What began as a traffic headache for mid-20th-century Philadelphia police officers has evolved into a multibillion-dollar bellwether of consumer sentiment and retail strategy around the globe. The scale and shape of Black Friday in 2025 bore little resemblance to the long queues of yore: digital, global, and solidly situated as a staple of the holiday season. The origins of Black Friday are a lot more humble and chaotic. In the 1950s and early 1960s, police officers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, began calling the Friday after Thanksgiving “Black Friday” because of the massive traffic jams, crowded sidewalks, and sheer overwhelm caused by hordes of suburban shoppers flocking to the city for holiday shopping and to attend the traditional Navy football game the next day. The crowds and the workload made it a dreaded day for law enforcement. Retailers initially disliked the negative connotation. Some tried to soften the image by calling it “Big Friday,” but the name “Black Friday” stuck. By the 1980s, the retail industry had reinterpreted the term, suggesting that it was the day when stores went "from red ink to black, that is, from losses to profit, a reinterpretation that helped to transform the memory of chaos into a celebration of sales and savings.
From a local, even regional event, Black Friday has grown over the decades to become a world retail event. What was once dominated by crowded department stores and early morning lines has opened itself to digital commerce, global marketers, and the evolution of consumer habits. The data from 2025 shows just how different Black Friday has become. According to recent metrics, U.S. online shoppers spent a record US$11.8 billion on Black Friday, which is a 9.1% rise from 2024, marking the highest-ever online spending for the day. And Black Friday is no longer a single-day event. The broader five-day window from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday in 2025 generated about $44.2 billion in U.S. online sales, up 7.7% over the previous year. This shows how ingrained the season of sales has become in consumer behavior. This massive shift also proves how retail marketing and sales have changed in the post-pandemic era and how e-commerce and mobile shopping have become the go-to modes of shopping for most shoppers. The ease of online shopping has replaced many of the old traditions, especially for those who wish to avoid crowds.
Yet, the social and psychological pull is still there. For a lot of buyers, the bargains offered during Black Friday and Cyber Week are not just discounts; they’re part of a wait and longing to spend without guilt. The psychological thrill of snagging a great price, planning for holiday gifts, and the satisfaction of taking advantage of a seasonal sale create a sense of reward. Even in 2025, with inflation and economic uncertainty hanging over many parts of the world, shoppers went on, although more selectively and more consciously, but still participating, nonetheless. Meanwhile, retailers have embraced Black Friday as a strategic anchor. Rather than just clearing old stock or offering occasional discounts, many now plan their most important promotions around this period. It’s no longer a single day but a season: pre-holiday marketing, extended sales windows, “early Black Friday” deals, and cross-channel strategies combining online and offline offers. For many businesses, especially e-commerce platforms and global chains, Black Friday Week represents a large share of their annual revenue.
But the transformation isn’t just economic. It’s cultural and global. Although Black Friday began as an American post-Thanksgiving phenomenon, retailers and consumers around the world, including in countries that don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, now mark the day (or week) as a chance to shop. Global participation and virtual storefronts have made Black Friday an international sales event. It also reflects a deeper understanding of consumption habits in flux: whereas shopping was once loud and public, with crowds amassed outside department stores and local malls bustling, much of it now happens behind screens. Mobile devices and digital storefronts enable value-conscious buying, price comparisons, and deal hunting from the comfort of one's own home. That change has repercussions: fewer frantic crowds, more data-driven retail, and a reimagining of what constitutes "holiday shopping."
Yet, the emergence of Black Friday has garnered its fair share of criticism. The extreme emphasis on discounts and consumerism invites people to make impulse purchases, over-consume, or buy things they may not really need, especially in times of economic strain. On the business side, smaller or local retailers sometimes struggle to compete with the heavy discounts and global reach of large chains or internet giants.
Even as the consumer frenzy changes shape, Black Friday continues to be relevant, and yet its meaning continues to change. The holiday is, in its modern interpretation, a transformation from the old to the new and about savings, anticipation, and the beginning of the holiday season. But at the same time, it marks and brings to attention the changes in the ways in which people consume, businesses sell, and global commerce adjusts. Maybe in the future, Black Friday will most likely continue to be significant, not so much because of the deals it will offer but because of what it will say about the relationship between society and consumption.
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