BLACK FRIDAY….HUH?

It’s a good feeling when we can laugh at ourselves and this morning I had the pleasure of doing just that!  I’ll back up and tell you why—I’m still smiling too!

As I took a quick glance at the list of emails that had come in this morning, I saw some with Black Friday in the subject line.  There was one from Borders that stated, “Black Friday Only Discount Coupon”.  Another one was, “Black Friday Deals at Amazon” and yet another, “Costco’s Black Friday Specials”.  My mind was foggy and I was perplexed…my initial thoughts were, “What the heck is Black Friday?  Are these retailers capitalizing on the downturn of the stock market?”  Yes, please go ahead and laugh with me!  Initially I interpreted Black Friday as having some connection to the stock market—I was thinking that Black Friday was a day when the stock market plunged downward.

Before long however, even without opening the emails, it dawned on me what was meant by Black Friday.  This term has been used in recent years to identify the day after Thanksgiving Day (Friday).  That is the day when profits are higher than any other day in the year for the retailers.  The sales start in the wee hours of the morning and continue until late at night with very large crowds of people at the malls.  So the word ‘black’ here is used as an accounting term which means profits instead of loss—sales being in the ‘black’ versus being in the ‘red’.

To those who are brave enough to venture out on Black Friday, good luck and I hope you find all the bargains you are looking for.  As for me, I think I’ll stay home.  I live in an area that can be referred to as ‘shopping heaven’—oh, will the traffic be backed up everywhere!

Julie