Thanksgiving is over and the holidays are upon us and with them comes the dreaded Black Friday, the calmer Cyber Monday and the new charitable Giving Tuesday.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving where people get up at ridiculous times to get to stores to buy sale items. The term Black Friday didn’t always mean a time when retailers go from being in the red to making a profit or being in the black. Originally it was about the increased traffic in the streets causing traffic jams and general mayhem making the day bleak or black. Around the 1980s the term took on more of the meaning we see today where a company’s books go from red to black. For many years it was common for retailers to open at 6 am on Black Friday but in the late 2000s it has crept up to as early as 4 am with some people camping out the night before to be first in line. In 2011 the public saw the retail giants opening at midnight. In 2012 Walmart and few others raised the bar again by opening their stores at 8pm on Thanksgiving Day! Some have called this Gray Thursday but it isn’t a common term yet.
Black Friday can be a zoo as we have seen in images and video. There is even a website dedicated to keeping up with the injury and/or death toll of Black Fridays from 2006 to this year’s event. People will wait in lines for days to get a deal. This year two women in Beaumont, CA have taken it to a whole new level. They started their camp out on November 7th. WOW…
Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving. While retailers still rely on Black Friday sales to clear inventory from their physical locations they are realizing that the power of the internet is expanding their reach to potential customers. Many who refuse to go out into the crush will sit at their computers and order items. Companies usually start an email blitz advertising items for sale early in November. Customers are given ideas of what will be on sale and the hours to look for the lowest price on that item. These hourly deals are a way to keep customers at the site so they will give in to impulse purchases that they might not have otherwise made.
Giving Tuesday is a newer day set aside in an effort to move people away from consumerism and toward altruism. From the Giving Tuesday website:
We have a day for giving thanks. We have two for getting deals. Now we have #Giving Tuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back.
Giving Tuesday was founded in 2012 by New York’s 92nd Street Y in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. This group has launched a global movement that over the years has included over 10,000 organizations worldwide. The idea is that people will take a break from the shopping frenzy to support charitable organizations. There is even a suggested list of ideas to get you started.
