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HughPickens.com [hughpickens.com] writes:

Brad Tuttle writes at Money Magazine that while the terms “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” are more ubiquitous than ever, the importance of the can’t-miss shopping days is undeniably fading [time.com]. “I think what you’re seeing now is the start or middle of a trend where Black Friday decreases in importance,” says analyst Yory Wurmser. “It’s probably still going to be a significant shopping day, but at the same time it’s probably going to lose its singular significance in the season.” Retailers seem to want it both way [consumerist.com]s: They want shoppers to spend money long before these key shopping events, and yet they also want shoppers to turn out in full force to make purchases over the epic Black Friday weekend. When they use the “Cheap Stuff!” card day after day and week after week, the deals on any single day stop seeming special. The bottom line is that shifting spending patterns means that holiday sales are now dispersed over a longer period. “You can try to get the consumer to spend earlier," says Marshal Cohen. "But that doesn’t mean there’s more money in their pockets [nytimes.com]."

The true story behind Black Friday is not as sunny as retailers might have you believe. Back in the 1950s, police in the city of Philadelphia used the term to describe the chaos that ensued on the day after Thanksgiving, when hordes of suburban shoppers and tourists flooded into the city in advance of the big Army-Navy football game held on that Saturday every year. Not only would Philly cops not be able to take the day off, but they would have to work extra-long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic. Shoplifters would also take advantage of the bedlam in stores to make off with merchandise [history.com], adding to the law enforcement headache. Sometime in the late 1980s, however, retailers found a way to reinvent Black Friday and turn it into something that reflected positively, rather than negatively, on them and their customers. The result was the “red to black” concept [wikipedia.org] of the holiday, and the notion that the day after Thanksgiving marked the occasion when America’s stores finally turned a profit.

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