Black Friday Trivia | 40 facts about the day

Black Friday or Big Friday as it was first named is the last Friday of November, when huge sales happen, and consumers buy a lot of things.

Find out more about Black Friday!

1. Well, no one can say that Black Friday is an official holiday, but it is the day after Thanks Giving, so you can say it’s kinda of a holiday.
2. Black Friday is the day that the serious shopping happens before Christmas and a lot of people think that this is the day that Christmas season is starting.
3. California and some other states observe “The Day After Thanksgiving” as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday, such as Columbus Day.
4. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the following Friday off, which, along with the following regular weekend, makes it a four-day weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers.
5. In the USA, Black Friday is the busiest day of the year since 2005 and people go crazy on the offers.
6. For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m., but in the late 2000s many had crept to 5:00 or 4:00. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened at midnight for the first time.
7. Since 2006, there have been 10 reported deaths and 111 injuries throughout the United States.
8. It is common for prospective shoppers to camp out over the Thanksgiving holiday in an effort to secure a place in front of the line and thus a better chance at getting desired items.Yeap, it’s crazy, mate!
9. In several countries, local retailers have, maybe inspired by TV shows originating from the US, attempted to promote the day.
10. The SouthPark neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the most trafficked area of the United States on Black Friday.
11. Historically, it was common for Black Friday sales to extend throughout the following weekend but this kind of practice has largely disappeared in recent years, perhaps because of an effort by retailers to create a greater sense of urgency.
12. Serious things have happened during Black Friday.In 2010, a Madison, Wisconsin woman was arrested outside of a Toys ‘R’ Us store after cutting in line, and threatening to shoot other shoppers who tried to object.
13. In Norway, Black Friday started as a publicity stunt campaign back in 2010 to increase the sales to the shopping mall Norwegian Outlet. Since the introduction, it has been promoted every year in a larger and growing market all over the country.
14. Black Friday was introduced to Bolivia,Colombia, Denmark, Italy, Finland, France,[86] Ireland,[87] Lebanon, Nigeria, South Africa and Sweden in 2014.
15. In 2016 Black Friday was introduced in Poland, Greece and Ukraine.
16. Black Friday popularity is growing in the UK. In 2016, total spending on online retail sites on Black Friday 2016 was £1.23bn, marking a +12.2% increase on the £1.1bn spent on the same day in 2015. In 2017, retail sales in the UK grew faster in November than in December for the first time.
17. This is a weird fact! In 2013, an internet rumor alleged that the phrase originated in the American south before the Civil War, from the practice of selling slaves on the day after Thanksgiving. This was debunked by Snopes.com in 2015.
18. Black Friday is not only for stores, but also for on-line websites that sell different products.
19. A lot of on-line stores offer huge deals on Black Friday for customers! So, you can do your shopping from your couch.
20. Swiss retailer Manor was the first to launch a special Black Friday promotion in 2015 and after that others followed.
21. Belgium takes Black Friday really seriously. It was  marketed by retailers since 2016. Especially online shops have broke sales records during the last edition of Black Friday, which provides a base for further growth of popularity of Black Friday in Belgium.
22. For Black Friday, some online stores invest a lot of money in promotional campaigns to generate more sales and drive traffic to their stores.
23. The big day following Black Friday, is Cyber Monday and it’s mostly for shoppers who buy their stuff on-line.
24. The date ffor Black Friday 2019, is set on November 29.
25. .blackfriday joined a growing list of ICANN top-level domains (such as—traditionally—.com, .net, and .org) on April 23, 2014.
26. A big factor in the diminishing importance of Black Friday, is Christmas creep because  many retailers now spread out their promotions over the entire months of November and December rather than concentrate them on a single shopping day or weekend.
27. Nut how did Black Friday become known with this name? The earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday applied to the day after Thanksgiving in a shopping context suggests that the term originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.
28. Stores in European countries usually start offers earlier than Friday so they can inform customers about what is coming.
29. People mostly buy electrical equipment, smart phones and presents for Christmas on Black Friday.
30. The predecessor to Black Friday were the Santa Claus parades.
31. Over the years, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has become part of the holiday season rituals in America.
32. This year, Black Friday, is going to be huge in some countries because people are showing on social media that they are determined to check all the deals first and then they will proceed to some shopping.
33. In the 1800s, the term “Black Friday” was used in reference to the stock market crashes.
34. The term was used for the first time on September 24, 1869, when James Fisk and Jay Gould were trying to corner the gold market on the NYSE.
35. It was reported by CNN who explain that the plumbers are needed to clean up after guests “overwhelm the system”.
36. According to a 1975 report from the NY Times, the term “Black Friday” is Philadelphia slang.
37. Its first name was Big Friday.
38. Black Friday wasn’t officially claimed to be the busiest shopping day of the year, until 2001.
39. 12% of Black Friday shoppers are drunk.
40. According to a survey conducted on behalf of the coupon site RetailMeNot, 12% of all Black Friday shoppers admit they hit the stores whilst under the influence of alcohol.