THE Blackfriday it's a day when retailers carry out a series of promotions to attract shoppers. This promotional action by shopkeepers was consolidated in the U.S, happens in Friday after Thanksgiving and it is considered the moment that starts the Christmas sales. It is not known what the correct origin of the term is.
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What is the sexta-feira Negra?
As many already know, the sexta-feira Negra is the name given to a sales action that is traditionally carried out in the fourth friday of november. On that day, it was agreed to carry out actions that seek to encourage consumers to buy, and this takes place through discounts on different goods.
This sales strategy emerged in the United States and was consolidated at the end of the 20th century. Has relationship with the Thanksgiving holiday (Thanksgivingday
), being held the day after that holiday, but is also linked to Creamthere, since it is considered that the Blackfriday opens the Christmas shopping season.Even before the 1980s and 1990s, the Friday marked by sales was not known by the name of “Blackfriday”, as this expression only became popular after these two decades in the United States. Currently, she is the biggest shopping day by US consumers.
The date was popularized by the North American country and became synonymous with products at absurdly affordable prices. The success of the action for shopkeepers drew attention in other parts of the world and spread to neighboring countries, Canada and Mexico.
![Black Friday arrived in Brazil in 2010 and is currently one of the main dates of the year for retailers.[1]](/f/178ade1cd3b658ed86a3eaf4ecf28cfc.jpg)
Here in the Brazil, a Blackfriday, as a sales strategy, was first used in 2010. The action caught the attention of other retailers and, as of 2012, large stores began to participate.
THE arrival of blackfriday here was stuffed withcriticism, since many stores offered fakediscounts. In any case, the date was consolidated as a moment of shopping for Brazilian consumers and, in 2019, for example, Brazilian store owners registered revenues of R$ 3.2 billion|1|.
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What is the origin of the term "blackfriday"?
It is not clear where the term came from blackfriday and because it was used to refer to the promotion day that follows Thanksgiving. However, there are some theories which deal with the origin of the term and its possible association with the sale of goods on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
THE first theory dates back to a 19th century event. In the year 1869, two American investors decided to create an illegal scheme to control the gold market in the United States. The aim was to make the price of gold on the Stock Exchange soar so they could get rich.
The plan ended up not working out because President Ulysses S. Grant intervened in the situation and ordered the US government to sell the gold stored in public coffers. The result of this action was that the Gold price dropped sharply on September 24, 1869 and that day was known as blackfriday or "black friday".
Hundreds of investors lost everything they had as gold stocks fell on the US stock exchange. Investors Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, the scheme's masterminds, managed to anticipate the government's action and sold their shares before the price of gold fell. No investigation was subsequently carried out to investigate the case.
Another hypothesis regarding the origin of the term talks about an American magazine called Factory Management and Maintenance, who, in the 1950s, reported that a large numbers of people were “sick” on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The magazine made a comparison that associated people with “the evil of the Friday after Thanksgiving” with the plaguebubonic. This comparison in English was part of a play on words and thus the black death (10th century bubonic plague outbreakIV) became the blackfriday.
Finally, the third theory deals with thefrustration of Philadelphia cops who worked the Friday after Thanksgiving break. In this scenario, the police were dissatisfied with the number of people on the streets during the Friday after the holiday and started calling the day the sexta-feira Negra.
Despite the three theories about the possible origins of the term, as we have seen, there is no evidence to say which of these events was actually related to the liquidation day.
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What is Thanksgiving?
O thanksgiving day, known in the United States as Thanksgivingday, is a holiday that celebrates the arrival of English immigrants – called pilgrims – à North America. The pilgrims had arrived in a group not very large and long felt the difficulties of surviving in the new land.
Difficulty in growing food and obtaining fresh food caused many of the immigrants to die, but during the spring a tribe of wampanoags (Native Indians) taught the settlers how to plant corn and other foodstuffs, as well as assisting them in hunting and fishing. This would have helped the English settlers to ensure their survival.
The following autumn, the settlers would have had a good harvest and, grateful for the abundance, they decided to celebrate with each other and with the wampanoags. Thereafter, the practice of celebrating the harvest became common among settlers. However, this version isromanced, and the Thanksgiving celebration did not really become popular until the nineteenth century.
Note
|1| Black Friday 2019: online sales exceed expectations and yield revenues of R$ 3.2 billion. To access, click on here.
Image credits
[1] Nelson Antoine and Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves
History teacher
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SILVA, Daniel Neves. "Sexta-feira Negra"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/curiosidades/black-friday.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.