By Sully Carr
This year on November 25th and November 28th the two biggest shopping days in the United States are going on, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Every year people of all ages go shopping on these two days, but why?
The reason people go shopping during the two days is because almost every single store is having a huge deal, deals that start from 10% and go all the up to 90% off the purchase. The difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is, on Black Friday people have to go to the store to be able to get the certain percentage off, and on Cyber Monday the deals are only for online shopping. One of the main reasons stores are having these deals is because the two days are right after Thanksgiving, and only a month after Thanksgiving is Christmas. Christmas is one of the most celebrated holidays in America, and on Christmas, traditionally, people give gifts to one another. The stores have these deals because people have to buy a great amount of gifts for their loved ones, and with the amount of gifts bought by the regular price the price can become hefty to most people. This is why the stores have big deals so people can buy more gifts for less. Therefore Black Friday was started.
Black Friday is the first day after Thanksgiving, and was started in 1932. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving because that is the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. In the 1930s Thanksgiving’s relationship with Christmas shopping was a controversy because retail stores would have liked to have a long Christmas shopping season, but no store wanted to start advertising before Thanksgiving. This is why in 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation making Thanksgiving the fourth thursday in November rather than the last. This meant some years the Christmas shopping season would be longer. The reason the day is called Black Friday is because in the past stores’ accounting records would be hand-written and the color red indicated in a loss, and black would be profit. Fast forward to present day and Black Friday is the largest shopping day in the United States, and almost every store in America has deals they would not have any other time in the year.
On the other hand, Cyber Monday is the “Black Friday” of online shopping and occurs on the first Monday after Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday is known as the beginning of online shopping for the holiday season. Cyber Monday was given its name in 2005 because of the rise in online shopping on the first Monday after Thanksgiving. In 2014, the average amount of money spent per person was $361, and the amount spent in total was over two billion dollars. Cyber Monday may be more convenient, but the deals might not be as great as the ones on Black Friday.
The two days are always known to have some great deals, but sometimes there can be deals better a few days before Christmas. Another time to make purchases is the first two weeks of December because this is when retailers make cuts in their inventory to get rid of extra items and to increase their profit margins. When the two weeks are up the prices will start to rise again. Also some stores can have even bigger deals right before Christmas, but the prices could also go back up to their original price. In order to be able to get the deals after Black Friday and Cyber Monday people should research the item they want and make sure they can get the best deal for it.
