It’s the first Friday after the American Thanksgiving, which means “Black Friday” sales are surging across the US and Canada.
Marketing Strategy Professor Lindsay Meredith with the Beatty School of Business at Simon Fraser University speaks to the origin of what this huge shopping day is, and what makes it “black”.
“In the old days, especially if you had a bad recession like we did in 2008, these guys were suffering big red-number losses all year long,” he says. “They were hoping that by the sales of Christmas coming in October and November, when all the big-ticket appliances sell, that eventually they would move over into profitability, translating into black numbers instead of red numbers on the ol’ balance sheet.”
The first Friday is also typically a day off for Americans, making it the choice day to get shoppers to stores.
Sales figures show Black Friday growing in popularity over our own Boxing Day and Meredith says so many Canadians were darting across the border to cash in on sales that our retailers had to try to follow suit.
“They had to say, ‘If we let Canadians cross the border and spend all of their Loonies down there, there will be nothing spent here’,” he says. ” So what became then was an issue of saying ‘Let’s get going on this Black Friday sale game as well and let’s see if we can hold onto Canadian bucks in town’.”
To shop effectively, Meredith advises you to do your homework; go online and research the retail price of items that are “on sale” and find out if it is a true deal.
Meredith also reminds you that if you shop online, the Canadian dollar is trading weaker at 87 cents US.
(Photo courtesy Associated Press)
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