What Is Black Friday

What Is Black Friday?

1 avatarBy Claudiu MelinteUpdated 13 min read

Black Friday is the biggest US shopping event, now running from early November through Cyber Monday. Learn what it is, when it started, and which product categories actually deliver real discounts – not manufactured savings.

Black Friday has a reputation for chaos: the 4 a.m. lines, the cart-grabbing, and the “one TV per customer” madness. But strip away the theater and you’re left with a useful shopping event, one that now runs most of November and delivers real discounts on specific categories every year. Here is what it actually is, how it got its name, and how to use it without getting played.

Key Takeaways

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TL;DR: Black Friday is the biggest US shopping event, with 202.9 million shoppers and $11.8 billion in online sales in the most recent season. It runs from early November through Cyber Monday. Online deals typically match in-store prices, so you can skip the crowds.

Black Friday Definition and Origins

Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving, which falls on the fourth Thursday in November. It serves as the unofficial starting gun for the holiday shopping season in the US and remains one of the biggest retail days of the year.

The name comes from multiple directions. The financial origin traces to September 24, 1869, when a gold market crash triggered by speculators Jay Gould and Jim Fisk sent markets into free fall and wiped out everyone from bankers to farmers. But that’s not where the shopping association comes from.

The consumer retail connection started in Philadelphia. Police officers in the 1950s and 1960s used “Black Friday” as slang for the chaos the day after Thanksgiving, when suburban crowds flooded the city for the Army-Navy football game and retailers ran massive sales. Cops worked 12-hour shifts, couldn’t take the day off, and generally hated it.

Retailers tried to rebrand it as “Big Friday,” but that didn’t stick. So the name spread.

The modern positive spin, that retailers go “from the red into the black” that day, came later. Ledgers kept profits in black ink and losses in red, so “going into the black” meant turning a profit. Retailers latched onto this framing and turned a nickname cops hated into a massive marketing event.

When Is Black Friday?

Black Friday always falls the day after Thanksgiving. Here are the upcoming dates:

  • 2025: November 28
  • 2026: November 27
  • 2027: November 26

The catch? “Black Friday” now describes a much longer window than just a single day. Major retailers start their sales as early as the first week of November. Based on past holiday deal patterns we’ve tracked, email subscribers at stores like Walmart, Best Buy, and Kohl’s often see exclusive deals 2-3 weeks before the main event.

The weekend following Thanksgiving carries strong deals too, and everything flows directly into Cyber Monday. If you miss a deal on Friday, check back over the weekend before assuming it’s gone.

The History of Black Friday

Origins: A Financial Crash

The name first appeared in connection with the US gold market collapse on September 24, 1869. Two Wall Street speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk, cornered the gold market to drive prices up, planning to sell at the peak for massive profits. The scheme unraveled when President Ulysses S. Grant ordered the Treasury to release government gold reserves. Prices crashed and panic spread across the stock market, wiping out speculators, bankers, and farmers alike.

Philadelphia, Police, and Football

The consumer retail association started in Philadelphia in the mid-20th century. The Saturday after Thanksgiving hosted the Army-Navy football game, a major event that drew massive crowds from the suburbs. Retailers threw sales the day before to pull in shoppers who were already heading into town.

Philadelphia police, stuck working extra-long shifts managing the traffic, pedestrians, and shoplifting surge, coined it “Black Friday” as a grim workplace joke. Nearby cities picked it up. The term stayed regional slang until the 1990s, when retailers nationwide decided to own the positive accounting spin instead.

The Event Goes National

In the mid-1990s, the phrase went mainstream in print and TV advertising across the US. By 2001, it had officially become the biggest shopping day of the year, a distinction that had previously gone to the Saturday before Christmas.

Walmart pushed the event further in 2011, announcing it would open on Thanksgiving evening instead of Black Friday morning. Other big-box retailers followed. From there, Black Friday evolved into Black Weekend, and eventually into a month-long promotional window.

How Big Is Black Friday?

The numbers are worth knowing, and they’re usually larger than people expect.

A record 202.9 million Americans shopped Thanksgiving weekend in the most recent season. That is more than 60% of the US population. Average spending per shopper on holiday items during that weekend hit $337.86.

The prior record was 197 million set just one year earlier. The trend has gone in only one direction.

Online sales on Black Friday alone hit $11.8 billion in the most recent season (Adobe Analytics), up from $10.8 billion the year before. That’s a 9.1% year-over-year jump. At peak hours (10 a.m. to 2 p.m. EST on Black Friday), consumers were spending $12.5 million per minute online.

Mobile has become the dominant channel, accounting for 55.2% of online purchases in the most recent season. This shift happened faster than most retailers anticipated, which is why the in-store versus online debate is increasingly moot.

Online vs. in-store? Online wins on volume, but physical stores are holding their own. The most recent NRF data puts 87.3 million Americans shopping online versus 81.7 million in physical stores on Black Friday specifically. That is closer than you’d expect.

Economists watch these numbers closely. Weak Black Friday spending sometimes signals sluggish consumer confidence heading into Q4, while strong numbers suggest the opposite. Beyond the deals, this is a data point that moves financial markets.

What Gets Discounted (And by How Much)?

Not all categories are equal. Adobe Analytics data from the most recent Black Friday shows average discount rates around 28% across categories, but the breakdowns by product type are more telling:

  • Toys: up to 30% off
  • Electronics: up to 29% off
  • Apparel: up to 25% off
  • TVs: up to 24% off

Across the stores we monitor, TV and laptop categories tend to offer genuine price cuts during Black Friday, rather than the pre-inflated pricing you sometimes see in fashion. That said, always check the price history before buying. Some “30% off” tags actually reflect a price hike from six weeks earlier, meaning the actual savings against what you’d have paid in September are much smaller.

Historical deals give you a sense of the ceiling: Best Buy offered a Sharp 42-inch HDTV for $199.99 in an early-2010s Black Friday, a 50% cut. Walmart has run 50-inch Smart TVs in the $200 to $220 range. Gaming console bundles have hit $199 during strong years. Home appliances at Lowe’s and Home Depot regularly see 40-50% off washers, dryers, and refrigerators.

Our editorial team regularly tests deals and codes mentioned on DontPayFull, and we’ve seen enough manufactured “savings” to be skeptical of headlines claiming 80% off on anything. Plan your target purchases ahead of time and compare them against pre-sale prices to know if you’re actually getting a deal.

Black Friday Shopping Tips

The crowds and marketing noise can make it hard to tell a genuine deal from inflated “savings” on something nobody wanted anyway. Here’s how to work through it.

Research prices before the event. Retailers sometimes inflate the “regular price” right before marking it down. Tools that track historical pricing can show whether a discount is real or manufactured.

Subscribe to retailer newsletters early. Stores typically release Black Friday codes to email subscribers 2-3 weeks before the public launch. This is the most consistent early-access method, and it costs nothing. Sign up in early October to get that wave of codes before the public rush.

Compare across stores before buying. With so many retailers competing for attention over the same weekend, price matching sometimes works. Best Buy has historically offered price matching during Black Friday, so it’s always worth asking.

Set a budget and stick to it. The volume of deals is designed to encourage impulse buys. Decide what you actually need before the event starts. Anything outside that list gets evaluated on its own merits, not just because it happens to be on sale.

Shop online to skip the chaos. Most Black Friday deals are now available both online and in stores. You’ll get the same discount without the early wake-up call. Some retailers even offer online-exclusive deals that don’t appear in stores at all.

Check return policies before you buy. Some retailers impose stricter return windows during Black Friday or charge restocking fees, especially on electronics. Read the fine print before clicking purchase.

Watch the BNPL math carefully. Buy-now-pay-later usage drove $747.5 million in online spending on Black Friday in the most recent season, up over 30% from the prior year. The problem is that not all BNPL arrangements are interest-free; some carry rates that make a “discounted” purchase more expensive than the original price. Confirm you’re getting a 0% arrangement before completing the order. Or, skip the deferral and apply a verified coupon code. The savings are immediate and you aren’t adding debt.

What most guides miss is the timing for coupon codes. Public codes go live roughly the week of the event, but store-specific subscriber codes land 2-3 weeks earlier. There’s a gap between those two waves that most shoppers never exploit. Tools like DontPayFull’s Chrome extension can automatically test available codes at checkout, which helps when multiple codes are floating around and checking them manually takes time you don’t have.

How Retailers Prepare for Black Friday

Understanding the logistics helps shoppers see through the promotional layer. Preparation starts in summer. Retailers analyze the previous year’s sales, identify which products moved fastest, and order inventory accordingly. Major appliance deals, for instance, require months of lead time because of supply chain complexity.

Promotions are structured to maximize traffic, not necessarily your savings. Doorbusters, those jaw-dropping deals on TVs at the front of every circular, are often limited to small quantities and designed to pull customers into stores where they’ll likely spend more on other items. Online, the same concept applies to flash deals with countdown timers.

Email marketing escalates as the day approaches. Teaser emails start a few weeks out, with discount codes arriving closer to the event. Frequency picks up sharply in the final week.

Websites are load-tested because traffic spikes are enormous. Many retailers deploy virtual waiting rooms during peak hours. If you hit a site and get stuck in a queue, that’s by design to keep the servers from crashing.

Staff training covers not just product knowledge but also the higher volume of returns and exchanges that follow Black Friday. Budget for post-holiday return complications if you’re buying as gifts.

Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday

These two events started with different audiences and have since converged, but differences remain.

Cyber Monday was coined by Ellen Davis and Scott Silverman of the National Retail Federation and Shop.org in 2005. It launched on November 28 of that year, designed to encourage online shopping at a time when e-commerce was still a secondary option. The premise was that workers would return to their offices after Thanksgiving and shop on their employer’s faster internet connections.

Today, both events offer in-store and online deals, but focus areas still diverge. Black Friday traditionally means doorbusters and deals on big-ticket physical items like appliances and TVs. Cyber Monday leans toward online-only promotions, software, streaming services, and categories like fashion and beauty.

For Amazon electronics, both carry strong deals. For apparel at Sephora or department stores like Macy’s, Cyber Monday often brings better discounts. For home improvement gear at Home Depot, Black Friday doorbusters are usually the peak.

Cyber Monday 2025 hit $14.25 billion in US online sales, up 7.1% year-over-year, making it the largest online shopping day ever recorded.

Black Friday Goes Global

What started as a US tradition has spread. UK retailers began adopting Black Friday in the early 2010s, initially through Amazon UK. Canadian retailers followed the US calendar. Australia, Germany, France, and Brazil all have their own versions now, often running the same week.

The global expansion reflects both e-commerce growth and US cultural influence. Amazon’s infrastructure made consistent dates across markets practical. Global online spending reached approximately $79 billion during the most recent Black Friday season.

For international shoppers, currency and shipping costs can still make US retailers’ deals accessible through forwarding addresses. It is worth checking before assuming a deal is off-limits.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly is Black Friday?

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving, marking the traditional start of the US holiday shopping season. Retailers offer significant discounts across all product categories both in stores and online. The five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday now accounts for a massive portion of annual retail sales.

Why is it called Black Friday?

There are two main sources. First, Philadelphia police in the 1950s used it as slang for the chaotic day they worked after Thanksgiving. Second, the “black ink” bookkeeping reference: businesses historically recorded profits in black and losses in red, so “going into the black” became associated with the revenue surge on that day.

When is Black Friday in 2025 and 2026?

Black Friday falls on November 28, 2025, and November 27, 2026. Deals typically start well before these dates, often in early November, and extend through Cyber Monday.

How much do Americans spend on Black Friday?

Online sales on Black Friday alone hit $10.8 billion in 2024 and $11.8 billion in 2025 (Adobe Analytics). Across the full five-day Thanksgiving weekend, 202.9 million shoppers spent an average of $337.86 each in the most recent season, per NRF.

Is online shopping better than in-store on Black Friday?

For most people, yes. The deals are largely identical, but you skip the crowds and the early wake-up call. Some retailers offer online-exclusive deals not available in stores. However, certain in-store doorbusters on big-ticket items like TVs are only available physically.

How do I find the best Black Friday deals?

Plan ahead. Know what you want before the deals start, compare against pre-sale prices to verify the discount is real, and sign up for retailer newsletters to get early access codes. For store-specific deals at Best Buy or Kohl’s, bookmark those pages and check them in early November.

Sources

  1. National Retail Federation: Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend Draws a Record 203 Million Shoppers: NRF 2025 Thanksgiving weekend shopper count, average spend, and five-day totals (2025)
  2. NRF: 197 Million Consumers Shop Over Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend: NRF 2024 shopper count and online vs. in-store breakdown (2024)
  3. eMarketer: Black Friday 2024 ecommerce sales surge: Adobe Analytics $10.8 billion Black Friday 2024 online sales and eMarketer 14.6% YoY ecommerce growth data (2024)
  4. eMarketer: Black Friday 2025 sales growth, ecommerce, mobile, genAI: Adobe Analytics $11.8 billion Black Friday 2025 online sales, mobile share (55.2%), BNPL ($747.5M), peak spend rate, and Cyber Monday $14.25 billion figures (2025)

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