Today, is "Black Friday" in the US. This is a tradition that I am often asked to explain to Germans, and which seems to baffle them a bit. Unlike Thanksgiving, it's also one I am just as happy to miss.
Black Friday, so named because it is the day in which many retailers go from "in the red" for the year to "in the black" (profitable), seems to be a uniquely American ritual (only Boxing Day in the UK seems to come close). I think there was a time when many people had the day off from work and took the chance to go out and get much of their holiday shopping done. Somewhere along the line, store managers and corporations realized that this busy shopping day could be even more profitable if they offered the best sales, or opened soonest, to get shoppers into their establishment and not others. And so, a strange tradition was born.
Most major retailers put out Black Friday ads a week or so before Thanksgiving, though the Thanksgiving Day newspaper will also be filled with such ads. Nearly every big chain store offers a handful of items at HUGE discounts. The stores are losing money on the sales of these items, but banking on the bargains to draw in enough customers to offset those "loss leaders" The sales can be so good that very often people line up for hours, or even a day or two, often in very cold weather, to be one of the first in and be able to snag the bargain:
Often, the rush to get one of the limited sales results in injuries (and in a few cases over the years people have even been trampled to death or shot in arguments over parking or items).
This is where many of the German I try to explain this to get a little confused. They'll ask things like "why not wait and go in later in the day?" Etc. You know, employing that ever present German logic.
You see, as I understand it (and, please do correct me, German readers, if I am wrong), this type of dangerous stampede to grab one of a coveted few bargains could never happen here. As I understand it, in Germany if a retailer offers a sale, the sale must be all day, and they must offer rain checks if they run out of the item advertised. If, and only if the items is something the store will not be carrying again, is the quantity allowed to be limited (to all the stock the retailer has--ie they do not have to give out rain-checks and order more of the item once they run out). Otherwise, they cannot simply say (as US retailers do on Black Friday) that the first 50 people to arrive get to buy the TV for $100 and after that the store continues to sell that TV but now priced at $800.
SIMPLY by not allowing limited quantity sales, the whole dangerous scenario that happens in the US could be eliminated (and, hey, good sales could still be offered and it could still be a big shopping day--just not quite so dangerous, and maybe a little more fair).
I found it interesting that this year Target opened on Thanksgiving Day itself, instead of at midnight or two a.m. on Friday (as has been tradition with more and more retailers). I think I saw more facebook posts upset about this than I did about the entire US government shutting down last month (and, no, I am not kidding! And, yes, I am a little concerned about what that says about our cultural values).
Personally, while I do think it is nice when holidays and the like can be less commercialized and allow more time for families to be together (hey, I have learned to love that nearly everything closes on Sundays here in Germany), I would MUCH rather work (or have a relative work) on ANY holiday in a store that did not create riot like situations with limited quantity sales, than be working on Black Friday anywhere that is running a big loss leader sale. I really do find it a little odd that the one dangerous situation seems to be accepted by most, but asking retail people to work on the holiday causes such ire (not to mention that many of those same, angry people probably watched football players, TV news anchors, etc work yesterday without hesitation).
In any case--while yesterday is a day I was very sad to miss out on in my homeland, I am thrilled to be able to do my holiday shopping in lovely historic downtown areas and at Christmas Markets, instead of in big box retailers and shopping malls. And I can always fill in with the computer sales bargains of the much safer and less stressful Cyber Monday (which, actually HAS migrated across the Atlantic!).
If you shopped (and most will be done shopping by the time this posts at nearly 7:30 a.m. EST) earlier, I hope you found what you were looking for, had fun and stayed safe. Meanwhile, I'll be at Christmas Markets in the coming weeks and posting photos of my shopping fun here.
--Hadley
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