TRI-CITIES, Wash. – Black Friday, the massive and commonly chaotic day of sales that happens the day after Thanksgiving, is coming up on Nov. 24.
Black Friday looks different when compared to how it looked decades ago according to AP News. With the pandemic causing the rise of online shopping and Cyber Monday, many shoppers are now going online with their money instead of rushing into crowded stores.
The U.S. Commerce Department reported that e-commerce accounted for 1.7 percent of retail sales in 2003’s fourth quarter. In 2022, e-commerce accounted for 16.3 percent of all fourth quarter purchases.
Despite that, Black Friday is still expecting to see millions of participants.
Black Friday is expected to see 130.7 million shoppers this year, a majority of the estimated 182 million to shop both in-person and online over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend according to the National Retail Federation.
Black Friday has multiple possible backstories. A very common backstory goes back to Philadelphia in the mid-20th century where city workers needed to deal with crowds of consumers before the annual Army-Navy football game.
Another possible backstory refers to workers calling in sick the day after Thanksgiving to have a longer holiday weekend according to a 1951 New York trade publication.
