WEBVTT - Is Black Friday the Busiest Shopping Day?

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.240
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:10.320
<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And for scores of Americans, as soon

0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:13.319
<v Speaker 1>as they digest their Thanksgiving turkey, it's time to think

0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:17.480
<v Speaker 1>about holiday shopping. Local newspapers where such still exists are

0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.840
<v Speaker 1>bursting with circulars and advertisements heralding Black Friday sales, and

0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.000
<v Speaker 1>every retailer that's ever gotten hold of your email address

0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:30.400
<v Speaker 1>has been sending desperately friendly missives. Coined in the nineteen sixties,

0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.840
<v Speaker 1>Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving that marks

0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.560
<v Speaker 1>the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season. The black

0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.319
<v Speaker 1>in black Friday symbolizes stores turning a profit, being in

0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.360
<v Speaker 1>the black versus in the red, with the term stemming

0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.880
<v Speaker 1>from an age when handwritten financial ledgers recorded profits and

0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:51.840
<v Speaker 1>black ink and deficits in red ink. These days, many

0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:54.520
<v Speaker 1>stores don't even wait for Friday morning. They open at

0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:57.880
<v Speaker 1>midnight or even earlier on Thanksgiving evening to give deal

0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.160
<v Speaker 1>hungry shoppers an early start for the shell. But is

0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:03.680
<v Speaker 1>Black Friday really the biggest shopping day of the year

0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.240
<v Speaker 1>in America? Not Everyone is eager to whip out their wallets.

0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.520
<v Speaker 1>While the scent of pumpkin pie still lingers in the air.

0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.000
<v Speaker 1>You can divide holiday shoppers into two distinct camps, the

0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:18.520
<v Speaker 1>Black Friday go getters and the procrastinators. Braving a retail

0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.760
<v Speaker 1>mall the day after Thanksgiving can involve heavy crowds and

0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.600
<v Speaker 1>seemingly endless masses of cars waiting to find parking, people

0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.760
<v Speaker 1>elbowing their way through aisles and queues once you're finally

0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.000
<v Speaker 1>ready to check out, All the while, the NonStop tune

0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:34.840
<v Speaker 1>of jingle bells, the most frequently played holiday song in

0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:38.080
<v Speaker 1>shopping malls, goes jingling all the way into every crevice

0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.760
<v Speaker 1>of your brain. Black Friday enthusiasts say it's worth the hassle, though,

0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.040
<v Speaker 1>since many stores will strip down prices to move merchandise.

0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:48.000
<v Speaker 1>As far as the number of humans who walk in

0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.800
<v Speaker 1>and out of stores, Black Friday hauls them in a

0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:55.240
<v Speaker 1>hundred and one million braved. The crowds in that heavy

0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.000
<v Speaker 1>Black Friday foot traffic translates to high dollar profits, accounting

0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.200
<v Speaker 1>for four point five to five of all holiday sales

0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.720
<v Speaker 1>in two thousand fourteen. The average shoppers spent about three

0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.920
<v Speaker 1>hundred and eighty one dollars over Thanksgiving weekend of the

0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.320
<v Speaker 1>total retail spending was about fifty one billion dollars, and

0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.840
<v Speaker 1>although more recent numbers are difficult to track down, trendwatchers

0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:19.360
<v Speaker 1>say they have been going up, But these undeniably large

0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.720
<v Speaker 1>numbers aren't the largest of the season. In fact, Black

0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.080
<v Speaker 1>Friday isn't the busiest shopping day of the year normally,

0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:29.840
<v Speaker 1>despite what popular opinion holds. Instead, the holiday shopping procrastinators

0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.720
<v Speaker 1>win out. The highest sales day of the year usually

0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:36.200
<v Speaker 1>strikes the Saturday before Christmas. How is that possible? If

0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.440
<v Speaker 1>shoppers line up in front of stores at the crack

0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.720
<v Speaker 1>of dawn on Black Friday, a customer volume goes through

0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:45.360
<v Speaker 1>the roof, but sales don't follow. Suit surveys have shown

0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.040
<v Speaker 1>that despite these steady streams of people flowing into stores

0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:50.440
<v Speaker 1>on Black Friday, not all of them drive home with

0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.280
<v Speaker 1>trunks full of holiday presents. For instance, one study conducted

0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:58.000
<v Speaker 1>by researchers at Indiana University found a consistently low rate

0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.919
<v Speaker 1>of purchase among Black Friday shoppers. Higher percentage of those

0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.880
<v Speaker 1>shoppers bought items the following day. Internet shopping and early

0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.160
<v Speaker 1>previews of Black Friday sales leaked online may also trim

0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.000
<v Speaker 1>the amount of transactions that day, as people have more

0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.840
<v Speaker 1>options for tracking down the best bang for their holiday buck.

0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.040
<v Speaker 1>In two thousand five, online retailers designated the Monday after

0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.440
<v Speaker 1>Thanksgiving to be Cyber Monday. The web merchants figured that

0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.160
<v Speaker 1>this day would see a substantial sales bump because a

0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.480
<v Speaker 1>majority of online shoppers make their purchases at work. With

0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.560
<v Speaker 1>the general boom in online sales, the distinctions are breaking

0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.840
<v Speaker 1>down as people shop online every day of the Thanksgiving weekend,

0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.960
<v Speaker 1>including Turkey Day itself, with two thirds of all orders

0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:42.880
<v Speaker 1>coming in from smartphones and tablets as and Black Friday

0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.320
<v Speaker 1>is a phenomenon that's spread beyond the States, as of

0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.680
<v Speaker 1>countries like Spain, South Africa, and the UK which do

0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.440
<v Speaker 1>not celebrate Thanksgiving nonetheless saw increases of up to forty

0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:57.320
<v Speaker 1>six percent over that weekend versus their average daily sales online.

0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.400
<v Speaker 1>Oh and in case you were wondering a out another

0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:05.160
<v Speaker 1>shopping holiday over Thanksgiving weekend, Small Business Saturday was created

0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.800
<v Speaker 1>by the goliath credit card company American Express as a

0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:17.440
<v Speaker 1>way to encourage spending at small, local shops. Today's episode

0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:19.960
<v Speaker 1>was written by Kristen Conger and produced by Tyler Clang.

0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.120
<v Speaker 1>If you're doing some shopping this weekend, consider our online

0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.320
<v Speaker 1>store t public dot com slash brain stuff. Every purchase

0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.039
<v Speaker 1>supports is directly and of course, for more on this

0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.800
<v Speaker 1>and lots of other worthwhile topics, visit our home planet,

0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:44.360
<v Speaker 1>how stuff Works dot com