldn’t help themselves. The insanity continued and in 2012 and 2013, stores were opening at six or eight in the evening on Thanksgiving itself, supposedly the one holiday that everyone in the country had off.

After a couple of years of this, a backlash started to take hold. What started as a fun family tradition turned into an exhausting, competitive, possibly dangerous ordeal. Companies, and shoppers, started to think about their employees. Thanksgiving is a national holiday: if stores opened on Thanksgiving night, that ruined the holiday for the workers. What’s more, as online shopping became more popular, the importance of in-person Black Friday shopping started to diminish, as people realized it was easier to shop for bargains from home.

Cooler heads prevailed. Companies publicly stated they were looking out for employees and agreed to stay closed on Thursday. But the online promotions went into over-drive and “Black Friday” is now a season rather than a day, with many “Black Friday” online sales starting the week before. At the same time, workers have a bit more flexibility in their ability to shop, and the winter holiday shopping season is now spread over November and December. The most important shopping days for retailers are now December 23 and 24, the days right before Christmas.

Any good Black Friday deals?

We had a number of people take advantage of our Black Friday specials to join Plain English Plus+. Did you find anything good online? Let me know in our free Facebook group: tell us about what Black Friday is like in your country and how it compares to what you heard today. If you’re not yet a member, come join us at PlainEnglish.com/Facebook.

I got a speaker on Black Friday, that’s about it. I got it online. I didn’t venture out into the stores. I am planning on getting a more casual winter coat, now that I’m not commuting into an office any longer. But I know there will be more sales as we get closer to Christmas, so I didn’t feel the urgency this year at Black Friday.

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Expression: For better or for worse