The Friday after Thanksgiving may look like a sudden rush for bargains. For retailers, however, it is the visible result of decisions made months earlier: which products to discount, how much stock to order, where to advertise and how to deliver purchases. Black Friday is both a sales event and a revealing chapter in the history of business coordination.
Its origins are less straightforward than a popular slogan suggests. Stores advertised post-Thanksgiving offers long before the shopping day acquired its familiar name. The expression “Black Friday” was used in other contexts before it became associated with traffic and crowds in Philadelphia. Only later did a more flattering account connect it to retailers moving from losses into profits. The development from local terminology to an international promotional season shows how a date can become a commercial event – and how businesses can reshape the stories told about it.
Before Black Friday: The creation of a holiday shopping season
A sales event needs an economic and cultural setting. The growth of department stores, holiday gift-buying and mass advertising made the weeks before Christmas increasingly important to retailers. At the National Museum of American History, William Lawrence Bird describes how stores around the turn of the twentieth century used elaborate windows, decorations and later Santa Claus parades to attract visitors. The store became a destination; shopping was embedded in a wider seasonal experience (Bird, 2011).
This history complicates the notion that Black Friday appeared fully formed on a single date. Merchants had already learned to connect public entertainment, urban space and sales. A window display could draw attention even when no immediate purchase followed. A parade could deliver a crowd to a commercial district while also becoming a civic occasion.
Smithsonian researcher James I. Deutsch identifies an 1894 newspaper advertisement by a store in Lima, Ohio, promoting special values for the Friday after Thanksgiving. It is evidence of a sale at that time of year, not evidence that the retailer called it “Black Friday”. Exactly when post-Thanksgiving shopping began cannot be reduced to one conclusively identified business (Deutsch, 2021).
Thanksgiving and the politics of retail time
The distance between Thanksgiving and Christmas was not merely a natural feature of the calendar. From Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation, Thanksgiving was regularly observed on the final Thursday of November. In 1939 that fell unusually late. Concerned that a short Christmas shopping season could impede economic recovery, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Thanksgiving a week earlier, on the second-to-last Thursday (National Archives, n.d.).
States responded differently. According to the National Archives, some followed the new date while others retained the old one. Congress eventually settled on the fourth Thursday in November. Roosevelt signed the measure on 26 December 1941, and it took effect the following year (National Archives, n.d.; National Archives, 2023).
This was not the invention of Black Friday, nor does the change alone prove that retail profits increased everywhere. It demonstrates something broader: holidays, commercial planning and economic policy can become intertwined. Public authorities set a calendar; individual businesses still had to decide how to use the time it created.
1869: A different Black Friday
Before it became a shopping term, “Black Friday” could describe a disastrous day. On 24 September 1869, attempts by Jay Gould and James Fisk to influence the US gold market contributed to a financial panic. The consequences reached beyond the speculators themselves (History, 2026).
The shared wording does not make the financial panic the direct origin of the present shopping event. “Black” could be applied to different days associated with calamity. A reliable chronology asks which Friday is under discussion and what the term meant in that particular source.
Another widely circulated claim links the modern sales event to a supposed post-Thanksgiving discount market for enslaved people. The specific origin story is unsupported. Rejecting it does not minimise the real history of slavery or the trade in enslaved people; it separates documented historical violence from an unsubstantiated explanation of this particular retail term (History, 2026).
1951: A problem for employers
An early published use of “Black Friday” for the day after Thanksgiving appeared in the trade journal Factory Management and Maintenance in 1951. Later linguistic research identified the reference as a discussion of employees failing to report to work or calling in sick to obtain a long weekend (GBH, 2015).
The find links the phrase to the same day, but not yet to the fully developed shopping story. It is evidence of a negative workplace perspective. It does not, on its own, establish that this article caused the later Philadelphia usage.
The distinction also reveals why dates become meaningful differently across institutions. A day of staffing problems for one employer could be a commercial opportunity for a retailer and a welcome break for a family. The calendar did not dictate a single interpretation.
Philadelphia: Crowds, traffic and a public-relations problem
Philadelphia is central to the shopping-related history. The Friday after Thanksgiving brought heavy downtown traffic and large crowds, creating extra work for police. A 1961 Public Relations News account recorded the use of “Black Friday” and “Black Saturday” for the difficult shopping days. The Library of Congress likewise connects the term’s retail history to Philadelphia and traffic congestion (GBH, 2015; Library of Congress, 2009).
The Army-Navy football game is often mentioned as an additional source of visitors when it was held in the city on the following Saturday. It should not be presented as an event that inevitably took place in Philadelphia every year or as the sole proven cause of the name.
For business interests, a negative label was a communications problem. Some promoters reportedly tried friendlier alternatives such as “Big Friday”. The episode is an early example of place marketing: the same crowd could be described by police as a logistical burden and by retailers as a source of business. The speaker’s position shaped the story (GBH, 2015).
The appealing myth of turning a profit
One familiar explanation says that retailers operated at a loss all year and moved “into the black” on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Red and black can indeed be used to distinguish losses and positive results. As an account of how the shopping term originated, however, the story is not supported by the earlier Philadelphia evidence (History, 2026).
It is also a poor generalisation about business performance. Fiscal years, margins, costs and seasonal demand vary. Revenue on one busy day is not the same as profit: merchandise costs, wages, rent, advertising, shipping and returns must also be considered. A large sales figure therefore cannot demonstrate that every retailer became profitable on that date.
As a later brand story, the explanation was powerful. It converted an unpleasant name into an accessible narrative of commercial success. The episode illustrates a central distinction in marketing history: an effective interpretation of a brand need not be its documented origin.
From local shopping to a national promotion
The spread of the name and the evolution of retail formats did not happen simultaneously everywhere. Department stores, discount chains, suburban malls and local businesses faced different conditions. A decorated downtown street attracted shoppers differently from a nationally advertised offer available across many branches.
A shared date gave retailers a planning device. Newspaper inserts, television advertising and later digital campaigns could build anticipation. Customers could learn to expect offers at a particular time. Yet coordination also intensified competition: many sellers were trying to capture attention and spending during the same period.
A deeply discounted item could bring people into a store, but its value to the business depended on more than the headline price. Related purchases, inventory costs, advertising expense and possible long-term loyalty all affected the result. An impressive discount on one product is not by itself evidence of a profitable event.
Cyber Monday and the move across channels
E-commerce introduced another label to the extended weekend: Cyber Monday. The National Retail Federation now discusses Black Friday and Cyber Monday as part of a five-day period from Thanksgiving through the following Monday. In practice, promotions also begin earlier and continue beyond a single day (NRF, n.d.).
The name Cyber Monday offers a particularly clear example of public relations creating a commercial label. Shop.org, the National Retail Federation’s online retail division, used it in a press release dated 21 November 2005. The release cited a survey of online retailers as evidence of growing interest. Its findings describe the businesses surveyed, not an official census of every US online transaction (Shop.org, 2005).
Georgetown University describes the role of Ellen Davis, then working in public relations for Shop.org, in developing the name. The campaign packaged an observed pattern in a phrase that journalists could readily use. Research and publicity helped establish a new entry in the retail calendar without proving that online shopping on that Monday had itself been invented in 2005 (Georgetown University, n.d.).
The simple contrast of an in-store Black Friday and an online-only Cyber Monday no longer describes the full customer journey. Retailers sell online and in physical stores on both days. A shopper may discover a product on social media, compare prices on a phone, order through an app and collect it in a store. Coordinating availability, price and messaging across these points becomes an operational as well as a promotional task.
Longer “Black Week” campaigns change the economics of urgency. A short deadline can concentrate attention; a longer promotion gives retailers more time to distribute demand and process orders. Whether either approach improves profit depends on the products, customers and costs involved. A longer event also risks making an allegedly exceptional day feel less exceptional.
What US online spending figures show
Adobe reported US online spending of $11.8 billion on Black Friday 2025. It put Cyber Monday at $14.25 billion and the five-day Cyber Week total at $44.2 billion. These are Adobe Analytics estimates for US online retail, not worldwide sales or all purchases in physical stores (Adobe, 2025).
The scope is essential. Online revenue is not profit. Nor can an estimate of total US e-commerce automatically be compared with a survey of retailers or a single marketplace’s gross merchandise value. The populations, time periods and financial concepts differ.
The figures do show that a day once strongly associated with physical store openings has become important online. They do not establish the financial result for every merchant. Some purchases may be brought forward from another week, and higher revenue may coincide with lower margins or higher fulfilment costs.
Germany and the disputed Apple-first claim
An often-repeated account says Apple introduced Black Friday to Germany in 2006 and was the first company to advertise it under that name. In a 2020 decision, Germany’s Federal Patent Court examined supporting materials and stated that the cited sources did not establish that specific claim about Apple itself. It noted the possibility that accounts of Apple, authorised resellers and reporting had been conflated (Bundespatentgericht, 2020).
That does not disprove every early German discount on an Apple product. It means historians need to distinguish a manufacturer’s own campaign from a reseller’s offer and from a journalist’s later description. Repetition does not turn a disputed first into a verified one.
The decision also identifies a specific early example: evidence was submitted of a Lidl promotion advertised as Black Friday in 2012. The court could not establish, among other things, which particular goods were covered or how widely the campaign was seen. The evidence supports use of the term, but not a reliable claim about recognition across the entire German population at that time (Bundespatentgericht, 2020).
The German history is better approached as a gradual adoption and spread of an international promotional format. Online retail, price comparison, merchant campaigns and media coverage each contributed. For precise early dates, contemporary advertisements that identify the responsible seller and wording are more useful than later accounts repeating the same claim.
Global comparison: Singles’ Day and other sale traditions
Black Friday is not the only date turned into a commercial event. In China, Alibaba developed 11 November into a major online shopping promotion. Its corporate publication Alizila reports that 27 merchants participated in the inaugural 2009 sale. The date drew on the existing Singles’ Day while giving a platform and its merchants a way to promote online shopping (Alizila, 2014).
Both cases combine a memorable date, publicity and offers from many sellers. Their histories differ: Black Friday emerged from an American holiday and retail environment, while the 11 November promotion has a different cultural background and a particular platform organiser. Comparing sales also requires comparable measures. A marketplace’s gross merchandise value is not automatically the platform operator’s net revenue.
Seasonal clearance sales and shopping festivals elsewhere are older than digital sales events. They show that limited-time promotions are not exclusive to the United States. Similar commercial mechanisms do not, however, prove a direct historical line from one country’s sale tradition to another.
Discounts, reference prices and trust
A discount only has meaning in relation to another price. A large percentage reduction against a manufacturer’s suggested price does not automatically establish that the offer is low compared with recent market prices.
For many announced price reductions, the European Union’s Price Indication Directive generally requires the prior price to be the lowest price the trader applied during at least the preceding 30 days. Details, exceptions and national implementation matter, so a particular campaign requires its own assessment (European Union, 1998).
Price transparency is also a business issue. Repeated questions about inflated reference prices can erode trust. The immediate attraction of a promotion and the long-term value of a customer relationship need to be evaluated separately. A credible offer makes its comparison and availability understandable.
The human cost of a sales rush
In 2008, a worker died when a crowd surged into a store during a Black Friday event in Valley Stream, New York. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration documented the incident and cited inadequate crowd-management measures (OSHA, 2011).
Responsibility for safety cannot be reduced to individual shoppers. Opening procedures, staffing, entrances and crowd-management plans are organisational choices. A campaign designed to generate exceptional demand must consider the conditions under which that demand arrives.
Warehousing, delivery, customer service, returns and packaging are also part of the event’s physical footprint. Moving the purchase online does not make the underlying work disappear. Claims about the labour or environmental effects of a particular retailer nevertheless require specific evidence; the existence of a sale alone does not yield a precise overall impact.
Who pays for the discount?
An advertised discount sits within a set of business relationships. A manufacturer may offer a retailer better wholesale terms; the retailer may accept a lower margin; a platform may fund a voucher or advertising. Combinations are possible. A customer looking at a price tag cannot necessarily see which participant bears which cost.
The allocation matters to business history. A large retailer may negotiate differently from a small independent shop. A marketplace can supply visibility while charging fees and controlling how offers appear. A manufacturer must consider whether a temporary sales increase fits its longer-term price positioning. The same promotion can therefore have different consequences at different points in the supply chain.
A ranking of the largest discounts is not a complete strategic analysis. Contribution margin, available quantities and the customers reached all matter. These figures are specific to a business; public advertising alone does not reveal the profit earned on an individual campaign.
Building attention before the purchase
Black Friday is also a media event. Retailers announce offers, publishers assemble guides and comparison services rank prices. Advertising and editorial coverage may focus attention on the same date, but a particular article still needs to be assessed for whether it is independent reporting, advertising or a paid partnership.
For an online retailer, competition begins before the checkout. Product information must be discoverable, the price and stock status must be accurate, and the page must work on a phone. High campaign reach can disappoint financially if customers abandon the journey because an item is unavailable or conditions are unclear. A smaller business can also reach an appropriate audience without having the largest advertising budget.
The sources show a shift toward shopping across channels; they do not provide a universal formula for search or social media success. Actual search demand needs current data for the relevant market. A visible ranking or advertisement does not, by itself, establish how many people search for a term (NRF, n.d.).
Extra demand or purchases brought forward?
A central question is whether a sale generates additional demand or merely changes its timing. A television bought in November rather than December may increase one week’s sales without necessarily increasing the quarter’s total. At the same time, an appealing offer can attract a competitor’s customer or encourage a purchase that would not otherwise have happened.
Separating those effects takes more than comparing one sales day with the previous year. Changes in range, prices, inventory and advertising can affect the result. Comparisons with similar products or customer groups may help estimate incremental demand, though an appropriate method depends on the data available. Without such analysis, “record revenue” describes an outcome; it does not prove incremental profit.
Returns matter too. Revenue recorded at the time of an order may later be reduced by cancellation or returned goods. Whether an external estimate accounts for those changes depends on its methodology. Before using a published number as proof of success, the reader needs to know what it measures.
Shopping as a repeated ritual
Black Friday is not only a question of price. James I. Deutsch examines recurring Thanksgiving consumption practices and considers shopping as a social ritual. Waiting together, discussing offers and planning a trip can have meaning for participants beyond the goods acquired. His qualitative work illuminates experiences; it is not a representative measurement of every shopper’s motivation (Deutsch, 2021).
This helps explain why marketing can communicate shared experiences and the pleasure of searching, as well as product features. The same techniques can create pressure if scarcity or deadlines are exaggerated. Describing a recurring ritual and evaluating the ethics of a particular promotion are distinct tasks.
Online shopping changes the ritual without eliminating social relationships. People share links, compare offers and discuss purchases in digital groups. Others no longer travel together to a store. The experience varies across consumers and cannot be reconstructed from sales figures alone.
Black Friday as marketing history
Black Friday connects several histories. A public holiday structured time. Stores used decoration and promotions to make seasonal shopping visible. A negative Philadelphia expression became a promotional shorthand. National advertising, e-commerce and mobile devices then changed the event’s scale and duration.
The chronology also cautions against easy stories. Sales after Thanksgiving preceded the name; the 1869 financial panic is not automatically the shopping day’s origin; revenue is not profit; and a repeatedly asserted German first needs contemporary evidence. Black Friday shows how businesses organise attention, expectations and supply – and why their narratives should be tested against historical records and carefully defined figures.
References
Adobe (2025) ‘Adobe: Cyber Monday Hits Record $14.25 Billion in Online Spending’. Available at: https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/12/adobe-cyber-monday-hits-record (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
Alizila (2014) ‘A Brief History of an Online Phenomenon’. Available at: https://www.alizila.com/a-brief-history-of-an-online-phenomenon/ (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
Bird, W.L. Jr. (2011) ‘Black Friday and the missing retail amenity’. National Museum of American History. Available at: https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/black-friday-and-missing-retail-amenity (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
Bundespatentgericht (2020) Decision of 28 February 2020, 30 W (pat) 26/18. Available at: https://de.openlegaldata.io/case/bpatg-2020-02-28-30-w-pat-2618 (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
Deutsch, J.I. (2021) ‘From the “Mad Dash” to “Shopping Alone”: Thanksgiving Rituals of Consumption on Black Friday and Cyber Monday’, in The Ritual Year 12: Regulating Customs. Available at: https://www.folklore.ee/ritual_year/RY/article/download/25/40/98 (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
European Union (1998) Directive 98/6/EC on consumer protection in the indication of prices, consolidated version, Article 6a. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/1998/6/2022-05-28 (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
GBH (2015) ‘How Black Friday Got Its Name — It’s Not What You Think’. Available at: https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2015-11-25/how-black-friday-got-its-name-its-not-what-you-think (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
Georgetown University (n.d.) ‘Shopping Spree’. Available at: https://msb.georgetown.edu/news-story/shopping-spree/ (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
History (2026) ‘History of Black Friday: Shopping on Thanksgiving’. Available at: https://www.history.com/articles/black-friday-thanksgiving-origins-history (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
Library of Congress (2009) ‘Black Friday’, Inside Adams. Available at: https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2009/11/black-friday/ (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
National Archives (2023) ‘Thanksgiving as a Federal Holiday’. Available at: https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2023/11/20/thanksgiving-as-a-federal-holiday/ (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
National Archives (n.d.) ‘Congress Establishes Thanksgiving’. Available at: https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/thanksgiving (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
NRF (n.d.) ‘Winter Holiday FAQs’. National Retail Federation. Available at: https://cdn.nrf.com/research-insights/holiday-data-and-trends/winter-holidays/winter-holiday-faqs (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
OSHA (2011) ‘Judge upholds OSHA citation against Wal-Mart in crowd management fatality case’. Available at: https://obis.osha.gov/as/opa/quicktakes/qt04012011.html (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
Shop.org (2005) Press release, 21 November, archived reproduction. Available at: https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-November/055457.html (Accessed: 8 November 2026).
