Black Friday like many other US originated events found its place in the UK. It might be harder to remember the date for us, since we do not celebrate Thanksgiving but retailers will make sure to remind us about the upcoming event.
Black Friday sales have few possible origin stories. One of them is that many shops operated “in the red” throughout the year (in accounting loss was marked in red) only to go “into the black” (make a profit) in the time nearing Christmas or the day after Thanksgiving. In Philadelphia police officers started calling the day after Thanksgiving a Black Friday due to the chaos and disorder caused by large crowds of customers and tourists arriving in the city every year on that day. November sales were popular long before these events- the department store Macy’s was the first to start post-thanksgiving sales in 1924.
In the UK, global brand Amazon was first to introduce Black Friday sale online in 2010. ASDA (owned by Walmart) followed in 2013 causing chaos in their shops with customers fighting over televisions and gadgets.
Nowadays many countries and shops participate in the Black Friday craze and many online stores such as us (Jollybrolly.co.uk) will have their Black Friday sale in the last weekend of November. Our Black Friday Umbrella sale is the event of the year with brollies discounted by 25 percent and some even 50!
If the thought of Black Friday sales overwhelms you - you’re not alone. There’s just so many things we would like to buy! See our advice below on how to make the most of our Black Friday Umbrella Sale: