Stuff You Should Know

Selects: How Black Friday Works

November 29, 2025

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  • The term "Black Friday" originated in Philadelphia in the 1960s, coined by police and city workers to describe the chaotic traffic and crowds resulting from shoppers converging for sales the day after Thanksgiving, not initially related to stores going into profit ("in the black"). 
  • Black Friday has evolved from a single day event into an extended shopping period, with retailers pushing sales earlier into Thanksgiving Day, which some analysts suggest is financially counterproductive compared to a longer, less discounted season. 
  • The intense focus on doorbuster deals, which are limited-quantity, deeply discounted items, creates a 'recipe for disaster' that leads to dangerous crowd surges, tramplings, and even fatalities, as exemplified by the 2008 Walmart incident discussed in this episode of *Stuff You Should Know*. 

Segments

Podcast Intro and Ads
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(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: The episode of Stuff You Should Know is a re-release of a classic segment on Black Friday.
  • Summary: The initial segment of the podcast features advertisements for other shows and products, including an iHeart podcast and Audible’s Harry Potter audio editions. The hosts then introduce this episode as a dusting off of a classic segment concerning Black Friday. They note that Black Friday may have faded somewhat since the original recording, making the episode a historical document.
Defining Black Friday Tradition
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(00:01:44)
  • Key Takeaway: Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, marking the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season characterized by deep discounts.
  • Summary: The hosts confirm that Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving in the United States, known for kicking off the holiday shopping season with major sales. They establish that the tradition of shopping after Thanksgiving dates back to the late 19th/early 20th century, linked to department store parades featuring Santa Claus. The hosts express personal aversion to the chaotic nature of the sales events.
Origin of Black Friday Term
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(00:06:10)
  • Key Takeaway: The term ‘Black Friday’ originated with Philadelphia police in the 1960s due to traffic headaches caused by crowds gathering for the Army-Navy game and subsequent shopping, not from accounting ledgers.
  • Summary: The term ‘Black Friday’ emerged in the 1950s or 60s, initially used by Philadelphia police and city workers to describe the severe congestion caused by out-of-towners shopping the day before the Army-Navy game. The popular belief that it refers to retailers going ‘into the black’ (profitability) is a later, fabricated story created by retail lobbies to improve the term’s image. Accounting practice involved writing losses in red ink and profits in black ink.
Economic Impact of Season
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(00:10:05)
  • Key Takeaway: The holiday shopping season (November and December) accounts for 20% to 40% of annual retail profits, with $602 billion projected for spending in 2013.
  • Summary: The holiday shopping period is crucial, generating between 20% and 40% of yearly retail profits for many businesses. In 2013, Americans were projected to spend $602 billion during November and December alone. The hosts contrast this massive spending with their own family’s shift away from traditional gift exchanges.
Creation of Shopping Holidays
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(00:12:05)
  • Key Takeaway: Holidays like Cyber Monday (2005) and Small Business Saturday (2010) were deliberately invented by retail interests to extend the shopping frenzy beyond the single day of Black Friday.
  • Summary: Black Friday’s success led retailers to create subsequent shopping days, such as Cyber Monday, which was invented in 2005 as the online counterpart. American Express later invented Small Business Saturday in 2010 to encourage support for smaller retailers. These days function as self-fulfilling myths created to maximize consumer spending across a longer period.
Thanksgiving Shopping Invasion
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(00:17:23)
  • Key Takeaway: Retailers began opening on Thanksgiving evening starting around 2012, effectively encroaching upon the holiday, partly due to the compressed shopping window when Thanksgiving falls late in November.
  • Summary: Retailers started pushing into Thanksgiving Day, with Walmart opening at 8 p.m. in 2012, breaking the tradition of Thanksgiving being a sacrosanct day off. This extension is partly driven by the fact that when Thanksgiving falls late (like November 28th in the year of recording), the overall shopping window shrinks. Analysts suggest that eliminating Black Friday’s intense focus might actually lead to higher overall profits for retailers.
Door Busters and Violence Risk
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(00:24:13)
  • Key Takeaway: Door buster sales, which date back to 1917, are a bait-and-switch tactic relying on extremely limited stock, which directly contributes to the physical altercations and tramplings reported during Black Friday openings.
  • Summary: Door busters are a core, yet deceptive, element of Black Friday, involving very few items at extreme discounts, often leading to conflict. The concept is a bait-and-switch, as the limited stock encourages a physical rush once doors open. This environment is cited as the reason for the violence and injuries associated with the sales events.
2008 Walmart Trampling Death
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(00:28:26)
  • Key Takeaway: A 2008 Black Friday incident at a Long Island Walmart resulted in the death of an employee, Jimm Tay DeMoore, who was trampled after being crushed against the entrance doors by the surging crowd.
  • Summary: During a 2008 opening, a crowd of 2,000 people breached barricades, leading to a deadly crush in the vestibule area. An employee, Jimm Tay DeMoore, assigned to help fallen shoppers, was killed when the doors gave way, and he was crushed and trampled by the crowd. The police had withdrawn earlier, stating crowd control was not their job description.
Other Black Friday Incidents
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(00:35:14)
  • Key Takeaway: Beyond tramplings, Black Friday events have involved armed altercations, such as a fatal shootout between two men at a Toys R Us, and the use of pepper spray over video game deals.
  • Summary: In 2008, two men died after shooting each other during a dispute that began with their wives fighting over a deal at a Toys R Us. In a separate incident in 2011, a woman pepper-sprayed people in a video game aisle after shoppers allegedly attacked her children trying to secure an Xbox. Despite the chaos, many shoppers who were affected by the pepper spray reportedly stayed to complete their purchases.
Anti-Consumerism Movements
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(00:40:35)
  • Key Takeaway: Buy Nothing Day, created in the 1990s and promoted by AdBusters, encourages people to abstain from purchasing for 24 hours to protest consumerism, sometimes involving public demonstrations like conga lines.
  • Summary: Buy Nothing Day is an activist movement encouraging consumers to boycott all purchases for 24 hours on Black Friday to challenge consumerism. Protesters may dress as zombies or sheep to mock shoppers, and some events include credit card cut-up stations. The movement highlights the power consumers hold by withholding their spending.
Singles Day Shopping Phenomenon
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(00:43:17)
  • Key Takeaway: China’s Singles Day (11/11), promoted heavily by Alibaba, is the world’s largest online shopping day, where consumers spend billions celebrating singlehood.
  • Summary: Singles Day in China, marked by the date 11-11 (representing single people), has become a massive online shopping event. In a recent year, $5.7 billion was spent on this day, dwarfing Cyber Monday. Shoppers are encouraged to treat themselves, with a significant percentage of Black Friday shoppers also admitting they primarily shop for themselves.