Photo courtesy of Namshi.com

Ah, Black Friday! The glorious day right after Thanksgiving where retailers and shoppers indulge in a magnificent shopping experience, taking advantage of the season’s holiday bargains. For retailers, it’s a once-in-a-year opportunity to ‘go into the black’, ergo record abnormal amounts of profits. But for shoppers, it’s the day after Thanksgiving where they get to burn turkey-calories by running a shopping marathon for incredibly great bargains.

There are many theories as to where the name originated from, one of which relates directly to accountants and how they record their losses in red and profits in black. Indeed, on Black Friday, retailers go into the ‘black’ by recording many profits. But recently, an unbelievable event has occurred, threatening the dear life of this fortunate day; in 2011 the world’s largest retailer Walmart, opened its store on Thanksgiving evening, thereby creating massive competition with other retailers.

So technically, the infamous Black Friday is currently losing its importance in the market, as sales have been taking over the scene long before and long after the actual date, leaving no place for the day to stand out! Indeed, the number of consumers going out on the next day of Thanksgiving has been decreasing exponentially and the day as we know it might be facing extinction!

Cindy Menassa