Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And for scores of Americans, as soon
Speaker 1: as they digest their Thanksgiving turkey, it's time to think
Speaker 1: about holiday shopping. Local newspapers where such still exists are
Speaker 1: bursting with circulars and advertisements heralding Black Friday sales, and
Speaker 1: every retailer that's ever gotten hold of your email address
Speaker 1: has been sending desperately friendly missives. Coined in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving that marks
Speaker 1: the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season. The black
Speaker 1: in black Friday symbolizes stores turning a profit, being in
Speaker 1: the black versus in the red, with the term stemming
Speaker 1: from an age when handwritten financial ledgers recorded profits and
Speaker 1: black ink and deficits in red ink. These days, many
Speaker 1: stores don't even wait for Friday morning. They open at
Speaker 1: midnight or even earlier on Thanksgiving evening to give deal
Speaker 1: hungry shoppers an early start for the shell. But is
Speaker 1: Black Friday really the biggest shopping day of the year
Speaker 1: in America? Not Everyone is eager to whip out their wallets.
Speaker 1: While the scent of pumpkin pie still lingers in the air.
Speaker 1: You can divide holiday shoppers into two distinct camps, the
Speaker 1: Black Friday go getters and the procrastinators. Braving a retail
Speaker 1: mall the day after Thanksgiving can involve heavy crowds and
Speaker 1: seemingly endless masses of cars waiting to find parking, people
Speaker 1: elbowing their way through aisles and queues once you're finally
Speaker 1: ready to check out, All the while, the NonStop tune
Speaker 1: of jingle bells, the most frequently played holiday song in
Speaker 1: shopping malls, goes jingling all the way into every crevice
Speaker 1: of your brain. Black Friday enthusiasts say it's worth the hassle, though,
Speaker 1: since many stores will strip down prices to move merchandise.
Speaker 1: As far as the number of humans who walk in
Speaker 1: and out of stores, Black Friday hauls them in a
Speaker 1: hundred and one million braved. The crowds in that heavy
Speaker 1: Black Friday foot traffic translates to high dollar profits, accounting
Speaker 1: for four point five to five of all holiday sales
Speaker 1: in two thousand fourteen. The average shoppers spent about three
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty one dollars over Thanksgiving weekend of the
Speaker 1: total retail spending was about fifty one billion dollars, and
Speaker 1: although more recent numbers are difficult to track down, trendwatchers
Speaker 1: say they have been going up, But these undeniably large
Speaker 1: numbers aren't the largest of the season. In fact, Black
Speaker 1: Friday isn't the busiest shopping day of the year normally,
Speaker 1: despite what popular opinion holds. Instead, the holiday shopping procrastinators
Speaker 1: win out. The highest sales day of the year usually
Speaker 1: strikes the Saturday before Christmas. How is that possible? If
Speaker 1: shoppers line up in front of stores at the crack
Speaker 1: of dawn on Black Friday, a customer volume goes through
Speaker 1: the roof, but sales don't follow. Suit surveys have shown
Speaker 1: that despite these steady streams of people flowing into stores
Speaker 1: on Black Friday, not all of them drive home with
Speaker 1: trunks full of holiday presents. For instance, one study conducted
Speaker 1: by researchers at Indiana University found a consistently low rate
Speaker 1: of purchase among Black Friday shoppers. Higher percentage of those
Speaker 1: shoppers bought items the following day. Internet shopping and early
Speaker 1: previews of Black Friday sales leaked online may also trim
Speaker 1: the amount of transactions that day, as people have more
Speaker 1: options for tracking down the best bang for their holiday buck.
Speaker 1: In two thousand five, online retailers designated the Monday after
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving to be Cyber Monday. The web merchants figured that
Speaker 1: this day would see a substantial sales bump because a
Speaker 1: majority of online shoppers make their purchases at work. With
Speaker 1: the general boom in online sales, the distinctions are breaking
Speaker 1: down as people shop online every day of the Thanksgiving weekend,
Speaker 1: including Turkey Day itself, with two thirds of all orders
Speaker 1: coming in from smartphones and tablets as and Black Friday
Speaker 1: is a phenomenon that's spread beyond the States, as of
Speaker 1: countries like Spain, South Africa, and the UK which do
Speaker 1: not celebrate Thanksgiving nonetheless saw increases of up to forty
Speaker 1: six percent over that weekend versus their average daily sales online.
Speaker 1: Oh and in case you were wondering a out another
Speaker 1: shopping holiday over Thanksgiving weekend, Small Business Saturday was created
Speaker 1: by the goliath credit card company American Express as a
Speaker 1: way to encourage spending at small, local shops. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Kristen Conger and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: If you're doing some shopping this weekend, consider our online
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Speaker 1: and lots of other worthwhile topics, visit our home planet,
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