The only trouble with the whole international, interwoven, inter-everything internet is that it frequently throws me a cultural curve-ball (or, to localise it in the spirit of this post, an ‘off spin ball’). One such case is the inexplicable deluge of emails and news feeds I’m getting telling me about the run up to ‘Black Friday‘.
I don’t know about anywhere else, but here associating the colour black with a day usually suggests something pretty bad, so having the likes of Amazon mailing you about it, suggesting that in honour of this event they’re doing special offers, is initially bewildering. But allegedly this is not about financial crashes, wars or suppression of local populaces, it’s entirely a commercial thing, so that’s ok. Apparently it’s associated with people taking an extra day off after Thanksgiving, that US-specific holiday that seems a lot like a good excuse to have 2 Christmas dinners over winter.
Honestly though, couldn’t they have come up with a name that sounded a little less cataclysmic?
November 25th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
But Steve, you’ve never experienced the horror of shopping on Black Friday. Trust me, the ominous name fits it perfectly, as the crowds can at best be described as zombie-esque and at worst as a raging pack of lunatics. It is the most profitable, but more importantly easily the most terrifying day of the year for retailers, hence the name. The parallels with the original Dawn of the Dead are spot on.
November 26th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Ah ok – there was I naively imagining snow-dusted streets with jolly santas on each corner, millionnaires driving past in Model T’s tossing silver dollars to children (who presumably reply ‘Gosh, thanks Mister!’).
Reality sucks
November 27th, 2008 at 1:17 am
(oh, and your comment system doesn’t let commenters know if their comment was successfully logged or not)
kb
November 27th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Try “Buy Nothing Day”
November 27th, 2008 at 4:34 am
erm.. If it’s the most profitable day, why don’t they sell for those prices everyday?
Steve: You could make that reality! Although these days if you chucked silver dollars the kids would say ‘you cheap bastard!’
November 27th, 2008 at 5:34 am
People have literally been crushed to death in department stores as people rush to certain deals, so the term Black Friday might not be quite the misnomer it seems.
And yeah, Thanksgiving is definitely the *other* Christmas dinner. I love it.
November 27th, 2008 at 7:22 am
It is also often irrational because the supposed deals they are after, generally amount to an equivalent of couple of visits to a local McDonald or a similar place … in other words, skipping on (most likely unnecessary anyway) stop by McDonald once or twice a month would give them the same result.
I suspect for many people it is simply a thrill, an entertainment of sorts.
November 27th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I don’t know how you didn’t know about Black Friday when you consider that when you, Andy Mac Nab and I first went to New York for a pre Christmas shop many years ago, we arrive smach bang on Black Friday and as a consequence had to face the absolutely unbelievably busy New York streets and shops as a result…
Obviously when we planned or trip we had no idea that the Friday following Thanksgiving would be as busy as that!
That, my friend, was Black Friday!
November 27th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I honestly don’t remember it being called that, but then I don’t tend to pay much attention to that kind of thing. Was it super busy? I don’t really remember, 15 years is a long time!