In United States, Thanksgiving Day is observed on fourth Thursday of November and the next day is observed as Black Friday. Since 1952, Black Friday has been marked as the beginning of the Christmas Shopping Season. Starting from Thursday, it becomes a long four-day weekend. The term Black Friday became widely known during the 1980s. Why is the Friday called Black Friday? It’s an interesting question. The question does not have a clear-cut answer. Mostly, it is described as Black due to the disruptive traffic and activities following the Thanksgiving Day. Most of the retailers print the discounted prices in Black color. It’s not an official holiday except for California and some other states. Black Friday is considered as the busiest shopping day of the year. Gradually increasing every year except for recession period, since early this century over 130 to 230 million shoppers, have shopped on this day. On the average the shoppers have been spending over US $ 350.00 and the total money spent on shopping on this single day has gradually increased from US $ 35.00 to 60.00 billion. Almost all sellers offer special discounts and promotion of their products which is the main cause of the excessive and unprecedented shopping. For last some years, the sellers have started extending the sale offers for over a month starting from the Black Friday until the New Year celebrations which is called as the Holiday Season. Starting from the observance of Black Friday sales in the morning of the day, the retailers have moved backward to the midnight between the Thanksgiving Day and the Black Friday. The shopping rush is so much on Black Friday that in the recent years, it has started posing a law and order situation in parking places, forming a que and choosing the same product by several customers and the possibility of the products getting out of stock. Shoppers line up at midnight and even before that to avail the attractive sales offers starting midnight. There have been reports of quarrels among the shoppers which spoils the taste of shopping not only of the ones quarreling but also the ones nearby. Retailers make additional security arrangements to prevent suchlike occurrences and so does the government administration.
Other countries too have gradually started following the observance of Black Friday. The sales offer on this day are so attractive that the Canadians close to American border choose to cross over to vail the lucrative discount offers. Seeing this trend, the Canadian retailers too have started offering attractive sales offers to benefit from the buying by the Canadians who earlier used to cross over to United States.
With online selling gaining momentum and with similar offers available to the shoppers online, many shoppers prefer online shopping over visiting brick and mortar stores to shop in their own time and in peace. Spencer’s Pashmina also observes the Black Friday and offers maximum discount to its worthy customers. This year the store is offering 25% discount on all products above US $ 50.00. The offer is available until 26 November 18.