98 Fun Facts About Black Friday

What does Black Friday traditionally mark the start of?

The Christmas shopping season — its tie to Thanksgiving is believed to date from the 1920s, when big department stores launched Thanksgiving Day parades to promote their Christmas sales.

Black Friday follows US Thanksgiving, which a 1941 law fixed on which day?

The fourth Thursday of November — the House voted in 1941 to restore the old last Thursday, but the Senate changed it to the fourth, a week earlier whenever November has five Thursdays.

Police in which American city popularised 'Black Friday' as their name for post-Thanksgiving crowds and traffic?

Philadelphia — its traffic police, who had to work 12-hour shifts while shoppers jammed downtown the day after Thanksgiving, gave the day its gloomy name.

What upbeat name did merchants and city officials push in 1961 to replace 'Black Friday'?

Big Friday — merchants feared talk of traffic chaos kept shoppers away, so a city PR official pushed 'Big Friday' and 'Big Saturday', but the names were quickly forgotten.

A 1951 factory-management journal made the earliest known use of 'Black Friday' for the day after Thanksgiving, describing what?

Workers calling in sick — the journal joked about post-Thanksgiving absenteeism, but the name only stuck about a decade later, when traffic police applied it to shopping crowds.

Which origin story for 'Black Friday' did retailers promote from the 1980s?

Profits turn ledgers from red to black — merchants who hated the gloomy police nickname spread this cheerier accounting story, first seen in print in 1981, and it soon eclipsed the day's real origin.

Which tradespeople nicknamed the day after Thanksgiving 'Brown Friday' for its surge in emergency calls?

Plumbers — Thanksgiving cooking sends grease and potato peels down garbage disposals and a houseful of guests strains the toilets, so the next day brings a spike in clogged drains.

Which president's brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, was drawn into the 1869 'Black Friday' gold-cornering scheme?

Ulysses S. Grant — on realising that speculators were using his sister's husband to keep Treasury gold off the market, he ordered $4 million of it sold, and the price collapsed within minutes.

Which railroad financier, with partner James Fisk, set off the 1869 'Black Friday' panic by trying to corner gold?

Jay Gould — the Erie Railroad boss sold his gold before the price broke and escaped the crash that wiped out investors who had borrowed to buy, and he stayed a power on Wall Street.

Which president moved Thanksgiving a week earlier in 1939 to lengthen the shopping season?

Franklin D. Roosevelt — retailers feared a late Thanksgiving left too few shopping days, but only 23 of the 48 states adopted his date, so the country ate its turkey on two different Thursdays.

On London's 'Black Friday' in November 1910, police manhandled some 300 marchers who were demanding what?

Votes for women — suffragettes marching on Parliament were assaulted for hours by police and bystanders, and Home Secretary Winston Churchill turned down calls for a public inquiry.

Which US sports league added a Black Friday game to its calendar in 2023?

The NFL — the Jets met the Dolphins the day after Thanksgiving, and the online retailer that streamed the game used it to pitch deals to an audience of holiday shoppers.

In 1939, with two rival Thanksgiving dates on offer, how did Texas and Colorado settle the matter?

They celebrated both Thursdays — each state set its own holiday, so 23 adopted the new, earlier date, most of the rest kept the old one, and a few simply gave both weeks.

Which 1942 Bing Crosby film mocked the two-Thanksgivings muddle with a cartoon turkey hopping between dates?

Holiday Inn — its calendar-page turkey cannot decide which Thursday is the holiday; the same film introduced the song 'White Christmas', which got a movie of its own in 1954.

What did a 1941 Commerce Department survey find about the earlier Thanksgiving?

No significant expansion of retail sales — on that finding the president conceded his experiment had not worked and announced that Thanksgiving would go back to its old date.

What is a 'doorbuster'?

A limited-supply discount offered at opening — stores stock only a few of each bargain because its job is to pull a crowd through the doors, where shoppers go on to buy other goods.

Which toy's 1983 shortage set off store stampedes across America?

Cabbage Patch Kids — no two dolls were alike and each came with adoption papers, and maker Coleco badly underestimated demand, so parents fought over the few on the shelves.

What is a 'loss leader'?

A product sold below its profit margin to lure shoppers — the store accepts a thin or negative return on that item because customers who come in for it tend to buy full-priced goods too.

Where was Walmart employee Jdimytai Damour trampled to death by shoppers in 2008?

Valley Stream, New York — about 2,000 shoppers, some queuing since the night before, broke down the doors at the 5 a.m. opening and trampled Damour as staff tried to let them in.

What did a woman at a Los Angeles Walmart use on fellow shoppers in 2011?

Pepper spray — at the Porter Ranch Walmart in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving night 2011 a woman sprayed shoppers crowding a discounted-electronics display; about 20 people were treated for minor injuries.

Which Republican, beaten in the 1936 presidential race, said the 1939 Thanksgiving switch was made 'with the omnipotence of a Hitler'?

Alf Landon — the former Kansas governor argued that if the change had any merit, more time should have been taken over it rather than springing it on an unprepared country.

What sparked the 2012 shooting outside a Tallahassee Walmart?

A dispute over a parking space — the argument outside the store, shortly after noon on Black Friday, left a man and a woman shot; both were expected to make a full recovery.

Why is 'Blackout Wednesday', the eve of Thanksgiving, among America's busiest bar nights?

Old friends are back home — with students and out-of-towners in their hometowns and few people working the next day, bars draw crowds to rival New Year's Eve and St. Patrick's Day.

What was Black Friday first called in Egypt when it arrived in 2014?

White Friday — a big regional online marketplace coined the name, judging that 'black' would reflect badly on a sale day in Arab culture, and other retailers followed.

Which rapper named her debut album 'Pink Friday' as a twist on Black Friday?

Nicki Minaj — revealing the title to fans online, she said she would 'carry on a great tradition of Black Friday' by renaming the day after Thanksgiving in honour of her album.

Which music event, usually held each April, later added a Black Friday edition of exclusive releases?

Record Store Day — its organisers wanted to turn the biggest shopping day's attention to the special releases found in local, independently owned shops.

What is Mexico's Black Friday-inspired sales weekend called?

El Buen Fin ('the good weekend') — launched in 2011 with government backing to spur consumer spending, it has been criticised for leaning on credit deals more than real price cuts.

Which Mexican holiday's long weekend hosts the country's answer to Black Friday?

Revolution Day (November 20) — since 2006 it has been observed on the third Monday of November, and the four-day sale runs from the Friday before through that holiday Monday.

UK police and ambulance crews first used 'Black Friday' for which heavy-drinking night?

The last Friday before Christmas — office parties peak that night, also called Mad Friday, bringing the year's heaviest 999 demand and temporary treatment centres in some city centres.

Which UK chain, then owned by Walmart, helped import US-style Black Friday sales?

Asda — it helped bring the sales to the UK in 2013, but after police were called to scuffles in stores in 2014 it pulled out of Black Friday the following year, citing shopper fatigue.

Before Black Friday crossed the Atlantic, which day had traditionally been the UK's biggest shopping day of the year?

Boxing Day — its post-Christmas sales were the traditional peak of British shopping until Black Friday took hold; in 2014 one big supermarket forecast that the new day would beat its Boxing Day takings.

Police were called to seven stores of which UK chain in Greater Manchester as Black Friday 2014 turned ugly?

Tesco — three men were arrested and a woman was hit by a falling television, and Greater Manchester Police said the trouble was totally predictable and the stores had too little security.

Why did Canadian stores adopt Black Friday deals in the late 2000s?

A strong loonie sent shoppers south to the US — Canadians were crossing the border for Black Friday bargains, so chains at home began cutting prices that weekend to keep them.

What did 'Black Friday' refer to in Australia before it meant shopping?

The devastating 1939 Victorian bushfires — they killed 71 people and wiped out whole towns that January, and the royal commission that followed reshaped how Australia prepares for fire.

Which word replaces 'Friday' in Brazilians' mocking nickname for a Black Friday full of inflated prices?

Fraude — 'Black Fraude' caught on after early sales featured marked-up prices and other scams, and consumer-rights lawyers now publish tips on spotting false discounts.

Which company ran the first Black Friday campaign in Germany, in 2006, without using the name?

Apple — its German store advertised only a 'one-day shopping event', and in 2014 the company that had imported the day appeared to skip it there altogether.

What name did French mall operator Klépierre give its Black Friday promotion days after the 2015 Paris attacks?

Jours XXL — the group said it dropped the English name out of respect for the victims and their families, though most French retailers were back to 'Black Friday' by 2016.

Speed skater Ådne Søndrål brought Black Friday to which country as a publicity stunt for his outlet mall?

Norway — the Olympic champion imported the American sale day when turnover at his outlet village in Vestby was falling, and within a few years hardly a chain in the country went without it.

What does Nevada call its legal holiday the day after Thanksgiving?

Family Day — Nevada law lists it straight after Thanksgiving Day, so state, county and city offices, courts and public schools close for a second day running.

Which three states ban big stores from opening on Thanksgiving under old blue laws?

Rhode Island, Maine and Massachusetts — pharmacies and convenience stores may open there on Thanksgiving, but big stores must wait, so some start their Black Friday sales at midnight or 1 a.m.

Which retailer opened at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving in 2010 and gave away Crayola crayons?

Toys "R" Us — the toy chain opened at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving 2010, one of the first big retailers to push doorbusters into Thursday night, and moved to 9 p.m. in 2011.

Which US chain was already opening its stores on Thanksgiving Day as early as 1991?

Kmart — its 1991 Thanksgiving opening was reported as breaking one of retailing's last taboos, and no other big full-line chain joined it that day.

What derisive name was given to retailers opening on Thanksgiving evening?

Black Thursday — the gibe greeted the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Thanksgiving openings that spread from 2011; by 2021 most big chains had gone back to closing on the holiday.

What happened to US holiday-weekend sales in 2014, when stores were busy on Thanksgiving night?

They fell 11% — a retail trade survey put the four-day total at $50.9 billion, down from $57.4 billion, and pointed to early promotions and round-the-clock online shopping.

Which retailer said in 2021 that its Thanksgiving Day closure would be permanent?

Target — it first shut on Thanksgiving in 2020 as a pandemic one-off, then told staff in November 2021 that the temporary measure was now its 'new standard'.

Which three retailers did the 2025 'We Ain't Buying It' boycott single out?

Target, Amazon and Home Depot — a coalition including the 50501 movement asked shoppers to stop spending at all three from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, accusing them of enabling the Trump administration.

A 2011 US crackdown on which online pastime's biggest sites is known to players as 'Black Friday'?

Poker — on Friday, April 15, 2011, prosecutors unsealed charges against the founders of the three largest sites, which stopped taking real-money play from Americans almost overnight.

Which band's 1975 single 'Black Friday' has its narrator escape to a small town in Australia?

Steely Dan — the narrator plans to fly down to Muswellbrook, New South Wales, a town the songwriters picked because they wanted somewhere as far from Los Angeles as they could think of.

Which internet body approved '.blackfriday' as a web address ending?

ICANN — after years in which .com and .net dominated, it approved hundreds of new address endings, and .blackfriday was switched on in April 2014, the same day as .discount and .cash.

Which age group was likeliest to plan Black Friday shopping in a 2012 Gallup poll?

Ages 18–29 — more than a third of them planned to shop that day, against fewer than one in five Americans overall, and interest fell with age to just 8% of those 65 and over.

Since the 2000s, how have many US dailies priced their Thanksgiving Day edition?

The same as the Sunday paper — since the 2000s many US newspapers have charged their Sunday price for the Thanksgiving Day edition because it arrives stuffed with Black Friday retail circulars.

What law have retailers used to try to remove leaked Black Friday ads from websites?

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act — Walmart, Best Buy, Staples and others sent takedown notices to deal forum FatWallet, claiming their sale prices were copyrighted; the site sued over the tactic, but the case was dismissed.

Which factor is cited for spreading holiday deals across all of November and December, diluting Black Friday?

Christmas creep — retailers launch holiday deals ever earlier, which is often blamed for watering down Black Friday; yet in 2018 a store-traffic tracker still forecast it as the year's busiest shopping day.

What do British retailers call the year's final three months?

The golden quarter — UK retailers use the name for the run-up to Christmas because that is when trade brings in the bulk of their profits.

Which outdoor retailer began closing its stores on Black Friday in 2015, urging staff to #OptOutside?

REI — the outdoor co-op shut every store and paid its employees to spend Black Friday 2015 outdoors, launching the #OptOutside campaign it repeated in the following years.

Which sale did Amazon launch in summer 2015 as 'Black Friday in July'?

Prime Day — Amazon launched it in July 2015 to mark the company's 20th anniversary, promising Prime members more deals than Black Friday.

What did unimpressed shoppers liken Amazon's first July members' event to in 2015?

A yard sale — the 2015 launch promised more deals than Black Friday, but with bargains such as discounted socks and microfibre cloths, critics dubbed it an internet yard sale.

The pandemic pushed Amazon's US midsummer members' sale back to which month in 2020?

October — the usual July event was postponed and ran on October 13–14, 2020, in the US and Canada; Amazon later added a second members' sale each October.

Who coined the name 'Cyber Monday' in 2005?

A retail trade group — Shop.org, the online arm of the National Retail Federation, launched the name in a press release after web stores saw sales climb on the Monday after Thanksgiving, and later ran a deals site called CyberMonday.com.

Which party game's makers charged $5 for absolutely nothing on Black Friday 2015, and thousands paid?

Cards Against Humanity — buyers got nothing for their $5, a stunt that followed 2014's, when the makers pulled the game from their store and sold boxes of actual bull dung for $6 instead.

What was thought to drive US online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving in the early 2000s?

Faster internet at the office — the usual explanation was that shoppers who browsed over the holiday weekend bought on Monday from quick office connections, the idea behind the name Cyber Monday in 2005.

Which mark did US online spending on Cyber Monday first pass in 2010?

$1 billion — comScore counted $1.028 billion on Cyber Monday 2010; a year earlier the day took $887 million and was outsold by a Tuesday in mid-December.

What was Australia's first Cyber Monday-style event in 2012 called?

Click Frenzy — the 24-hour sale launched in November 2012, billed as Australian retailers' chance to 'fight back' against overseas online competition.

What happened when Australia's first national online sale opened on 20 November 2012?

The website crashed almost immediately — the sale's site buckled as the 7pm start arrived and shoppers could not get in for almost three hours, despite organisers' assurances that it would cope.

Which company created and promotes Small Business Saturday?

American Express — it launched Small Business Saturday in 2010 and nudged shoppers along by offering cardholders a $25 statement credit for spending at local independent shops that day.

Which outdoor clothing brand pledged all of its 2016 Black Friday sales to environmental groups?

Patagonia — it expected to give away about $2 million, but shoppers responded by spending roughly $10 million that day, and every dollar went to grassroots environmental groups.

Which country got its own Small Business Saturday in 2013?

Britain — Small Business Saturday UK began on 7 December 2013 after the American day's success; with no Thanksgiving to follow, it sits on the first Saturday of December instead.

What is Buy Nothing Day?

Buy Nothing Day is a day of protest against consumerism, held on Black Friday in North America; supporters have marked it with mass credit-card cut-ups and 'zombie walks' through chain stores.

Buy Nothing Day's inventor, Ted Dave, was a Canadian working in which field?

Art — Ted Dave, an artist, conceived the day as a pause to examine overconsumption, and a magazine soon carried his idea around the world.

Which magazine and nonprofit promotes Buy Nothing Day?

Adbusters — the Vancouver anti-consumerist magazine and foundation has promoted Buy Nothing Day since the 1990s; its TV spot showed a belching pig superimposed on North America.

Which 1899 book, cited as a forerunner of Buy Nothing Day, coined the phrase 'conspicuous consumption'?

The Theory of the Leisure Class — economist Thorstein Veblen argued that showy spending was a relic of feudal status-seeking, the line of thought the day's supporters still draw on.

What did activists call the Buy Nothing Day stunt of conga-lining empty shopping carts?

Whirl-Mart — participants silently steer empty carts around a superstore in a long conga line without buying a thing, aiming to mimic and mock what they see as the absurdity of shopping.

Which network was among the few to air the Buy Nothing Day commercial?

CNN — it sold airtime for the anti-shopping spot while MTV, ABC, CBS and NBC refused; CBS reportedly said the idea ran against 'the current economic policy in the United States'.

What was Buy Nothing Christmas renamed in 2011?

Occupy Xmas — the campaign's organisers borrowed the name from Occupy Wall Street, the protest their own magazine had called for earlier in 2011.

On which Tuesday of the year does GivingTuesday fall?

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving — GivingTuesday began in 2012 as a day for giving back after the spending of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and it grew big enough to become an independent nonprofit in 2019.

Which New York cultural centre created GivingTuesday in 2012?

The 92nd Street Y — the community and cultural centre launched the day with the United Nations Foundation as its partner and housed the campaign until it became an independent nonprofit in 2019.

When is Green Monday, an online retail term coined by Shopping.com in 2007?

Second week of December — Green Monday is the second Monday of the month; eBay's Shopping.com coined the name in 2007 after the day had been outselling Cyber Monday on its site.

Why was the second Monday of December singled out as Green Monday?

Last day to order online for holiday delivery — eBay picked the second Monday of December because it was its best December sales day, the last comfortable moment to order gifts for Christmas arrival.

When is US retail's Super Saturday?

The last weekend before Christmas — Super Saturday is the final Saturday before the holiday, when last-minute shoppers pile in; in 2009 an East Coast blizzard struck on the day, threatening an estimated $15 billion of sales.

Which Indian e-commerce company launched the 'Big Billion Day' sale in 2014?

Flipkart — its first Big Billion Day on 6 October 2014 drew so much traffic that the site buckled and the company apologised; it grew into an annual multi-day festival.

On what date (month/day) is China's Singles' Day held?

11/11 — Singles' Day falls on November 11 because the date's four 1s look like 'bare sticks', Chinese slang for bachelors.

Which company turned Singles' Day into a shopping festival in 2009?

Alibaba — in 2009 Daniel Zhang, then running its Tmall marketplace and later Alibaba's CEO, turned Singles' Day into a 24-hour discount festival that grew to dwarf Black Friday.

Singles' Day reputedly began in the 1990s among which group?

University students — in the best-known account, four single men in a Nanjing University dormitory picked the date in 1993 to celebrate bachelorhood, and the custom spread to other campuses.

The 26 December sales day usually coincides with whose feast day?

St Stephen — 26 December is the feast of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, which is why Ireland's public holiday on that date is called St Stephen's Day.

What does the Oxford English Dictionary say tradespeople received on 26 December?

A 'Christmas box' of presents or gratuities — the tip thanked workers for a year's service, and Samuel Pepys noted giving to his shoemaker's boys' box in December 1663.

Which furniture chain marked Black Friday 2020 by offering to buy back its own used furniture from customers?

IKEA — in its 'Buy Back Friday' campaign the chain bought back customers' unwanted IKEA furniture to resell second-hand, instead of pushing new stock on the big sale day.

Which other observance shares Black Friday's date in the United States?

Native American Heritage Day — Congress designated the Friday after Thanksgiving in 2008, so it coincides with Black Friday, a pairing some Native activists have called 'poor taste'.

Which store's Thanksgiving procession has marched to Herald Square since 1924?

Macy's — the store's first Thanksgiving parade, in 1924, featured live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo; giant balloons took their place from 1927, starting with Felix the Cat.

Which president began annual national Thanksgiving proclamations in 1863?

Washington had proclaimed one in 1789.

Which 1996 toy craze left a Walmart clerk trampled by about 300 shoppers at a midnight sale?

Tickle Me Elmo — at a midnight sale in Fredericton, New Brunswick, the crowd stampeded when clerk Robert Waller pulled one from a new shipment, leaving him with a broken rib and a concussion.

About how many Americans shopped over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend in 2019, by one retail survey?

190 million — the survey counted a record 189.6 million US shoppers from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday 2019, and for the first time more of them shopped online on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday.

What has research found about the link between Black Friday sales and full-season holiday sales?

Quite weak, and possibly negative — a 2012 analysis of US retail data found Thanksgiving-week sales said almost nothing about the full season, and strong Black Fridays even went with slightly weaker holiday totals.

What does the New York Stock Exchange do every Black Friday?

Closes early, at 1 p.m. — US stock markets shut for Thanksgiving, then reopen for a shortened session the next day, one of up to three such half-days a year, with July 3 and Christmas Eve.

Which American pop star performed at the 2019 Singles' Day gala in Shanghai?

Taylor Swift — the sale's organisers throw a televised party the night before the deals open and fly in global stars: Nicole Kidman appeared in 2017 and Katy Perry performed by livestream in 2020.

Which festival has traditionally anchored India's biggest shopping season?

Diwali — India's month-long festive season builds up to it, and shoppers traditionally hold their big purchases for the heavy discounts that retailers offer before the festival of lights.

Which animated series' 2013 'Black Friday' trilogy spoofed Game of Thrones as kids fought a console war?

South Park — over three episodes the town's children split into rival armies backing the two new games consoles, while Randy Marsh takes a mall security job to get ahead of the Black Friday crowds.

Which department store launched America's oldest Thanksgiving parade in 1920?

Gimbels — its 1920 parade ended with Santa entering the store's toy department, a pre-Christmas stunt that parades in Detroit and New York followed four years later.

Which country did Black Friday reach in 2013, with The Warehouse and Harvey Norman offering sales by 2015?

New Zealand — Black Friday took off there in 2013, and by 2015 Harvey Norman was advertising big sales while The Warehouse ran its own version under the name 'Red Friday'.