Don’t get me started about Black Friday sales!
I love a bargain as much as the next person, but Black Friday sales should be an American –
and American only – phenomenon.
The concept of these sales has its origins in the day before – Thanksgiving. In 1941, US
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill making the fourth Thursday of November the
country’s official Thanksgiving Day.
Thanksgiving does actually have pre-American origins. It was originally a giving of thanks to
God or gods for a good harvest. But in the US, it has become very closely associated with the
arrival of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower in 1620. And even if it notionally celebrates a
harvest, that makes it even more irrelevant in the southern hemisphere.
Since the early 1950s, the day after Thanksgiving has been recognised as the start of
Christmas shopping season. For retailers, this signified their business pulling out of the red
and into the black, profit-wise. From this, the term ‘Black Friday’ evolved and it has
dominated US sales for more than three decades now.
It’s a more recent phenomenon here, though, and not one I’m happy about.
What do you think? Am I being a hypocrite by embracing Halloween and shunning Black
Friday? Should Australia shun both days? Or embrace them both? Or should I simply stop
being such a grumpy old man?
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