Cautious Expectations for Black Friday & Cyber Monday 

Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer

November 24, 2023 – Caution flags are up despite the obvious excitement generated by this day being Black Friday and the official start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States.

The day follows Thanksgiving and means stores brace for doorbuster moments by offering extreme discount prices and deals to a market that is in hot pursuit of them.

Still, some consumer reports indicate that major stores are concerned that the effects of record high inflation will deflate shopping this year; a depressing thought for those who bank on what is widely known as the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S.

On Black Friday, many people leave their homes to physically shop in stores, but with the popularity of online shopping today, many prefer to do it from home, avoiding the hassle of joining long lines and finding a parking space in a large but full parking lot, that is if stores offer online deals.

The origin of Black Friday raises interesting debates about what is the authentic story, however, it is Philadelphia Police who take the credit according to the History Channel.  The day after Thanksgiving was no holiday for members of the police in the city. It also brought throngs of shoppers to the city.  For them, it was a dark day; a black day.  The term caught on and while there were attempts to change the name, all failed and BLACK FRIDAY stuck.

Cyber Monday, the 27th of November, evolved with the advent of online shopping where those deep discounts continued in the cyber malls facilitated by the internet.

Coined by Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation and Scott Silverman, co-founder,  Cyber Monday debuted on November 28th, 2005, and like Thanksgiving, it’s a huge money-making moment.

It is reported widely by media houses which carry economic news that there are more sales, that consumers plan to stick to their budgets and that Cyber Monday will rake in $12 billion in holiday sales alone.